US golfers bag NINTH straight President’s Cup victory against International team

Jordan Spieth finished a perfect week at the Presidents Cup, with the Americans taking nine straight wins against an international team exhausted by defecting to Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf.

The Internationals showed plenty of battle. They just don’t have a cup to show it.

That remains entirely in the hands of an American team that set a record race across Europe in the Ryder Cup last year.

Team USA golfer Jordan Spieth hits his chip shot on the second hole during Presidents Cup golf tournament singles match play at Quail Hollow Club

Xander Schauffele delivered the deciding point when he made a 6-foot par putt on the 18th hole for a 1-up win over Corey Conners. That gave the Americans 15 1/2 points with five games left on the course.

Conners and Taylor Pendrith, the only Canadians on the team, were the only players not contributing a point. Conners three-putted from 25 feet on the 17th with a chance to square the game, and he hit into a bunker from the fairway on the 18th.

Spieth made putts from all over Quail Hollow for a 4-and-3 win over Cameron Davis, which prevented the Internationals – who needed their best Sunday singles performance – to gain early momentum.

Spieth became only the sixth player to win all five games in the Presidents Cup and all four of his team games with Justin Thomas.

Spieth, a three-time major champion and former No. 1 player in the world, first qualified for U.S. teams when he was 20. But he had never won a singles match – 0-3 in the Presidents Cup, 0-3-1 in the Ryder Cup.

And then he fell 2 down after two holes before flipping it over in a big way.

“I was more nervous than I should have been because I wanted to get that monkey off my back,” Spieth said. “If you get out early on a Sunday, they look for red on the board. And it feels good to give it.’

Annie Spieth, wife of United States Team Jordan Spieth, holds child Sammy during Sunday singles matches on day four of the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Country Club on September 25, 2022 in Charlotte, North Carolina

Thomas tried to join him, but he lost to Si Woo Kim in a match that amounted to 10-foot birdie putts on the final hole.

Does not matter. When Patrick Cantlay whipped Adam Scott and Tony Finau rallied 2 down to beat Pendrith, the outcome was as inevitable as usual.

The Americans improved to 12-1-1 in a series that started in 1994. Their only loss was at Royal Melbourne in 1998 and there was a draw in South Africa in 2003.

The Internationals trailed 8-2 for two days after opening with a team of eight rookies, half of whom replaced players such as British Open champions Cameron Smith and Louis Oosthuizen who did not qualify after the PGA Tour suspended them for signing with the lucrative rival tour.

One of those rookies, Sebastian Munoz of Colombia, defeated world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and went unbeaten for a week 2-0-1. Another was 20-year-old Tom Kim, the fresh face of these matches, who gave the Internationals hope on Saturday night with a performance as big as his personality.

For four days, the Americans were too strong and too deep.

Jordan Spieth of the US team and Cam Davis of Australia and the International team shake hands on the 15th hole after Spieth won 4& in Sunday’s singles on day four of the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Country Club