After Day 1: USA 3, Internationals 2. Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns beat Min Woo Lee and Sungjae Im 1 up on the 18th, Justin Thomas and Jackson Koivun won 4&3 on Koivun’s debut, and Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa won the session with a 3&2 win over Ryan Fox and Adam Scott. The Internationals took the other two, and they carry a Sunday warning. Hideki Matsuyama, who beat Scheffler in the 2024 singles, won 3&1 with Ryo Hisatsune against Xander Schauffele and Cameron Young. Si Woo Kim, who beat Justin Thomas in 2022, won 3&2 with Tom Kim against Patrick Cantlay and Chris Gotterup. Cantlay and Schauffele are unbeaten in singles, and both started with a loss.
Three days of pairs golf decide who leads going into Sunday. Sunday decides who wins. Twelve singles matches, a point each, and nowhere for anyone to hide.
How Sunday works
After four sessions of four-balls and foursomes, 18 of the 30 points have gone. On Sunday every player on both teams plays one match, one against one, over 18 holes. A win is a point and a halved match is half each. The United States need 15 points to keep the Cup; the Internationals need 15½ to take it.
The captains, Brandt Snedeker and Geoff Ogilvy, set the pairings on Saturday evening. That is the part nobody can predict on a Friday. What we do know is how each American has played on Sundays before.
Who wins on Sundays
The last two Presidents Cups followed the same script. The Americans led 11–7 going into the singles both times, then won them: 6½–5½ at Quail Hollow in 2022 and 7½–4½ at Royal Montreal in 2024. Here is every singles match the current team played in those two years.
| Player | 2022 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Patrick Cantlay | Beat Adam Scott 3&2 | Beat Taylor Pendrith 3&1 |
| Collin Morikawa | Beat Mito Pereira 3&2 | Beat Adam Scott 2&1 |
| Xander Schauffele | Beat Corey Conners 1 up | Beat Jason Day 4&3 |
| Russell Henley | Not on the team | Beat Sungjae Im 3&2 |
| Sam Burns | Halved with Hideki Matsuyama | Halved with Tom Kim |
| Wyndham Clark | Not on the team | Halved with Min Woo Lee |
| Justin Thomas | Lost to Si Woo Kim 1 down | Not on the team |
| Cameron Young | Lost to Sungjae Im 1 down | Not on the team |
| Scottie Scheffler | Lost to Sebastián Muñoz 2&1 | Lost to Hideki Matsuyama 1 down |
| Jacob Bridgeman | First Presidents Cup | |
| Chris Gotterup | First Presidents Cup | |
| Jackson Koivun | First Presidents Cup | |
Four things stand out. Cantlay, Morikawa and Schauffele have won all six of their singles matches between them. Sam Burns has halved both of his. Scheffler has lost both of his, each time to a player who is back on the International team this week: Matsuyama is here, and so is Si Woo Kim, who beat Justin Thomas in 2022. And three Americans have never played a Presidents Cup match at all, including 21-year-old Jackson Koivun.
Call it and win
Green Read competition
Call the Sunday singles
For each of the 12 US players, pick Win, Halve or Lose. Most correct calls wins the 2026 Presidents Cup clubhouse sweatshirt by Barstool Golf, in your size. Entries close at midnight US Eastern on Saturday (5am UK time on Sunday), and the winner is announced in Monday’s newsletter.
Make your calls →Free for Green Read readers aged 18 or over. You’ll need a Green Read profile, which takes about a minute.
When to watch
- Saturday, 1:02pm. Four four-ball matches.
- Saturday, 7:15pm. Four foursomes matches, the last chance to set up Sunday.
- Sunday, 5:02pm. The first of the twelve singles tees off. Sky Sports Golf is on air from 5pm.