It's ironic that the celebration of the day for the U.S. team came in the only match it lost on Saturday. Justin Thomas and Daniel Berger had some great moments. Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed did as well. But it was Charley Hoffman and Kevin Chappell who had the best one in a losing effort to Anirban Lahiri and Si Woo Kim.
Playing in the afternoon four-ball matches, Hoffman and Chappell were 1-down on the 17th hole and staring at a difficult situation. Hoffman was off the green, and Lahiri had a putt for birdie. Knowing they would have to win the last two holes to win the Presidents Cup on Saturday before the singles matches on Sunday, Hoffman miraculously chipped in for birdie.
Then everybody lost their minds.
Here's a little better angle to show how fired up everybody was, which nearly led to Chappell's caddie losing his lid.
Amazingly, Lahiri poured in a birdie on top of him to keep the 1-up lead going to the 18th where both teams made par, and the Internationals walked away with their only point of the day. Still, the U.S. leads 14.5 to 3.5 going into the 12 singles matches on Sunday and needs just one point for its seventh-straight victory at this event.
"We obviously wanted to end that today," Hoffman told reporters after the match."We knew what was on our shoulders. I didn't have my best stuff all day long, but I had a chance. Got to give it up to Lahiri. He made some great birdies coming down the stretch, and they knocked us off."