Account
Presidents Cup 2019 Leaderboard: Day 1 Scores, Top Pairings and Twitter Reaction
December 12, 2019
The U.S. team finds itself in a 4-1 hole after the first day of action at the 2019 Presidents Cup from Australia's Royal Melbourne Golf Club.
In four-ball format, Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas got the Americans off to a good start with a 4-and-3 win over Joaquin Niemann and Marc Leishman on Thursday (Wednesday in the U.S.). That was the only outright win for the U.S. squad, which lost each of the final four matches.
2019 Presidents Cup Results—Day 1 (Four-Ball)
Tiger Woods/Justin Thomas (USA) def. Joaquin Niemann/Marc Leishman (International), 4 and 3
Sungjae Im/Adam Hadwin (International) vs. Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele (USA), 1-up
Byeong Hun An/Adam Scott (International) def. Tony Finau/Bryson DeChambeau (USA), 2 and 1
C.T. Pan/Hideki Matsuyama (International) def. Patrick Reed/Webb Simpson (USA), 1-up
Louis Oosthuizen/Abraham Ancer (International) def. Gary Woodland/Dustin Johnson (USA), 4 and 3
The duo of Woods and Thomas wasted no time asserting itself against Niemann and Leishman. Woods hit a birdie on the No. 1 to go 1-up right out of the gate. It was the first of five birdies in just 15 holes for the 2019 Masters champion on the day.
That is the latest encouraging sign for Woods, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in August. He's shown no signs of fatigue recently, winning the ZOZO Championship in October and finishing fourth in the Hero World Challenge last week.
If there was any concern the international team would fold in the wake of an early defeat, Sungjae Im and Adam Hadwin put it to rest with an impressive showing against Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele.
There was more drama in this matchup compared to the dominance displayed by Woods and Thomas, but Im dazzled early with an eagle on the first hole:
That lead would hold up through five holes until Cantlay finally got things back to even with a birdie on No. 6 and Schauffele put them up one on the next hole. Im squared things up before making the turn with a par putt on the ninth hole.
Things finally turned on No. 16 when Hadwin made par. He was the only one of the four players to par the hole. Cantlay misfired with a double bogey, and Schauffele had to settle for a bogey. Im and Hadwin made that stand for the final two holes to secure the 1-up victory.
The international team's most dominant performance came from the duo of Louis Oosthuizen and Abraham Ancer. They took control on the second hole and increased their lead over Gary Woodland and Dustin Johnson to 4-up by the fifth hole
Johnson tried to make things interesting on No. 11 when he nearly hit an ace, but his short game wound up costing the U.S. an opportunity to close the gap to two:
One player who had the short game working was Adam Scott, whose clutch birdie putt on No. 14 from 11.5 feet out kept him and Byeong Hun An up two over the American tandem of Tony Finau and Bryson DeChambeau.
The United States' best hope to at least secure one-half point in the late matches came from Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson. Reed's birdie on No. 16 squared the match for the first time since the second hole.
C.T. Pan and Hideki Matsuyama immediately got back on track when Matsuyama came up clutch with a birdie putt from 28 feet out to give the international team a one-shot lead.
That putt was emblematic of how everything was going right for the international side and wrong for Team USA. In each of the previous two Presidents Cup events, the Americans held at least a two-point lead.
The U.S. will have to make up three points if it wants to win outright for the seventh consecutive time. It's not an insurmountable deficit, but this wasn't the start the United States envisioned on this trip to Australia.