A record-setting singles performance erased a three-point deficit and transformed a week of American frustration into another trophy celebration at Medinah Country Club.
MEDINAH, Ill. — Medinah needed one more Sunday comeback. This time, the Americans delivered it.
Team USA arrived at the final session of the 2026 Presidents Cup trailing the International Team by three points and facing the largest Sunday deficit it had ever encountered on home soil in the event. By late afternoon, the scoreboard told a completely different story.
The Americans overwhelmed their opponents 9½–2½ in singles, turning a 10½–7½ deficit into a 17–13 victory at Medinah Country Club. It was the most one-sided singles session in Presidents Cup history and secured an 11th consecutive title for the United States.
Three days of pressure, one historic response
For three days, that outcome looked far from inevitable.
The U.S. opened with a narrow 3–2 advantage in Thursday four-ball, but the tournament swung violently on Friday. The International Team swept all five foursomes matches, building a 7–3 lead and exposing an American lineup that appeared uncomfortable in the alternate-shot format. Saturday produced a modest U.S. response, yet the visitors maintained their three-point edge and carried a lead into Sunday for the first time on American soil.
International captain Geoff Ogilvy had every reason to believe history was within reach. His players had been sharper in the team sessions, and Medinah’s renovated Course No. 3 carried his fingerprints: Ogilvy’s OCM design group led the extensive redesign completed in 2024.
But singles golf stripped the competition down to its simplest form — one player against another — and the depth of the American roster finally took over.
The moment the scoreboard turned
Cameron Young supplied the opening jolt with a 3-and-2 win over Ryo Hisatsune. Justin Thomas followed with one of the day’s most forceful performances, taking the first four holes against Corey Conners and closing out a 5-and-3 victory. The noise around Medinah grew, and a leaderboard that had favored the International Team all weekend began shifting toward the home side.
Tom Kim defeated Wyndham Clark and Sungjae Im beat Sam Burns to keep the visitors in front, but those victories could not stop the surge around them.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler added a point with a 2-and-1 win over Nico Echavarria, though his defining moment had little to do with the final score. After a spectator shouted during Echavarria’s backswing, Scheffler confronted the disruption and then conceded the Colombian’s roughly 32-foot par attempt. It was a striking act of sportsmanship during the most emotionally charged stretch of the tournament.
The middle of the American order turned pressure into momentum. Chris Gotterup held off Christiaan Bezuidenhout. Patrick Cantlay poured in a birdie putt from nearly 60 feet at the 16th against Adam Scott. Collin Morikawa erased a late deficit against Hideki Matsuyama, sank a long birdie at the 15th to pull even and completed the turnaround on the 18th.
Two rookies own the biggest stage
Then came Jackson Koivun.
The 21-year-old rookie was two down to Si Woo Kim after 10 holes, with the International Team still searching for a way to slow the American charge. Koivun responded by taking three consecutive holes, flipping the match and sending another wave of energy through the home crowd. His approach into the 18th finished within birdie range, sealing a 2-up victory and completing an unbeaten 2-0-1 debut.
If Koivun delivered the star-making performance, fellow rookie Jacob Bridgeman supplied the decisive point. Facing Min Woo Lee in one of the final matches on the course, Bridgeman reached the 18th with a one-hole advantage and converted a short par putt to guarantee the United States an outright win.
Xander Schauffele later defeated Ryan Fox, while Russell Henley and Nick Taylor halved the final match to complete the 17–13 scoreline.
At Medinah, the Americans did more than retain a trophy. They turned doubt into a rout.
A captain’s gamble pays off
The comeback also rescued U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker from what was shaping up to be a difficult postmortem. After Saturday’s matches, Snedeker openly accepted responsibility for lineup choices that had failed to produce results, including the decision to sit Scheffler in the afternoon session.
His Sunday order worked: the Americans applied pressure early, packed proven match-play performers through the middle and trusted two rookies in high-leverage positions near the end.
Medinah adds another chapter
Medinah has seen this movie before, only with the colors reversed. In 2012, Europe entered the Ryder Cup singles trailing 10–6 and stunned the United States in one of golf’s most famous comebacks. Fourteen years later, the Americans created their own final-day reversal on the same grounds.
The result extends one of the strongest runs of dominance in international sports. Since the Presidents Cup began in 1994, the United States has built a 14-1-1 record. The International Team’s only victory came at Royal Melbourne in 1998, followed by a tie in South Africa in 2003. Every edition since then has ended with an American win.
That history will again raise questions about the event’s competitive balance. Yet this week offered something the Presidents Cup has too often lacked: genuine uncertainty deep into Sunday. The International Team proved it could outplay the Americans in the paired formats, and its 5–0 foursomes sweep will stand among the finest sessions in competition history. What it could not do was finish the job against a U.S. roster built to dominate one-on-one matchups.
What comes next
The next opportunity comes in 2028 at Kingston Heath in Melbourne, where the International Team will return to the country of its only previous victory. It will take encouragement from three excellent days in Illinois — and a hard lesson from the fourth.
For the United States, Medinah delivered more than another trophy. It revealed two young players ready for the biggest stage and gave one of golf’s most famous comeback venues a new piece of history.
