It was noticeable how subdued the crowds appeared to be on the opening day at the Presidents Cup as the Internationals failed to stop USA from securing a clean sweep at Royal Montreal.
The levels of excitement heading into this year’s Presidents Cup did not translate into an amazing atmosphere on Thursday. Mackenzie Hughes tried to get the crowds going on the first tee as his teammates looked to get off to a good start. But it proved to be a flat day across the course.
The highlight arguably came when Tom Kim and Scottie Scheffler exchanged outbursts on the seventh hole. But even that failed to fire up the galleries.
Of course, the Internationals can hardly complain about the atmosphere if they do not provide the fans with something to cheer about. But it was remarkable just how different the size of the crowds proved to be on Friday and Saturday.
The change made at Royal Montreal after the opening day
And Friday really saw the arrivals of the roars which reverberated around the golf course, with the likes of Hughes and Corey Conners stealing the show.
The better golf obviously played its part in firing the crowds up, but it seems that a change was made to try and send the momentum around the entire course. Speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman suggested that Royal Montreal have looked to give fans a better perspective of everything going on around the property.
“I just think this has been a great experience, I think every single day the fan experience has grown and grown. They’ve started adding, instead of the scoreboards out there, they’ve put just the livestream of the golf, and it’s totally changed how the fans have viewed it because they’re able to watch the golf out there, they know what’s going on,” he said.
“The first day, all they were showing on the leaderboards were the group that was on that hole and what the match was. They never switched it to the other matches, really all you saw was, for instance, if it was Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, all you saw was their matchplay record, they kept going from screen to screen, and then you would see where that match was at. But the last couple of days, they’ve changed that to full on coverage of the golf, and it’s totally changed.”
The Internationals need all the help they can get on Sunday
Of course, that decision can backfire. It is amazing how team events seem to have these momentum shifts which make their way through every match. And there was one period late on Saturday where the Americans found themselves up in three matches in such quick succession.
In those moments, you would imagine that the Canadian crowds would rather not know just how bleak the situation could be. But clearly, it proved to be advantageous on Friday when the Internationals were looking to fight back.
The Internationals are going to need a heroic performance on the final day to win the cup for only the second time, so they will absolutely need those waves of momentum to go their way. And perhaps the scoreboards broadcasting the pictures from elsewhere will help with that.
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