2026 Presidents Cup standings, scores, results: International team sweeps U.S. in stunning Friday performance

For the second consecutive Presidents Cup, the International team has swept Friday’s foursomes session 5-0. This time, however, they now hold a 7-3 lead into the weekend — their largest since 1998 when they also led 7-3 after Friday in their lone victory in the event.

The front nine was tight in most of the matches, but the United States struggled to put red on the leaderboard and keep it there. By the middle of the afternoon at Medinah, the Internationals had a lot of gold on the leaderboard and the belief was building on that side that they could get it done once again.

The first point got put on the board by Sungjae Im and Hideki Matsuyama, with Matsuyama burying a lengthy par putt on the 16th that Jacob Bridgeman and Russell Henley couldn’t match to give the Internationals a 3&2 victory.

From there, Nick Taylor and Corey Conners stunned the top American duo of Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns with a 1UP victory after Taylor hit a sensational third shot from 150 yards out to gimme range to save a full point. The loss continues Scheffler’s woes in alternate shot, as he’s now 1-8-0 in foursomes play in his Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup career.

The third match also went to the 18th with the International team 1UP, and again they delivered the par they needed to get a full point. Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark were the only U.S. team to have red on the board on the back nine, but some clutch putting from Ryan Fox and Min Woo Lee down the stretch flipped that to gold.

The final two matches were non-competitive from the Americans. Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele got beat 3&2 by Adam Scott and Christiaan Bezuidenhout and trailed by multiple holes the entire back nine. In the final match, the star International duo of Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim crushed Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele in a 4&3 drubbing that fit the vibe of the day for the Americans.

A lack of juice from the United States side was met by some incredible golf and energy from the Internationals, and much like the Ryder Cup a year ago, the U.S. has some soul-searching to do heading into the final two team sessions. The last time the U.S. trailed heading into the weekend was in 2019 when the Internationals led 6.5-3.5, before a weekend charge from the Americans to win 16-14.

If they’re going to pull off another comeback win to notch their 11th straight Presidents Cup victory, they are going to have to figure out how to crack the code on foursomes play. Over the last four team events (two Ryder Cups and two Presidents Cups), the United States is 6-24-0 in the alternate shot format.

The optimistic view is last year they won the Saturday foursomes session 3-1 after getting swept, but Brandt Snedeker has to find some pairings that work. Losses on the 18th by the Scheffler-Burns and Morikawa-Clark pairing won’t likely cause any major shakeups to those two teams, but it’s hard to send out any of the other three teams after getting thoroughly out-classed — particularly the Schauffele-Cantlay team that was non-competitive down the stretch.

On the International side, Geoff Ogilvy’s squad has to be brimming with confidence, and they should have some good experience from last year on how to handle the emotions of being in a good position heading into Saturday. Playing with a lead is different — and will be foreign territory for the International squad — but the message to them has clearly been to play free and aggressive and that can’t change now that they’ve moved in front.

Presidents Cup: TV schedule, viewer’s guide | Format, scoring

2026 Presidents Cup results, scores: Day 2

International 7 | United States 3

Session 2 — Foursomes