MEDINAH, Ill. — On the bright side, Thursday at Medinah was surprisingly—and refreshingly—competitive. It also ended the way these things usually do, with the Americans taking a 3-2 lead into Friday. Here are nine takeaways from Day 1 of the Presidents Cup.
The Internationals punched above their weight …
Geoff Ogilvy’s team arrived as a heavy underdog, lacking the frontline firepower and overall depth of its American counterpart while dragging the inherited burden of one victory in three decades. Yet for most of Thursday, the Internationals were even on the board, with a brief opening to end the day ahead.
A 3-2 deficit qualifies as a small victory, especially after the Internationals were swept in the opening session two years ago. More important, it offered some hope that this Presidents Cup might retain a pulse into the weekend.
… but they had a chance to land a real blow and let it slip
Thursday still feels like a missed opportunity. Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune stole a victory from Cameron Young and Xander Schauffele, and Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim controlled the final match, meaning the Internationals needed only a half point from the other three pairings to finish Day 1 tied, an outcome almost no one saw coming.
Their best chance belonged to Min Woo Lee and Sungjae Im, who stood 1 up on Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns with five holes remaining. The advantage should have been larger, as Lee and Im squandered openings from the 10th through 12th holes. The Americans tied at the 14th, the Internationals failed to birdie the par-5 17th and could not punish the Americans after both found bunkers at the last to lose the match.
It’s dangerous to assign too much meaning to one match in a four-day competition. Conversely, the Internationals have almost no margin for waste, and Thursday’s opening session ended with an own goal.
There are a lot of airplanes
A disconcerting number of airplanes fly over Medinah. Not every few minutes; constantly, and always in pairs. At one point I began to wonder whether some of them were the same plane circling the property, either because air traffic control had collapsed or the pilots wanted to see if Si Woo was doing the “Night Night” again. Google tells me O’Hare has eight operational runways, the most of any civilian airport in the world, which explains the volume without making it feel any less alarming. I pass along that fact because discovering it was the intellectual high point of the day for much of the media corps.
Jackson Koivun didn’t have his best …
James Gilbert
Koivun’s debut was Thursday’s most intriguing subplot, partly because of his rapid ascent to this stage and partly because of what we had seen in practice; as my friend and colleague Brody Miller noticed, Koivun was spraying the ball around Medinah on Wednesday. That trouble followed him into today, with Koivun losing more than than four strokes from tee to green, the worst performance among the 20 players in action. And because this is match play, it should be noted he wasn’t undone by youthful aggression or unnecessary gambles. He just didn’t have command of his ball. Koivun did keep himself useful on the greens, where only Wyndham Clark performed better, and some nerves were inevitable. Still, his ball-striking bears watching into the weekend.
… and it didn’t matter because Justin Thomas had enough for both
Perhaps we’ve buried the lede: Koivun was part of a 4-and-3 victory. Thomas deserves most of the credit, producing the best round of the day—3.65 strokes gained—while shepherding the 21-year-old around the property.
This is not a surprise. Thomas is the finest American team player of his generation, and he owns the course record here. Their opponents offered little resistance, but Thomas never gave them the chance to find any. Koivun may have arrived as the curiosity; Thomas reminded everyone why he remains that dude for the Americans.
Corey Conners needs a hug
The Canadian was on the receiving end of the Thomas-Koivun beating. His partner, Nico Echavarria, deserves much of the blame after losing 4.85 strokes, statistically the worst round of the day. But Conners wasn’t particularly sharp, and the defeat dropped his Presidents Cup record to 2-8-0. Worse, he was asked for his thoughts on the push to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America” earlier in the week, because we live in the stupidest timeline.
NBA star Derrick Rose has a flower shop
I know this because the former MVP and Chicago Bulls legend delivered a floral arrangement to the first tee. The only reason I mention it is to ask you to imagine Jordan Spieth standing at midfield before the Super Bowl because his cash-for-gold store supplied a commemorative silver dollar for the coin toss.
The Kims are the Internationals’ best chance
Michael Reaves
Si Woo Kim was comfortably the team’s best player this season, while Tom Kim has already established himself as the Presidents Cup’s resident provocateur. Together they easily dispatched Chris Gotterup and Patrick Cantlay in the final match, allowing the Internationals to leave the course with some life. This team has spent nearly its entire existence searching for both an identity and a pairing it can trust. The Kims offer both: a formidable South Korean partnership with enough talent to win points and enough mischief to irritate the other side while doing it.
If the Internationals want Sunday to matter, they will probably need at least two more points from the Kims over the next three sessions.
Wyndham Clark was lights out
Clark’s resurgence continued Thursday. He carried Collin Morikawa across the front nine as the pair handled Adam Scott and Ryan Fox with little trouble. Clark struggled at the 2023 Ryder Cup and finished ninth on the American team in points at the 2024 Presidents Cup. On Thursday, he again looked like the player who won his second U.S. Open this summer, giving the Americans another force near the top of their lineup. Clark is trying to repair his image with a skeptical public, and few stages offer a better start than playing great golf with the flag on your chest.
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