The Presidents Cup, a team match play competition featuring 12 golfers from the United States and 12 from around the world, excluding Europe – is held every two years. In 2017, the event took place at Liberty National Golf Course in Jersey City, NJ with Steve Stricker serving as the U.S. team captain and Nick Price returning to captain the Internationals for a third time. In 2015, the U.S. Team clinched the winning point on the final hole to retain the Cup, 15.5 to 14.5, in a competitive environment in South Korea at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club. It was a much different story this time around.
The Internationals never seemed to be able to get it going, even though on paper, their team was extremely strong. After Thursday’s foursome matches, Team USA led 3.5 to 1.5 – not too bad. After Friday’s fourball matches though, it was starting to look like a blow out with Team USA leading 8 to 2 by the end of the day. Saturday was much of the same in the foursomes and fourball matches – by the end of the day, Team USA had a commanding 14.5 to 3.5 lead and only needed a few more points to retain the cup.
The Internationals fought hard in Sunday Singles but the deficit was just much too difficult to overcome. They won the overall day of matches at 7.5 to 4.5, but it was too little too late as Team USA would retain the Presidents Cup with a score of 19 to 11. This would be Team USA’s 10th win in 12 meetings against the International Team. Something has to be done to make this more competitive! Watch highlights from Sunday’s final round
Source: PGA TOUR
