Cal Sports Report

International Team Ties Presidents Cup; Max Homa, Collin Morikawa Lose

Ex-Cal golfer Byeone Hun An helps Internationals sweep Day 2. Ex-Cal star Morikawa paired with Scottie Scheffler on Saturday

Jake Curtis

Byeong Hun "Ben" An
Byeong Hun "Ben" An / Eric Bolte-Imagn Images
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Day 2 of the Presidents Cup was a great day for the International team, which won all five foursome matches on Friday to tie the competition with the United States at five wins apiece.

This comes one day after the United States team won all five matches in four-ball play at the Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

It’s the first time in the history of the Presidents Cup or the Ryder Cup in which there were team sweeps on consecutive days.

It was difficult day for former Cal golfers Collin Morikawa and Max Homa, who lost their matches on Friday. But it was a great day for the third former Cal golfer competing this event, Byeone Hun “Ben” An, who won the final match of the day for the International squad..

Morikawa, who is ranked No. 4 in the world, will hope to get the United States off to a good start on Saturday's four-ball competition as he will team with Scottie Scheffler, the world's No. 1 player, and will face Adam Scott and Taylor Pendrith of the International squad.

Homa will sit out Day 3 after also sitting out Day 1. Morikawa will play for the third straight day.

An will be sitting out Saturday, but he teamed with Si Woo Kim in the final group of the day on Friday, and they defeated the pairing of Scheffler and Russell Henley 1-up.

It looked like the U.S. team might record half a point in that final match before Kim holed a long putt on the 18th green to halve the hole and give the International team the 1-up win and complete 5-0 sweep.

What was particularly noteworthy was the dominance of the International team on Friday after getting swept on Thursday.

Morikawa, currently ranked No. 4 in the world, and partner Sahith Theegala, the same pair that won their matchup on four-ball on Thursday, lost 5 and 4 to the International team of Adam Scott and Taylor Pendrith.

American duo of Wyndam Clark and Tony Finau lost to Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners 6 and 5, and Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im of the International team defeated Patrick Canlay and Xander Schauffele 7 and 6.

Homa almost saved the day for the Americans.  Homa, ranked 25th in the world, and partner Brian Harman trailed Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Jason Day 3-up after 12 holes. But the U.S. duo won the 13th hole, and Homa hit a wonder approach shot on the 17th to win that hole and cut the Internationals’ lead to 1-up. 

But Homa hit his approach shot on the 18th into the rough, and an excellent chip shot by Day prevented the American duo from winning that hole, giving the Internationals another point.

An, the No. 34-ranked player, and Kim were locked in a tight battle with Scheffler and Henley, but An, who is from South Korea and spent one year at Cal before turning pro, and Kim matched the Americans on each of the final five holes to maintain their 1-up lead.

Kim’s 15-foot putt on the 18th was the final shot of the day and enabled the International team to win the match 1-up.

Besides the opening pairing of Morikawa and Scheffler on Saturday, the U.S. will send out Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele in the second matchup against the Canadian duo of Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners.

Keegan Bradley and Wyndam Clark of the U.S. will face Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim in the third match, and Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns will go against the International pairing of Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im in the final match of the day.

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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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