World number one Scottie Scheffler suffered defeat during Friday’s foursomes as Mike Weir’s International Team staged a remarkable comeback at Royal Montreal.
The United States lost all five matches to see the scores tied heading into Saturday’s double session. It’s the first time in Presidents Cup history both teams have won all five games in the two opening sessions.
Scheffler, alongside Russell Henley, took his game to the 18th only for Si Woo Kim to hole a clutch par putt to halve the hole and seal a one-up victory.
Scottie Scheffler drops verdict on Canadian crowds after Presidents Cup comeback
Tom Kim took aim at the Canadian crowds on Thursday, but Scheffler painted a very different picture after Friday’s play had concluded.
A reporter asked the world number one: “Are there other times during the year other than these team events where it feels like a lot of people are rooting against you?”
“I would say this is pretty much the only tournament where I’ve ever experienced that. Definitely wouldn’t really happen too much in a stroke play event. I think sometimes there’s more of like a bad taste in that, that kind of thing happening in a stroke play event,” Scheffler said.
“Just because there are so many guys to root for here, it’s one team against another, and I think it’s pretty cool. I think it’s a fun event. I loved playing away games when I was in high school, playing basketball. Hearing stuff from the crowd, I think, only makes us more motivated to go out there and do our best.”
On the crowds in Montreal, Scheffler added: “The environment, like Tony said, today from yesterday, was drastically different. I thought today the crowd did a great job, got into it, gave the guys some good energy, and they fed off of it. It’s our job to go out there tomorrow and do our best and hopefully keep them a little bit quieter.”
Scottie Scheffler stands out as Jim Furyk’s United States side struggle
Scheffler’s anchor match against Woo Kim and Byeong Hun An was a little less eventful than his opening encounter against Tom Kim Sungjae Im.
There was plenty of needle between the world number one and Kim, although Scheffler downplayed the incident.
Despite Friday’s loss, Scheffler was still one of the USA’s standout performers, gaining 1.41 strokes on the field and finishing second behind the under-fire Max Homa.
Had Henley been more potent with the putter, Scheffler’s superb iron play would’ve been better rewarded.
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