Everyone on the property had their eyes on Corey Conners. Spectators, wives, both teams and the whole of the television audience. He and Nick Taylor were in the last match still on the golf course on a marathon Saturday at the Presidents Cup and Conners had a six-footer for the win.
Easy enough on paper, until it isn’t. Conners is, essentially, last on the PGA Tour in putting from short distances and he had missed a handful from that length already on this day and through the week.
This one was different, though. Right in the heart. Match over.
The Canadian duo was three down after three holes against Jacob Bridgeman and Russell Henley and were still three down through the 10th hole before they turned the tide in their afternoon foursomes match, winning five straight holes from Nos. 11-15 to sit 1 up through 16. On the closing hole, Taylor knocked his tee shot into a tough spot – again – before Conners roped a stinging approach to just short of the green, leaving Taylor with a 38-yard pitch that he left to what should be a makable distance.
The precedent hadn’t been set by Conners that it was a guarantee, but he went through his routine and rolled it right in.
The International side split the afternoon session after losing the morning session 2.5-1.5. They lead 10.5-7.5 heading into Sunday’s finale – the first time in competition history the Internationals have the lead heading into the last day. They look to win the Presidents Cup for just the second time and the first time on American soil.
Over Saturday and Sunday, the Canadian pair – per Ryan French of golf blog Monday Q Info – have taken down the Nos. 20, 9, 4, and No. 1-ranked golfers in the world.
“I'm loving it. I'm loving being next to this guy,” Taylor said of his Canadian countryman. “What an experience to battle back from three down through three (and) through 10. We've just been relentless all week. That's been the message through the captain.
“Just proud of this guy. That was an awesome putt.”
In the morning, Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim continued their winning ways, defeating Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark 2 and 1. Americans Chris Gotterup and Cameron Young defeated Taylor and Conners by the same score, and Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns also topped the Japanese duo of Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune 2 and 1.
Sungjae Im and Min Woo Lee ended up tying Justin Thomas and Jackson Koivun after the International pair won two of the final four holes to pull even.
It was a solid final score for the morning session, considering at one point, the Americans were leading in all four matches.
“It's those guys that got it done. It shows you the spirit of this team is really strong. That's tough to weather that storm and you see all red on the board in the morning, and we somehow snuck out with a point and a half out of that session, which we felt like was a little bit of a win, how that session was going,” said International captain Geoff Ogilvy.
“Then the same sort of thing this afternoon. We were down in all four very early, and that's tough when the boys see that on the leaderboard, but they kept hanging in.”
Somewhat surprisingly, on paper at least, the Americans decided to sit the world No. 1, Scheffler, for the afternoon – just as his side was chipping away on the lead and while he was also gaining some personal momentum.
Alas, the Americans were off to some fine starts without their star and managed to convert two of the early leads into points. Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele handed Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim their first loss of the week, defeating the duo 2 and 1. Young and Gotterup were brought back out after their morning victory and kept the good golf going, handing Adam Scott and Im a 6 and 4 loss as the pair was 6 under through nine holes in the alternate-shot format.
Burns and Clark fell to Ryan Fox and Min Woo Lee 3 and 2 before the stage was cleared for the Canadian pair to try to put one last point on the ledger for the International side – despite the awful start.
“Two Canadians sticking together, we knew that would be good, comfortable pairing and exciting for them both to represent this team with another Canadian by their side. It's really exciting. To be 3-down and win a Presidents Cup match, that's really impressive,” Ogilvy said.
“We knew it was going to be a battle,” added Conners. “Gave them a few holes early on, and I think we were both motivated to try and get back on the right side of things, just keep battling away.
“Did a good job of staying with it, trying to put pressure on them whenever we could, and it feels great to get it done.”
There is, however, still plenty of golf to be played. Twelve points are left to be confirmed in Sunday’s singles and as we’ve seen in competitions’ past – and even right at Medinah Country Club, where the European side came back from a 10-6 deficit to win the Ryder Cup in 2012 – the finish line is in sight, but with work to do if David wants to tame Goliath.
“There's still a lot of golf to be played – I think that helped us fight through today knowing there's still a lot of golf to be played. Just keep being resilient, keep fighting. If you're down, try to win a couple holes and get it back. Basically, just be resilient,” Conners said. “If everybody tries to get a point, everybody wins a point tomorrow, we'll be in good shape.”
Sunday singles
12:02 p.m. ET – Ryo Hisatsune vs. Cameron Young
12:14 p.m. – Tom Kim vs. Wyndham Clark
12:26 p.m. – Corey Conners vs. Justin Thomas
12:38 p.m. – Nico Echavarria vs. Scottie Scheffler
12:50 p.m. – Sungjae Im vs. Sam Burns
1:02 p.m. – Christiaan Bezuidenhout vs. Chris Gotterup
1:14 p.m. – Hideki Matsuyama vs. Collin Morikawa
1:26 p.m. – Adam Scott vs. Patrick Cantlay
1:38 p.m. – Si Woo Kim vs. Jackson Koivun
1:50 p.m. – Min Woo Lee vs. Jacob Bridgeman
2:02 p.m. – Nick Taylor vs. Russell Henley
2:14 p.m. – Ryan Fox vs. Xander Schauffele
