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Keegan Bradley secured the Presidents Cup for the United States when he clinched a point in his match against the International team’s Si-woo Kim that lifted his team to the 15.5-point target needed to retain the trophy in Montreal.
It was the 10th consecutive Presidents Cup triumph for the Americans, who boast an all-time record of 13-1-1 in the biennial match play event against a line-up of international players from outside Europe.
And it felt appropriate that Bradley – who has made no secret of his desperation to play team golf for his country again, having not featured since 2014 until this week – was the man to secure the winning point. The fact the 38-year-old will captain the US Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black next year as they try to reclaim the trophy from Europe also made this a fitting finale.
“They made the captain’s job really easy and these guys played their hearts out this week, and they really played well on the back nine,” said US captain Jim Furyk.
The US needed just 4.5 points from 12 singles matches and wins for Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley and Patrick Cantlay along with a half point from Sam Burns set the stage for Bradley, who beat Kim 1-up with five other matches on the course.
Bradley, who hadn’t appeared in a team event since the 2014 Ryder Cup, missed putts to clinch the Presidents Cup over the last two holes but got the decisive point when Kim missed an eight-foot birdie putt at the par-four 18th.
“It’s a fairytale; it’s a movie almost,” said Bradley. “I just can’t believe it. You just have to work as hard as I can, and good things happen.”
While the Internationals swept Friday’s session to draw level at 5-5, the Americans built up an 11-7 lead on Saturday that left their opponents needing 8.5 of the remaining 12 points to win the cup, a feat neither team has achieved in the event’s history.
The US, a dominant squad of golfers all in the top 25 of the world rankings, including five of the top 10, took control early and never wavered even as the Internationals made a late push in a number of matches.
Furyk sent Schauffele out in the opening match and the world No 2 carded five front-nine birdies in his comfortable 4&3 win over Australian Jason Day for the first US point of the day.
“My goal was just to set the tone, get red up on that board as early as possible, and I was able to do that,” said Schauffele.
Burns and South Korean Tom Kim followed with the first tie in any match all week before Henley secured a 3&2 win over Sung-jae Im in a match the American never trailed.
Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama delivered the first full International point of the session when he birdied three of his final five holes to secure a 1-up win over world No 1 Scottie Scheffler.
Although Canadian Corey Conners added another point with a 5&3 win over Tony Finau it was too little too late as Cantlay, a 3&1 winner over Taylor Pendrith, and Bradley already had the upper hand in matches they closed out.
Reuters