Presidents Cup: U.S. win much closer than appeared thanks to this stat

The United States won the Presidents Cup once again, this time by a score of 18.5-to-11.5, winning for the 10th straight time.

Their defeat of the Internationals at Royal Montreal marked the largest margin of victory by an away team in Presidents Cup history, leading one to assume that the U.S. steamrolled to glory once again.

But that was not the case.

Of the 30 matches contested this week, the U.S. won only one more hole than the Internationals—a mind-boggling reality.

The competition was astonishingly close, especially after the home team knotted the score at five on Friday. Nobody saw that coming, especially since the U.S. swept the opening Fourball session on Thursday. But even that sweep was somewhat tight. The U.S. won only eight more holes on Thursday—20-to-12—across the five matches, much closer than what the 5-to-0 sweep looked like on paper.

The Internationals then dominated Friday Foursomes, winning 27 holes. The U.S., meanwhile, mustered only seven. The Internationals had all the momentum, emphatically taking all five points.

Saturday proved close as well, but the U.S. pulled away in the latter half of both sessions, breaking the hearts of the Internationals down the stretch. In the morning Fourballs, the U.S. took three of four points but won only three more holes than the Internationals.

A similar result for the afternoon Foursomes followed. The Americans won 22 holes, while the Internationals won 19. But the final two matches of the day ended with 1-up victories in favor of the U.S. After the sun had set, Patrick Cantlay drained a birdie putt on 18 in the last match, which gave the away side an 11-to-7 advantage going into Sunday singles. Had those two results gone the other way, Sunday would have arrived with the score knotted at nine.

Yet, the Internationals still won more holes across the first four sessions. The home team had won 69 holes overall, while the Americans won 63.

But with the U.S. having a stronger team and great historical success mano a mano, the competition was all but over at that point. The U.S. needed only 4.5 more points to win the Presidents Cup again, and they achieved that in the sixth match of the day, when next year’s Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley defeated Si Woo Kim 1 up.

Despite the disadvantages the Internationals faced in Singles, they won 47 holes to America’s 54. The overall totals were 117 for the U.S. and 116 for the Internationals.

“One hole, essentially. The margin was so close,” said International Captain Mike Weir on Sunday night.

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

“That’s what makes it tough because we know how close it was. We know a couple of things go our way, and it could have at least started the day quite a bit differently today, and who knows if we wouldn’t have been in such a deficit.”

At last year’s Ryder Cup at Marco Simone in Rome, where the Europeans trounced the Americans 16.5 to 11.5, the home team won 25 more holes across the competition.

Two years ago, the U.S. defeated the Internationals 17.5 to 12.5 at Quail Hollow in Charlotte—a score closer than the one in Montreal. But the U.S. won 26 more holes than their counterparts, proving they had control all week.

This past week in Canada was very different.

“The result, unfortunately, is the same,” said Adam Scott, who just finished his 11th Presidents Cup appearance.

“With a deep dive, I think there are positives always to see, and hopefully, hopefully, this competition inspires all of us sitting up here to play really hard, go on with our careers the next two years, win big events, and come back better prepared and ready to win in Chicago.”

The Presidents Cup returns to the United States in 2026, when Medinah No. 3 in Illinois will host. The famed Chicagoland course last hosted a major competition in 2012, when the Europeans stormed back on Sunday to shock the Americans on their home soil. Known as the “Miracle at Medinah,” the Americans held a 10-to-6 lead going into Sunday Singles but proceeded to lose eight matches—vaulting Europe into a state of glory while the U.S. relegated themselves into agony.

The Internationals hope to do what the Europeans did then: upset the Americans on their home soil and win the Presidents Cup for the first time since 1998. They have the talent and camaraderie to do so, and the stats back that up.

“I felt like there’s been an evolution under this Shield the last two Cups, four or five years of that, and buy-in from all the international players,” Scott added.

“It’s something that they aspire to play for. And I felt we just had a great trip up here. The personalities were great. I think you saw that under the heat of competition this week from some of these guys, maybe some unexpected personalities out on the golf course, some expected as well.”

You saw those personalities shine through the Canadian best friends Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners, who fed off the home crowd. Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim did, too, as they celebrated like they had just won the U.S. Open on some holes. They ignited spirit and flare into this competition, entertaining golf fans around the world.

They will undoubtedly do so again in 2026, when this team storms back with a vengeance. The Internationals will not shy away from the American dominance of the past two decades but rather point to the stat that showed how close this thing really was.

One hole.

One hole was the difference, and a few bad breaks along the way. But that happens in golf. Nevertheless, when looking back at the 2024 Presidents Cup, people should first remember that ‘Yes, that Cup was much closer than the final score indicated.’

Indeed it was.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.