In the first of five fourball matches in the Presidents Cup opening session in Montreal, Americans Xander Schauffele and Tony Finau will take on the international team of Jason Day and An Byeong-hun.
Xander Schauffele, an athlete from Southern California, has had a tremendous season. He is currently ranked second in the world, which is a career-high, and won the PGA Championship and the British Open this year.
Meanwhile, Jason Day of Australia will be keen to improve on his unsatisfactory 5-11-4 record from his four previous Presidents Cup appearances. He will want to gain momentum from South Korea’s powerful An.
For the second game, International Team leader Mike Weir countered with two Australians, Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee, while U.S. captain Jim Furyk chose Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala.
In the third match of the day, world number one Scottie Scheffler and fellow American Russell Henley will take on Im Sung-jae and Tom Kim of South Korea.
South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Canada’s Taylor Pendrith will then play Wyndham Clark and Keegan Bradley in the fourth match.
Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns will compete against Hideki Matsuyama of Japan and Corey Conners of Canada to end the first day of the four-day competition.
The United States team is once again the clear favourite despite facing a more skilled international team. They have dominated the biannual competition with a 12-1-1 record. Meanwhile, with the goal of winning their first Presidents Cup since 1998 at Royal Melbourne, the Internationals are adding eight players from their 2022 group to their 12-man lineup.
Source: CNA