A day after an American sweep of a session, Canadian duo drubs Rocky Mountain twosome Wyndham Clark and Tony Finau, leading to a team tie going into the weekend at Presidents Cup
By Gary Baines – 9/27/2024
The boys from the Rocky Mountain West were no match for the home-country favorites from Canada in Friday’s second session of the Presidents Cup in Montreal.
A day after Denver native Wyndham Clark and Salt Lake City native Tony Finau won four-ball matches with separate partners, the good mojo was nowhere to be found on Friday. On a day the International team bounced back in a big way after falling behind 5-0 a day earlier, Canadians Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes drubbed the Rocky Mountain duo 6 and 5 in foursomes/alternate shot.
How lopsided was it? Clark and Finau didn’t win a single hole until Clark drained an 18-foot eagle putt on No. 12.
The only — and extremely small — consolation was that they weren’t by any means the Lone Rangers on Friday. In fact, in a reverse sweep, the Americans lost all five foursomes matches, leaving the teams tied 5-5 going into the weekend.
Clark, who had teamed with Keegan Bradley for a 1-up victory in four-balls on Thursday, and Finau, who won Thursday by the same margin with Xander Schauffele, found themselves 6 down through 11 on Friday. The Americans managed just one birdie through the first 11 holes, after which they were even par overall.
The Canadians, feeding off their home fans, were 7 under through the 13 holes, with six of their birdies coming in the last eight holes.
“This was a special day. The crowd was in it from the get-go,” Conners said.
“This is my life right here,” said Hughes, who chugged a beer on the first tee on Thursday, when he wasn’t in the lineup, to get the fans fired up. “This is one of the funnest days I’ve ever had on the golf course.”
The highlight of the session for Clark and Finau came on No. 12, where after a 324-yard drive by Clark, Finau put his 200-yard approach from the rough to 18 feet feet from the cup. After the Canadians made their birdie, Clark rolled in the eagle putt for the American duo’s lone winning hole, cutting the deficit to 5 down.
But that just delayed the seemingly inevitable, which came a hole later, where Hughes drained a 5-footer for birdie after Clark failed to chip it in for birdie, closing out the match.
“On a day like today, you tip your cap to the guys that played better, and in our case, they definitely played better than we did,” Finau said. “They were able to use the crowd behind them to their advantage.
“But we definitely felt the energy right out of the gate. I hit the first tee shot yesterday in our group, and I hit the first tee shot today. It was night-and-day difference, I think it was just the noise and the energy.”
On Saturday, there will be both four four-ball (morning) and four foursomes matches, while 12 singles matches on Sunday will conclude the event.
Clark will reunite with Bradley for Saturday morning’s four-ball, where they will face Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim, with the match beginning at 5:38 a.m. (MT).
Saturday’s TV schedule calls for Golf Channel to be on the air from 5-6 a.m., with NBC going from 6 a.m.-4 p.m. And on Sunday, NBC will handle the singles from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
HOW WYNDHAM CLARK HAS FARED AT THE 2024 PRESIDENTS CUP
Thursday Four-Ball
Wyndham Clark and Keegan Bradley, U.S., def. Taylor Pendrith and Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Internationals, 1 up
Friday Foursomes
Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes, Internationals, def. Wyndham Clark and Tony Finau, U.S., 6 and 5
For all the results from the Presidents Cup, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com