Golf can be brutal precisely when a player appears to have done everything right. Take, for example, Tiger Woods’ third shot on the par-5 15th at the 2013 Masters. It hit the flagstick and rebounded into the pond in front of the green, which resulted in a penalty that led to a triple-bogey 8. Adam Scott experienced that firsthand in his 2026 Presidents Cup singles match against Patrick Cantlay. While scrambling, he sent a ball toward the hole, only for it to strike the flagstick and roll back several yards.

“So scrambling here just hits the flag, and he gets a bad break. That’s a terrible break. That thing would have landed with some spin from that distance. So Cantlay is in charge here. He’s got a birdie putt,” the commentators can be heard saying in a video shared by NBC Sports.

The incident occurred on the par-four second hole of Course No. 3 at Medinah. The Australian veteran started the hole with a 284-yard drive to the right bunker. He followed it with a 98-yard shot that landed on the right fairway. With only 79 yards left, he aimed his third shot directly at the hole, but it hit the flagstick.

If not for the flagstick, the ball would have gone past the hole and might have rolled back close to the pin if it had any backspin. But after hitting it, the ball rolled back to about 40 feet from the hole.

On the other hand, Cantlay hit his third shot right near the pin, just four feet, five inches from the hole. The result was a birdie putt for the American professional as he went 1-up in the match.

This did affect Scott’s momentum a bit. After losing the second hole because of the brutal break, he lost another point on the par-four fourth. But the 46-year-old made a strong comeback, winning the fifth with a birdie.

Currently, the match between Scott and Cantlay is through 14 holes. Of these, the 14-time PGA Tour winner won the fifth and tenth holes, while Cantlay won the second, fourth, eighth, and eleventh; the rest were halved. Thus, the American professional leads the match 2-up, with just four holes remaining for the Australian to make a comeback.

The same pattern is playing out across most Sunday singles matches. The International team entered the final day with a decent three-point lead. So far, the results of the first three matches are out. Of these, Tom Kim won a point for the International team. Cameron Young and Justin Thomas won the other two matches. The current projection is for a tie, but a single hole can easily change that.

As for Scott, he is confident that the International team can get their hands on the Presidents Cup trophy. In an interview with the Golf Channel ahead of Sunday singles, he said the team can finish the job. However, he was also wary that there was a “lot of golf left” to be played. That caution proved well-founded, because the Americans have made a late Sunday singles comeback more than once.

Last year, they scored 8.5 of the Sunday singles’ 12 points at the Ryder Cup. However, since the lead by Saturday had already become massive, they couldn’t prevent the European team from winning the biennial event. Adam Scott and the International team, however, still have a chance to stop Scottie Scheffler & co. If they do, it will be the International team’s second victory in Presidents Cup history.

Scott’s unfortunate flagstick bounce could have cost him a valuable point, but the match isn’t over yet. There is still time to turn the match around and give his team another chance at history.