The 2026 Presidents Cup is finally here, and Medinah Country Club opened its gates on Thursday with the hype to match. This time, Captain Brandt Snedeker’s team opened the week with five four-ball matches against Geoff Ogilvy’s international team. Here is how USA opened its campaign in round one.
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The Pairings: Who Snedeker Sent Out
Match 1: Scottie Scheffler & Sam Burns vs. Min Woo Lee & Sungjae Im
Match 2: Cameron Young & Xander Schauffele vs. Hideki Matsuyama & Ryo Hisatsune
Match 3: Justin Thomas & Jackson Koivun vs. Corey Conners & Nico Echavarria
Match 4: Wyndham Clark & Collin Morikawa vs. Ryan Fox & Adam Scott
Match 5: Chris Gotterup & Patrick Cantlay vs. Tom Kim & Si Woo Kim
Thursday Four-Ball Matches
The Americans are hunting their 14th Presidents Cup victory, and history says they usually get it done. On Thursday, only one match went to the 18th hole and that of Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns.
Match 1: Scottie Scheffler & Sam Burns
On the front nine, Scottie Scheffler and his close friend Sam Burns took an early lead for their team. Scheffler carded a birdie on the par-4 1st to give the U.S. a 1-up lead. On the 2nd, Min Woo Lee carded a 50-foot birdie to give Internationals a strong start. Almost quickly, Sam Burns made a birdie of his own, keeping Scheffler’s hot start alive.
Lee’s partner, Sungjae Im, matched Scheffler’s birdie on the fourth hole, keeping Team USA 1 UP. But soon enough, Im carded a birdie on the fifth hole to tie the match. Match one stayed tight through the turn until Sungjae Im’s birdie on the 13th finally gave Internationals their first lead of the day. But right through that crack, Sam Burns answered immediately.
He stuck a 173-yard approach to a 3-foot birdie on the 14th to square things back up. The match held level until the 17th, when Americans were gifted that hole when Im missed a birdie putt. Scheffler then had to save par from the bunker on the 18th to seal a one-up victory.
Match 2: Cameron Young & Xander Schauffele
Playing against Young and Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama made a bogey on the first hole, and the hole was halved. His playing partner, Ryo Hisatsune, missed a birdie on the par-4 second. Cameron Young quickly picked up the advantage as he carded a birdie putt, giving the U.S. a 1-up lead.
On the third hole, Hisatsune neutralized the advantage with a birdie on the third hole. From there, they were tied for the next few holes. The eighth hole, however, offered much drama.
Young’s ball found the water, and Xander Schauffele missed a six-foot par putt, giving International the lead. Matsuyama then carded another birdie on the par-3 ninth to go 2-up. The Internationals held their two-up cushion through most of the back nine, and Matsuyama sealed it in style, draining a birdie on the 17th to close out the match three and one.
Match 3: Justin Thomas & Jackson Koivun
For the 3rd Match, both sides got a steady start with pars on the first two holes. Debutant Jackson Koivun held his nerves and hit a spectacular tee shot on the first hole that got a wink from assistant captain Keegan Bradley. You can watch the moment here.
Meanwhile, Justin Thomas saved par on the first from a greenside bunker, and the second hole was tied too. Jackson Koivun for Team USA made the first birdie on the par-5 third, giving the team a 1-up lead.
Thomas moved the needle for the USA by carding a 22-foot birdie putt to go 2-up on the fifth hole. You can watch it here. Koivun added a birdie on the par-5 sixth, turning the US up by 3. They carried the lead into the back nine.
Thomas and Koivun carried their two-hole cushion into the back nine and never let the international close the gap. Thomas holed two back-to-back birdies on the 14th and the 15th, and they closed out comfortably to a 4 and 3 victory.
Match 4: Wyndham Clark & Collin Morikawa
Match 4 was probably the best one for Team USA. Wyndham Clark set the tone early by rolling in a birdie on the first hole to get a fast start. That momentum pushed to the second hole, where the U.S. still held the lead.
For the International side, Adam Scott’s eagle attempt on the par-5 third came up short. Here, Clark’s birdie kept the U.S. team ahead. Wyndham Clark again stole the show with another birdie on the fourth hole, pushing the lead for the U.S. team by two.
The real highlight of the match, however, came on the eighth, where Clark drained an 18-footer for birdie to push the lead out to three. His partner Collin Morikawa had already chipped in with a birdie on the par-5 sixth to help build that cushion.
Ryan Fox found one answer for the International with a tidy birdie on the par-3 seventh, but it wasn’t enough to slow the Americans down. The ninth was tied, and Clark and Morikawa carried a three-up lead into the back nine.
While Ryan Fox’s birdie on the 13th briefly trimmed the lead to two, Morikawa answered on the par-3 16th, nearly acing with a tee shot that settled to tap-in range for birdie. And that sealed it. Clark, who led all players on Thursday in strokes gained putting, helped close out a 3-and-2 win.
Match 5: Chris Gotterup & Patrick Cantlay
On the front nine, Chris Gotterup and Patrick Cantlay got a shaky start for Americans. Neither Gotterup nor Cantlay made par on the first, and Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim went one up. Although Si Woo Kim hit his tee shot out of bounds on the second, Tom Kim rolled in a 13-foot birdie to make it 2-up.
The Americans only showed up on the fourth hole, which Chris Gotterup won with a birdie. Cantlay then squared the match with a 12-foot birdie on the par-five sixth. Si Woo Kim tried to answer on the par-four seventh with a birdie from four feet.
The Kims pulled away on the back nine. Si Woo Kim’s birdie on the 14th stretched the lead to three, and Tom Kim finished it with a birdie on the 16th, closing out a 3-and-2 win for the Internationals.
As the dust settled at Medinah, Team USA closed out Thursday with a 3-2 edge, a lead built on nerve as much as firepower. Scheffler, who has spent his career chasing a smoother record in the colors of his country, put it simply after the round.
“We just did our best to stay in it. I feel like both teams got off to a pretty hot start today, and we cooled off a little bit after that.” He also called Burns’ approach on the 14th “a really big moment for us as a team.”
That said, Friday now brings foursomes and a 3-2 lead on the table that will turn into something much bigger by Sunday.