Internationals return favor, sweep USA to tie Presidents Cup
MONTREAL — Tony Finau could feel a big change when he stepped on the first tee Friday at the Presidents Cup. The horseshoe-shaped grandstand was packed and loud. The gallery was four-deep down the first fairway. The vibe was entirely different.
The biggest difference was the scoreboards. They switched from red to gold.
All of them.
In a stunning turnaround at Royal Montreal, the Internationals flipped the script on the U.S. team by sweeping the foursomes session, a performance so one-sided, the Americans led in only one of the five matches, and that was for only one hole.
Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im tied a record for the biggest blowout in the Presidents Cup. Jason Day assured a full point with a chip that was sublime even by his standards. Si Woo Kim polished off a most perfect day with a 15-foot par putt.
Tom Kim didn’t play and still played a big role. The 22-year-old from South Korea had said Thursday he thought the crowd was too quiet, and he hoped Canadian fans would “help us out a little bit more.”
That they did, and scorecards filled with gold International leads were not even necessary. The noise across Royal Montreal made it clear what was happening. Inside the ropes, there was nothing the Americans could do about it.
“We definitely felt the energy right out of the gate,” Finau said. “I hit the first tee shot yesterday in our group, and I hit the first tee shot today. It was night-and-day difference, I think just the noise and the energy.”
Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, 3-0 in foursomes at the Presidents Cup, never stood a chance against Matsuyama and Im. The Internationals had birdies on their final seven holes, a staggering streak considering they were alternating shots, for a 7-and-6 win.
It tied a Presidents Cup record, last done in 2011 when Scott and K.J. Choi defeated Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker in 12 holes. The Americans didn’t help the cause by not hitting a fairway until the eighth hole. Then again, Matsuyama and Im were the equivalent of 8 under for 12 holes.
Right behind them, Scott and Taylor Pendrith made three straight birdies. They never trailed and lost only one hole in a 5-and-4 win over Sahith Theegala and Collin Morikawa. Scott became the highest-scoring International player of all time, passing Ernie Els with his 22nd career point.
The Canadians delivered, too. Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners won the first two holes in a 6-and-5 rout over Wyndham Clark and Finau. They lost only one hole, and that was only after they had a 6-up lead after 11 holes.
It marked the first time in Presidents Cup history that a team won three matches in a single session by the 14th hole.
“There was a lot of belief amongst the room, amongst the guys, that hey, we can still do this. We’re still a great team, and we’ve got a lot of golf left to play,” Hughes said. “We came here this morning, we had our heads held high, chin up, and we were ready to play.”
Two matches went the distance, and the Internationals were just as relentless.
Day and Christiaan Bezuidenhout were 1 up over Max Homa and Brian Harman going to the 18th. Day faced a pitch from muddied grass that had been tamped down by spectators. One of the best chippers in golf, even he was impressed to see it roll out to a foot.
“The lie wasn’t that great. It was wet,” Day said. “So I was just trying to understand the lie a little bit more through the practice swings. Is it going to bounce? Is it going to dig? Just for how wet it is.
“Halfway through the shot I had my hand up, just knowing it was going to be a good one.”
And then Si Woo Kim produced one last cheer. In a match in which 13 holes were halved, Kim and Byeong Hun An were 1 up over Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley going to the 18th when An hit left into a thick, nasty lie in the rough and Kim couldn’t reach the green.
“It was a tough second shot, so I told him, ‘Just get me inside 15 feet and I got it.’ And I knew I had a chance to win,” Kim said.
Henley missed a 25-foot birdie putt. Kim drained a 15-foot par putt to secure another 1-up victory, another full point, and a deadlock going into the weekend.
Saturday features two sessions — four matches of fourballs, four matches of foursomes — before the 12 singles matches Sunday.
It’s almost like starting over, and now it becomes a sprint.
“I’m just so proud of the guys, so pumped for them,” International captain Mike Weir said. “To play that well yesterday and not have any points on the board was disappointing. So to see their hard work and them sticking in there and us captains and myself asking them to stick in there and believe, couldn’t be happier.”
It was the sixth time a session had been swept in the Presidents Cup, and the first for the International team since a 6-0 foursomes shutout in South Africa in 2003.
“I said yesterday, ‘Their back’s against the wall. They’re going to come out firing,'” Furyk said. “Well, I’m sure my guys are a little pissed off right now back in the team room. The idea is to come out firing tomorrow.”
Shohei Ohtani receives standing ovation after reaching 50-50, then reaches 52-52
Shohei Ohtani got back to Dodger Arena as a vanquishing legend Friday in the wake of securing the initial 50-50 season in MLB history. Then, at that point, he continued to do what he specializes in.
Subsequent to arriving at 50-50 and 51-51 in similar game, the Los Angeles Dodgers star initiated the 52-52 club with a homer and a take against the Colorado Rockies. Confronting Rockies starter Kyle Freeland in the fifth inning, Ohtani worked the count full, then, at that point, took a pitch at his armpits to profound focus field.
There are relatively few hitters who could take a pitch that high and send it 423 feet the alternate way.
Two innings later, Ohtani got on base with a solitary, then, at that point, required a respectable halfway point on the primary pitch to Mookie Betts.
It was the fourteenth time this season that Ohtani posted both a homer and a taken base in a similar game, breaking Rickey Henderson’s record of 13 set in 1986.
Ohtani is presently one grand slam shy of Aaron Judge for the MLB lead and 9-for-10 with four homers, two pairs, three takes, six runs and 12 RBI in his beyond two games. The majority of that creation came Thursday against the Marlins, when Ohtani arrived at 50-50 in style as well as with one of the best hostile games in MLB history.
Ohtani hit his 49th, 50th and 51st homers of the time and took his 50th and 51st bases of the time all in a similar game, joining an extraordinary season-long achievement with the sixteenth 10-RBI game in MLB history. It was likewise the initial three-homer, two-take game in MLB history, all on the commemoration of his I-can’t-accept it’s-not-Tommy-John medical procedure (Ohtani got an inner support on his UCL on Sept. 19, 2023).
The main downside of the otherworldly night was that it was out and about, however Ohtani actually got a shade call at loanDepot Park in Miami. Dodgers fans gave a valiant effort to compensate for it by giving him a heartfelt applause Friday before his first at-bat, which procured a wave from Ohtani.
Ohtani could have arrived at 50-50, yet it is not yet clear how deep into strange region he can wander in homers and takes.
There’s likewise the issue of the end of the season games. The 92-62 Dodgers secured a spot in the end of the season games Thursday and hold a four-game lead over the San Diego Padres for the NL West title with eight games to go. Any place they end up in Ohtani’s first postseason, they’ll need to defeat a spate of pitching wounds to get Ohtani a ring.
Jets' Wilson has NSFW concession after 49ers' dominant Week 1 win
Right after an incredible 32-19 beatdown by the 49ers on “Monday Night Football,” New York Planes wide collector Garrett Wilson had areas of strength for a to portray his group’s presentation.
Wilson gave columnists a concise and NSFW reply after the game when asked how his group played during the uneven undertaking at Levi’s Arena.
“They whooped our a- – today, and that is its truth,” Wilson said. “Furthermore, we must figure out how to improve. The extraordinary groups will quickly return from one or the other’s what we intend to do.”
While New York had serious areas of strength for a to the game, taking a 7-3 lead into the subsequent quarter, it was all San Francisco after that. Behind a breakout execution from 49ers running back Jordan Bricklayer and a pulverizing cautious exertion from Scratch Bosa and Leonard Floyd, the Planes were overmatched.
Wilson was held to six gatherings for 60 yards as the whole New York offense watched somewhat off all through the game, obvious given that most starters didn’t play during the preseason.
In any case, a major piece of it was the 49ers’ updated guard putting on an act, continually bothering quarterback Aaron Rodgers and keeping running back Breece Corridor from any touchy plays.
First-year cautious organizer Scratch Sorensen looked everything except unpracticed in dialing up a lot areas of strength for of and barrage bundles.
While San Francisco was missing star running back Christian McCaffrey, the 49ers ran the ball freely for the vast majority of the challenge, with Artisan piling up more than 150 all out yards of offense.
Presently, San Francisco will direct its concentration toward previous 49ers quarterback Sam Darnold and the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.