Cal Sports Report

Collin Morikawa Helps U.S. Take 5-0 Lead in Presidents Cup


Ex-Cal golfer Morikawa wins for Americans; ex-Cal golfer Byeong Hun An loses for International team

Jake Curtis

Collin Morikawa
Collin Morikawa / Eric Bolte-Imagn Images
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Former Cal golfer Collin Morikawa helped the United States team take a commanding 5-0 lead over the International squad on the first day of the Presidents Cup on Thursday at the Royal Montreal Golf Club.

Things did not go as well for Byeong Hun An, another former Cal golfer, who is representing the International team and lost his four-ball match on Thursday.

And the third former Cal golfer in this event, Max Homa, will play in Friday’s foursome match play after sitting out Thursday’s activity.

The bottom line is that the U.S. is well on its way to a 10th straight Presidents Cup victory, needing 10.5 more points to assure the win over the international team of players from outside the United States but not from Europe.

Morikawa carried his American partner Sahith Theegala through most of his four-ball match against the International pair of Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee, helping his pairing come back after being one down after 11 holes. But Theegala delivered the clinching blow in the Americans’ 1-up victory.

Morikawa had a chance to end the match on the 17th hole, but his 12-foot birdie putt lipped out.  He then barely missed on a chip from off the green that rimmed out on the 18th hole that would have clinched it before Theegala sank his short par putt to finish the match.

Morikawa will be paired with Theegala again on Friday in foursome play when they take on Adam Scott and Taylor Pendrith in Day 2.

An and his partner Jason Day made an impressive rally against Americans Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele by winning the 15th and 16th holes to tie their match. 

An then nearly made a long, difficult putt on the 17th that would halved the 17th hole but it rimmed out. Schauffele made his birdie putt to win that hole, and An and Day ultimately lost to Finau and Schauffele 1-up.

An will be partnered with Si Woo Kim in a foursome match on Friday against Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley.

In the other three matches Thursday, Scheffler and Henley defeated Tommy Kim and Sungjae Im 3 and 2; Wyndam Clark and Keegan Bradley defeated Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Pindrith 1-up; and Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns were 2-up winners over the International team of Hideki Matsuyama and Corey Conners.

Homa was outstanding when the United States won the previous Presidents Cup two years ago, and he will make his 2024 debut in this event on Friday when he is paired with Brian Harman against the International duo of Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Jason Day.

Homa has struggled in recent weeks on the PGA Tour, slipping to 25th in the world rankings, but he has made a habit of playing well in this team match-play format.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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