The United States President's Cup team is fully focused on the path to 15 entering Royal Montreal this week. That refers to the points required for the Americans to claim their 10th straight Presidents Cup -- an undefeated streak dating back to 1998.
Traditionally, this has not been a problem. The U.S. has faced only two real threats since a 17-17 tie in 2003. The first was in 2015 when they squeaked out a late 15.5-14.5 victory in South Korea. The other came in 2019 when Tiger Woods led the red, white and blue to a 16-14 win in Australia. That required a huge performance in singles across the final day of competition to usurp the International team.
So, what does getting that job done -- a little earlier than later -- on Sunday look like? What are the ways the U.S. can get to 15 points?
Here's the good news: Due to the talent gap, there are multiple paths to victory. The Americans don't have to hit all of these notes, but if they do, we could get another 19-11 rout like in 2017 at Liberty National.
Let's take a look.
U.S. path to victory
1. Maintain foursomes dominance: The statistic below is staggering. The U.S. has completely owned foursomes in this event. This makes sense, of course, because foursomes naturally exposes a team's weaknesses. The most talented team should almost always win foursomes. What doesn't make sense is that the U.S. is 3-19-2 in foursomes in the last three road Ryder Cups, but that is neither here nor there.
In the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow, the U.S. jumped out to a 4-1 lead in foursomes on Thursday, and the event was basically over. This time around, foursomes will not be played until Friday. Still, if the same result occurs, the tournament will still feel on the brink come Saturday morning.
2. Start hot, keep the crowd out of it: Along those lines, the U.S. has compiled a combined 20-12 edge across the first day o the last six President's Cups played. It is rudimentary and reductive to tell a team that they need to star well in order to win, but that has been crucial to the U.S. formula over the past decade. It does seem like this Canadian Ryder Cup is going to be fairly rowdy -- more so than it would be in the likes of South Korea and maybe even Australia, which is where the last two President's Cups outside the U.S. have been played. Taking the away crowd out of it early will be perhaps even more important than normal.
3. Unlock Scottie: I have been adamant this week about the struggles of Scottie Scheffler. Since his first Ryder Cup, he's 0-5-3 in team events. That's probably nothing ... but maybe it's not nothing? He and Sam Burns love to play together, but perhaps it's worth breaking those two up and trying something different. Getting him out on the course alongside somebody like Sahith Theegala or Keegan Bradley or even Max Homa -- someone more demonstrative to play off of his calm -- might be a better bet.
These pairings are determined more often by statistical fit than psychological synergy. In that sense, perhaps Burns and Scheffler actually are best for one another. But if the best player in the world, who just finished off the best season in 15 years, gets rolling downhill and goes 4-1-0, it's going to be a problem. The U.S. won Quail Hollow by five in 2022 with Scheffler going 0-3-1. What will they do if he actually puts up points?
4. Keep the Internationals' electricity at bay: The International team has a couple of golfers who are not playing all that well but are terrifying if they get hot: Tom Kim and Min Woo Lee. Both can be infernos, even if they are two of the lesser players in the field based on the last three or six months. It could be smart, depending on the matchups, to throw a Xander Schauffele & Patrick Cantlay duo at one of those guys just to quell what I'm sure will be a ton of positive emotion and potential momentum on the International team side.
5. Pound greens: The U.S. team is almost always the best when it comes to tee to green play, and this year is no different. What is different? The golf course.
"Golf course is amazing," said Collin Morikawa. "Small greens. Kind of fits to what I do. There is a lot of undulation. Greens are running amazing. Just got to make a lot of the putts out here, as in any match play."
The part that stands out there is "small greens." This U.S. team is so good at hitting greens, and it sound like that's going to be more difficult than usual this week at Royal Montreal. Keep an eye on strokes gained on approach on Thursday and Friday. It's always a tell, but I'm guessing the team that actually takes a bit of a more conservative approach will lead in that category and in the matches.
Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter, Patrick McDonald and Greg DuCharme preview the 2024 Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal. Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.