US Comes Back in Sunday Singles to Win the Presidents Cup

The US lost the Ryder Cup to Team Europe at Bethpage in 2025.  The US recently lost the Walker Cup to Team Great Britain and Ireland at La Hinch in County Clare, Ireland.  A few weeks ago Team USA lost the Soldheim Cup to Team Europe in The Netherlands.  What is wrong with USA Golf?  The answer is quite simple…nothing!  These are the best players in the world and most of them were educated and participated in collegiate golf in the United States.  The best truism can be summed up in one simple phrase:  These guys (gals) are good.!  The game of golf is the common denominator with all the variables that are both physical and mental that collides and interacts with all of these players.   Match play at this level is usually resolved on the putting green and getting approach shots in the right position to make those putts.  Dissecting and commentating on the US recent losses in match play events is the subject of endless conjecture by the “experts” and golf media mavens who have nothing better to do with their time.  There is no “crying in baseball”, in golf, there should be no “whining in golf.”  The insipid commentary is non-stop, boring and generally their predictions turn out to be wrong.

A great example of this is Stuart Hagestad who might some day be recognized as one of the greatest amateurs of all time with an impressive list of USGA championships and a number of other prestigious events.  His singles record in the Walker Cup prior to the 2026 event was 7 wins and 1 loss.  Despite this great record, nothing is guaranteed in golf especially at the highest level.  Hagestad lost his critical singles match in the 2026 Walker Cup succumbing to an inspired GB&I squad.  Has Hagestad lost his mojo?  Absolutely not–last weekend Hagestad won the Crump Cup, which is probably the most difficult amateur golf event in the world played at the most difficult course potentially in the world–Pine Valley.  What’s even more impressive is that this was Hagenstad’s second Crump Cup victory.

The US avoided another embarrassing loss in the President’s Cup  team competition with a blitzing performance in the Sunday singles to win the Cup again in dramatic fashion.  The US performance was outstanding in every respect.  It seemed that the US spotted the Internationals a significant lead and then reached for the jugular with amazing consistency and swagger.    The US has now won 14 out of 15 of these matches, which is worse than the days the US was bludgeoning Great Britain and Ireland in the Ryder Cup before the Europeans were added.   Developing a team culture with players from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, South America etc. is a cultural challenge that the international team has not been able to overcome.

These events always seem to highlight the signifiant skills of these players, but eventually the subtlety of variables presented by the game of golf usually prevail and determine who can overcome the challenges that the game always presents.

The usual bad behavior of golf fans to this event proved that Ryder Cup antics in Long Island, NY doesn’t have the patent to bad sportsmanship.  The fans in Chicago  were a bit better composed in the first two days when the US team was taking their usual pounding in the foursomes and the fourball competitions.  All of that changed on Sunday as the US trotted out their best in the early matches, and went on to conquer the International squad.  In Scottie Scheffler’s match against Nico Echavarria, a spectator yelled while he was trying to make a 32 foot putt for par in the middle of his takeaway.  Scheffler was completely annoyed by this behavior and conceded the putt for a halved hole, which was a magnanimous gesture.  On Saturday, a fan actually kicked a ball that was out of bounds back onto the green.  The crowd noise had an impact as catcalls reined down in the players’ backswings.  The Internationals aren’t as hardened as the Europeans who are used to giving it and getting it  in the racous Ryder Cup matches.  Matsuyama missed a 3 foot putt to halve a hole after Morakawa had tossed in an unlikely 30 footer on the 15th hole.  Matsuyama would eventually lose that match1 down to Morakawa.  Min Wo Lee imploded on the back nine missing a few short ones propelling his competitor, Jacob Bridgman to victory.  The result was a sad state of affairs for the Internationals and continues to call into question, the competitiveness of these matches.  I’ve gone on record that the Ryder Cup should be abandoned as bad behavior continues to dominate the scene,  as it is tiresome that these events sacrifice money over the game of golf.  I would add the Presidents Cup to this sordid list as the matches in Melbourne,rAustralia will have the significant potential of matching or exceeding this bad behavior as beer, spirits and money flow into these events.  Of course, these matches will continue on,  so perhaps, the Internationals should add the Europeans to the team to encompass all the game’s international players.  The PGA can change the behavior of the fans if they want to, simply by penalizing the team’s fans for their bad behavior.  It would be a tough thing to implement but the threat of doing so, just might give unruly fans something to think about.

Congratulations to the US team for its tremendous comeback in these matches.  Golf at this level is mostly mental so overcoming adversity is always a significant challenge.  The Internationals couldn’t close the deal and who knows what impact unruly fan behavior played but that is the nature of this game.