Wow so that was one of the most fun team tournaments in recent golf history. The prime time coverage and getting to watch from ~5pm past midnight for four nights in a row was genuinely so fun. There was a lot of drama both off and on the course, and we’ll do our best to break down some of the best of it. And shout-out to Royal Melbourne for being an incredible host course.
On The Course
Day 1: USA Goes Down 4-1
How the matches went: Woods & Thomas win 4 & 3 against Leishman & Niemann; Im & Hadwin win 1 up against Cantlay & Schauffele; An & Scott win 2 and 1 against Finau & DeChambeau; Matsuyama & Pan win 1 up against Reed & Simpson; Ancer & Oosthuizen win 4 and 3 against Woodland & DJ.
Right away, the Internationals showed they were not the pushovers that everyone (yes, including us) thought they were going to be. Team USA looked extremely sleepy after the Hero World Challenge while Team International, armed with their new logo and a chip on their shoulder, came out blazing. Tiger and JT looked like the only Americans with their heads on, while International newcomers Im and Ancer showed up ready to prove something. Two stalwart International veterans, Louis Oosthuizen and Adam Scott, helped their rookie partners win in their first Presidents Cup matches. Hadwin continued to show he was an exceptional putter and Matsuyama a great ball striker. DJ, Reed, DeChambeau and Simpson all looked terrible, a theme that would continue throughout team play.
Day 2: USA Still Down 6.5 – 3.5
How the matches went: Oosthuizen & Scott win 3 & 2 against Johnson & Kuchar; Cantlay & Schauffele won 1 up against Hadwin & Niemann; Ancer & Leishman win 3 & 2 against Reed & Simpson; Woods & Thomas win 1 up against An & Matsuyama; Fowler & Woodland tie Im & Smith.
Reactions: What will be remembered from this session is the JT & Tiger win. Now that may be because we’re American, but it was still the most exciting moment of the day. Tiger and JT had been down most of the match, tying it up again with two holes left. JT had a birdie putt on 18 to flip the match and he sunk it. Tiger literally leaped into JT’s arms and the two were cheering and screaming in joy. It was awesome. For the second match in a row, Tiger paired Reed and Simpson together despite how horrible they looked after Day 1, while Cantlay and Schauffele proved to be a formidable team. While Cantlay’s winning putt at 18 was overshadowed by what Thomas did, it was another crucial point in an event that ended up far closer than expected.
Day 3 Part One: US Loses a Little Bit of Ground, Down 9-5
How the matches went: Fowler & Thomas win 3 & 2 against Li & Leishman; Im & Ancer win 3 & 2 against Cantlay & Schauffele; Pan & Matsuyama win 5 & 3 against Reed & Simpson; An & Scott tied Finau & Kuchar.
Reactions: The moment we questioned Tiger’s ability as captain came when he put Reed & Simpson out for a third time. After getting pummeled in both days 1 and 2, they got MURDERED 5 & 3 on day 3. Absolutely embarrassing. Of course, we would find out that after the match, Reed’s caddie snapped (see below). At one point in the day, it looked like the US was about to be down by nearly double digits. But the secret best matchup was Ancer & Im versus Cantlay & Schauffele. Ancer and Im came out as star rookies to watch, while Cantlay & Schauffele are friends who were well matched to compliment each others games. It was a great match; Im’s ball striking and Ancer’s putting were just too formidable for the young Americans to overcome. This was a fun matchup not only because of the quality of play but because of the youth of the players – at the age of 28, Ancer is the oldest, while Cantlay and Schauffele are 27 and 26. Im, the precocious South Korean, is only 21, and this event served as his coming-out party to the golf public. Cantlay and Schauffele were the only pairing to play together in all four team matches, a sign of supreme confidence from captain Woods, and after their combined 2-1-1 record plus their singles wins, will likely form a strong team for Steve Stricker next year in the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.
In one of the weirdest moments, Li hit out of turn on the second hole and was forced to replay his shot, which he dumped in the trees on the second try. His behavior throughout the Cup was very odd and ended with him texting on screen during Ernie Els’ finale speech. Not the best look for Li. This is the same guy who brought his physio on his bag (he had never caddied) and decided to hit driver after being explicitly advised against it.
Day 3 Part Two: USA Has Made Things Close Going Into The Last Day at 10-8
How the matches went: Johnson & Woodland win 2 & 1 against Scott & Oosthuizen; Leishman & Ancer tied Thomas & Fowler; Schauffele & Cantlay win 2 & 1 against Smith & Im; An & Niemann tie Kuchar & Finau.
Reactions: Day 3 was wild with Tiger sitting himself in both sessions in order to focus on being captain, despite probably being the best player in the tournament. At least Tiger FINALLY sat Reed and Simpson, letting Tony get back out there instead. After being up 5 with 8 holes to play, Rickie and JT completely collapsed, with JT driving the ball into the trees on 18 and then missing the green on the approach to lose 18 and tie the match. Ancer continued to put the pressure on Rickie and JT as he sunk a 20 footer to keep the match alive on 15 and when he made it the place went wild. Leishman described walking up 18 after fighting and clawing back as completely electric.
Day 4: USA Comes Back To Win 16-14
How the matches went: Woods win 3 & 2 against Ancer; Finau ties Matusyama; Reed wins 4 & 2 against Pan; Johnson wins 3 & 2 against Li; DeChambeau ties Hadwin; Im wins 4 & 3 against Woodland; Cantlay won 3 & 2 against Niemann; Schauffele wins 2 & 1 against Scott; Simpson won 2 & 1 against An; Smith won 2 & 1 against Thomas; Kuchar tied Oosthuizen; Fowler tied Leishman.
Reactions: Obviously the sound clip that has gone viral is Tiger saying “Ancer asked for it and he got it.” Earlier in the week, Ancer had boldly stated that he wanted to play Tiger at the Presidents Cup, which he did. Ancer played really well, but the rookie was no match for Tiger and Tiger made sure he knew it both during the match and afterwards. Tony also had an epic comeback from 4 down against Matsuyama to claw out a tie. Reed came out of the gate hot, winning six of the first seven holes; clearly he had a fire lit under his ass after getting crushed with 3 losses in team play, as well as all the controversy that probably helped fuel him as well. Cantlay and Schauffele continued their excellent weeks and are set up to play on many Team USA’s in the future. Kuchar finished it off for the Americans, and caused his fellow 40-something Woods to finally break.
There was obvious disappointment in the singles for the International side, Smith and Im had performances that stood out. Smith, the most vocal International player about Reed’s cheating at the Hero World, didn’t get his desired matchup, but did take down American star Justin Thomas in front of an adoring home Australian crowd. Im finished his week tied for the most points that anyone won all weak, truly remarkable for the second youngest Presidents Cup player of all time (Jordan Spieth was 20 in 2013, unable to drink victory champagne).
Overall Reactions
Tiger Woods was the only player to win all of his matches (Rickie Fowler was technically undefeated, with one win and three ties). It’s difficult not to just gush over Tiger for this entire article, because wow he’s just amazing. What a year for him. He won the Masters, the ZOZO Championship, went undefeated in the Presidents Cup which he also captained. Not too shabby, Tiger. But the Internationals were amazing. It’s usually a foregone conclusion that they’re going to get killed at the Presidents Cup, and a lot of the time it’s because it’s difficult to cultivate team bonding and get used to playing with and for one another when you’re dealing with 9 different countries and language barriers, etc. But Els was really able to pull the team together and the fans at Australia got behind them too. It was impressive to watch them kick USA’s ass for three days straight. Their better knowledge of the course and their team spirit made up for much of their talent deficit, making this match the most exciting Presidents Cup of the decade.
Off The Course
Patrick Reed Drama Continues
Ugh it just doesn’t end with this guy. Of course after the cheating scandal, the Australian fans rightfully shit on him. My favorite was the call out “what’s in your bag? 14 clubs and a shovel?” It was just crazy how well you could hear everyone yelling at him even on TV. The weirdest part was when Reed pretended to shovel the green after he made a big putt and then the PGA Tour tweeted out the video in support. Weirdest flex of all time.
The next part of the controversy came on day 3 when someone told Reed “you fucking suck” in front of his caddie, Kessler Karain, who is also Reed’s brother-in-law. Karain got off of his cart and shoved the fan, spilling some of the fan’s beer. After Steve Sands reported there was an altercation, Karain gave this statement to Foreplay at Barstool Sports:
Karain was not permitted to caddy for Reed during the singles match on day 4. Reed’s swing coach Kevin Kirk stepped in to caddy instead where he handily beat C.T. Pan 4 & 2. The Tour and Tiger both didn’t do enough in the Reed situation. The fact that he was allowed to play in this is a problem in itself, and then for him to cause so much trouble, and not even have a winning record, is just a horrible look. Fans and fellow players alike have begun to tire of Reed and his team’s antics and disregard for others – it will be interesting to see if the Tour begins to crack down on this kind of behavior.
Fake Fans?
People noticed that the insane fans making up songs for the US team and cheering them on extremely aggressively on the first tee actually had Australian accents. Why were US supporters decidedly not American? Apparently they were part of a group called “We the People” that the Tour has come out to say it supports as they believe it helps grow the game by inspiring passion in a larger audience. I don’t really think any of this makes sense and it’s extremely suspect. Yes, flying from the US to Australia for this event is expensive, and difficult for most fans. But let’s be honest about that instead of pretending. Aggressive crowds rooting for one side are part of what make team events so entertaining and charged.
The Commercials
The commercials are a problem and they’re miserable and there’s nothing we can do about it and it sucks. Playing. Through. Doesn’t. Count. As. Coverage.
Golf Twitter Battles
Old Man Golf twitter took on Young Golf twitter after the tournament and it frankly got weird. It started as just Foreplay vs. ESPN when there was an issue with ESPN not giving Foreplay credit for getting the Reed caddy statement. It continued as the Foreplay guys all got fist bumps from Tiger and were extremely excited about it.
Geoff Shackelford and other older golf writers at ESPN like Bob Harig and other sites continued to harp on the Foreplay guys, essentially making fun of them for being such big fans of Tiger and admonishing the fact that they even have media credentials. It was very odd as the Foreplay guys continued to insist that there’s room for everyone to enjoy golf and that what they’re doing is helping to grow the game the same as any writer at Golf.com or other traditional outlets. A lot of the issues with golf surround the stuffiness of some of it’s traditions; think of how the most fun holes in golf are 16 at the Waste Management Open or 17 at The Players because people are allowed to act like normal sports fans and cheer on or root against players. It was just a horrible look for Old Golf Twitter. We’d suggest reading through some of the threads between all the parties to get a full look. Honestly, it’s one of the better times to say “ok, boomer”. Also ironic because they all love Tiger – he’s a lot of the reason they have golf jobs in the first play.
This ends significant golf for 2019, but stay tuned for more in 2020!
