The Presidents Cup Keeps Ending The Same Way. Why Can't The International Team Close The Gap?

The International team did nearly everything right for three days. It went into Sunday at Medinah leading the United States 10.5 to 7.5, having shocked a heavily favoured home side over the four team sessions.

Then the singles started. The Americans won 9.5 of the 12 points, took the Cup 17-13 and collected their 11th straight victory. It was the biggest final-day comeback in Presidents Cup history and the largest singles margin the event has ever seen. The overall record now reads 14 wins, one loss and one tie for the U.S.

The lead that lasted one session

Captain Brandt Snedeker front-loaded his singles lineup, and it paid off at once. The Americans won eight of the first ten matches. Cameron Young opened by beating Ryo Hisatsune 3 and 2 after trailing by two through four holes. Jackson Koivun, a 21-year-old rookie fresh out of Auburn, finished as the only undefeated player on either side.

And Jacob Bridgeman, another rookie, supplied the clinching point when he beat Min Woo Lee 1 up on the 18th, where Lee's bogey opened the door. It was Bridgeman's first Cup point. Snedeker singled out him and Koivun after the win, rather than the veterans, which says plenty about who carried Sunday.

One line in the results tells the story better than the score. The reigning Open champion, Ryan Fox, lost 2 and 1 to Xander Schauffele. The Internationals had a major champion in the field and still won just two of the 12 singles matches.

What singles exposes

So why does this keep happening? The theory that fits Sunday best is depth. In fourballs and foursomes a captain can shelter a weaker player by pairing him with a stronger one. In singles, all 24 players have to play alone, and there's nowhere to hide.

That's a hard format for a side with a thin bottom half of its roster. The Americans have Scottie Scheffler at world No. 1 and Young at No. 3, but the more telling detail is how many wins came from lower down. A pair of rookies delivered the biggest moments of the day. The two International wins, from Tom Kim and Sungjae Im, came against Wyndham Clark and Sam Burns, and both were won by three-hole margins.

It would be unfair to prove a theory from one Sunday, and the Internationals did lead after the team sessions, so the talent is clearly there. But 11 straight Cups is a lot of Sundays.

A team with no home tour

The International squad is built from players who grew up in different countries and play on different tours. That's a structural gap nobody can fix with a captain's pick. The Ryder Cup works partly because Europe has one tour, one continental identity and a set of players who've been competing against and alongside each other for years.

Golf Channel was careful to say this wasn't a miracle, and that's fair. A miracle needs surprise. Anyone who's watched the last 11 editions has seen this coming for years.

The obvious fixes aren't easy. Changing the format to shrink the singles session would weaken the one part of the event that produces drama. Choosing the team differently might help with depth, though depth is easier to demand than to produce.

That leaves a genuine puzzle. If the International team can win three days and still lose the Cup on the fourth, is the trouble in how the event is built, or in who gets selected to play in it?