Presidents Cup 2026: The duo that has kept the U.S. from being blown out at Medinah
Michael Reaves
MEDINAH, Ill. — The United States needed closers on Saturday. It needed more Cameron Young and Chris Gotterup.
The Americans find themselves trailing for just the fourth time in the Presidents Cup heading into singles competition, their inability to hold onto a lead proving their undoing against a rather pesky International team. It’s quite astonishing that the U.S. forged early leads in all eight pairs competitions—four fourball and four foursomes matches—and that the Internationals led for a total of 14 holes all day, and yet the Yanks gained just one point on their opponents by winning 4½ of the available eight points.
The International team, seeking just its second win since the matches began in 1994, remains ahead of the heavily favored U.S. squad, 10½-7½, with 12 singles matches set for Sunday at Medinah Country Club’s No. 3 Course. The host team can thank the work of Young and Gotterup for keeping it that close with the work they did together in two blitzkrieg-style victories.
These fellas were terrors near the midway.
In the morning, Young and his rookie partner won the first four holes against Corey Conners and Nick Taylor and then fought off a late push by the Canadians for a 2-and-1 victory. The American burly boys then bashed away at Adam Scott and Sungjae Im in foursomes, 6 and 4, after playing the outward nine holes in six under par with four birdies and an eagle.
Ham-and-egg golf, right? No. It was more like hammering and … egad.
“Yeah, they played great. It was kind of a pairing we had circled early on in this process of kind of putting those two guys together in alternate shot,” U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker said. “They went out there today and played fantastic. I can't thank those guys enough for what they gave today. That's just such a strong pairing. The way those guys hit it, the way those guys played, they vibed today. They were having fun. Cam was making putts. Chris was hitting it a mile. It was fun to watch. Those guys have a long career in front of them in these things, and I'm glad we found that pairing.”
More Presidents Cup coverage
Sharing northeastern roots, Young from New York and Gotterup from New Jersey, the duo also share a mindset and a style of play that makes them an ideal fit. They play quite a bit of golf together when at home, so they are familiar with each other’s games. They are power players with reserved personalities. Gotterup has won three times on the PGA Tour this year, Young twice, including the Players.
“I know how he plays. I think he knows how I play,” Gotterup said. “We're different, but we play similar styles of golf in the fact that if he hits it in the rough, I've been in, like, a similar position where we're not going to be in the fairway all the time just with how far we hit it. It's not uncomfortable in the spots we put each other in. We just have a connection through being from the northeast and just playing golf.”
“Golf-wise, it's super easy,” Young added. "I think both of us, when in doubt, tee it up, hit it hard, go find it. We're both pretty comfortable trying to figure it out from wherever the other guy hits it. I think that made it pretty easy this afternoon.”
Michael Reaves
Sarah Stier
Young told a story about playing a fourball match at home last week that included Gotterup. He was dazzled, to say the least. “He beat all of us on his own ball,” Young said. “Anytime you've got someone with that gear to go like that, it's exciting. I've seen him do a lot of crazy stuff with the golf ball. It's fun to watch, and he's very, very talented. It's one of those where I'm just looking forward to watching good golf and knowing that I don't have to hit all of the shots. He's got a lot of them for me.”
That happened on the opening hole in morning fourball when Young pumped his drive out of bounds. Gotterup won the hole with a routine par and off they went. They were downright ruthless in foursomes in the afternoon, never letting up in their beatdown of Im and Scott. They never trailed in the 31 holes they played together.
“We did a good job in our group of just staying in our group and making sure we didn't let up and kind of [showing] no mercy,” Gotterup, 27, said.
If you’re wondering why Snedeker waited until Saturday to put the two power golfers together, well, Snedeker mentioned how he saw them as a prime pairing in foursomes. But Gotterup sat out that session on Friday after struggling in a fourball loss beside Patrick Cantlay. He lost 2.39 shots in strokes gained/total, second worst among the 20 players who teed it up.
“Things kind of golf jumbled up,” Young admitted.
Young, 29, who was a stud in the U.S. Ryder Cup loss to Europe last year in New York, lost his first two matches alongside Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas. But once he and Gotterup got together, they were clearly different players. Gotterup was plus 2.18 strokes gained/total in fourball while Young led the field by gaining 4.59 shots. Each gained over three shots in their foursomes performance.
“It fun. It’s awesome when it’s going like that,” Young said.
For the week, Young leads all players in strokes gained/total at plus-9.40. It’s no wonder he goes out first in singles on Sunday against Ryo Hisatsune of Japan. America needs red on the board early to build momentum and get the crowd involved. That didn’t quite come to pass on Saturday, but you can’t blame Young and Gotterup.
No mercy. Gotterup said it. Now the rest of the U.S. team needs to have, for lack of a better phrase, that same New York state of mind.