MONTREAL — Patrick Cantlay could not have hit the putt — he may not have seen the opening — with out lights from a videoboard and the headlamps from golf carts surrounding the 18th inexperienced within the last match of the longest day on the Presidents Cup.
After which he delivered one other “Patty Ice” second that may have been sufficient to show the lights out on the Worldwide workforce Saturday.
Scottie Scheffler delivered massive moments late in each of his matches, and Cantlay’s putt from simply inside 17 ft at nighttime gave the Individuals one other win and one other level, transferring them one session nearer to a different Presidents Cup victory.
“Large putt,” U.S. captain Jim Furyk mentioned. “In the event you needed to hand choose somebody to hit an enormous putt in your workforce, I feel Pat would come to lots of people’s minds.”
They gained the four-ball and foursome classes by a 3-1 margin. Cantlay and Xander Schauffele gained on the 18th over Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim, the high-charged South Korean duo, to provide the Individuals an 11-7 lead at Royal Montreal.
“Xander helped me learn it,” Cantlay mentioned of his match winner in close to darkness. “It was like a cup out with some velocity, and a putt like that can make me sleep slightly higher tonight.”
It was Si Woo Kim who chipped in from deep tough beneath the sixteenth inexperienced that gave his facet hope, and he leaned his cheek into his fingers the “night-night” gesture made well-known by Stephen Curry.
That turned out to be an early name.
Tom Kim mentioned he might hear some American gamers cursing at them, although it wasn’t corroborated, and Schauffele mentioned he did not know what the 22-year-old was referring to. A lot of the matches have been tight all week. The group has been loud. It has gotten chippy at occasions, anticipated in these workforce competitions.
What hasn’t modified is the Internationals dealing with an enormous deficit.
They should win eight of the 12 singles matches Sunday for a tie, and halve one other in the event that they need to win for the primary time since 1998 — 4 years earlier than Tom Kim was born — and solely the second time for the reason that Presidents Cup started in 1994.
Worldwide captain Mike Weir sat out 4 gamers all of Saturday, eager to experience the groups that helped get his facet again into the match with that 5-0 shutout on Friday.
One in every of them was Jason Day, who shall be first out Sunday towards Schauffele.
It is the identical deficit from two years in the past, and Weir recollects the Internationals — a workforce dealing with distractions in 2022 of dropping gamers who defected to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League — making the Quail Hole crowd quiet and the Individuals sweat.
“We simply have great perception in our guys,” Weir mentioned. “Would possibly really feel much like what it was in Charlotte, however I am simply telling you, possibly there’s an improve in perception for our workforce.”
Tom Kim sounded much more decided, bordering on indignant.
“I’m so motivated to exit tomorrow … as a result of we have misplaced so many occasions, there’s going to be in the future the place it is simply going to be our day,” he mentioned. “I imagine it is tomorrow.
“If we fall quick, we’ll strive once more. That is what we’re. We’ll preserve making an attempt. There’s going to be one time when we will maintain the Cup, and it is going to be someday quickly.”
Scheffler completed off a decent four-ball match with two late birdies in a morning session delayed 90 minutes by fog, after which he gave the Individuals their first lead in foursomes with a wedge right into a foot on the 14th gap that led to a different level.
Scheffler began each matches slowly. Collin Morikawa stored them within the recreation in four-ball till Scheffler hit a dart from 195 yards to eight ft for birdie on the sixteenth, and rolled in a 15-foot putt from off the inexperienced on the seventeenth for the win.
Russell Henley carried him in foursomes, particularly after Scheffler missed par putts from 6 ft and three ft as they fell 3 down after 5 holes. However the world’s No. 1 participant delivered late with a wedge right into a foot on the 14th for his or her first lead and a 12-foot birdie on the following to take management.
“I’ve the perfect participant on the planet on my workforce, and we simply form of hung in there,” Henley mentioned.
Adam Scott, taking part in in his eleventh Presidents Cup with out ever being on the profitable facet, carried Taylor Pendrith to a 2-and-1 victory within the afternoon foursomes over Brian Harman and Max Homa, the one Worldwide level in foursomes.
Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim gained massive over Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark in morning four-ball for the lone Worldwide victory.
They had been all sq. or main in all of the afternoon matches at one level till the Individuals took management, as they typically do. Morikawa and Burns dug out of an early gap and beat the Canadian duo of Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes on the 18th gap when Hughes hit a poor chip and Conners by no means got here shut on the 12-foot par putt.
Within the anchor match within the morning, Sungjae Im 3 times matched birdies towards Cantlay and Burns to maintain the match from getting out of hand. Cantlay chipped in for eagle on the twelfth for a 2-up lead and he twice stored the Internationals from coming again by making putts from 25 ft and 18 ft once they had been in tight.
“The man’s an absolute murderer,” Burns mentioned about Cantlay.
