Schauffele-Finau pairing to lead U.S. charge at Presidents Cup

Adam Scott has never played on a winning team in the Presidents Cup, a tale as woeful as the Internationals losing streak against the Americans.

He has played in 49 matches and partnered with 16 players. He was part of the tie in South Africa when he made his debut in 2003, and nine consecutive losses followed. The 44-year-old Australian realizes he won’t get many more chances.

And yet his optimism is as high as ever.

“We are determined to go out there this year and change the script of this event,” Scott said. “Certainly, I want to improve my record in this event and I’m very determined. I don’t know how many more opportunities I’ll get, if any. So this is a big week for me.

“But I have a lot of belief in this team,” he said. “I can’t remember feeling so comfortable coming into a Presidents Cup.”

That’s been the vibe at Royal Montreal over three days of practice as the Internationals get ready for the opening session of fourballs Thursday against a U.S. team that on paper looks to be as powerful as ever. The Americans are led by Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, the top two players in the world.

U.S. captain Jim Furyk threw out a few wrinkles for the opening pairings.

He split up Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay for only the second time since they began playing these team cups in 2019. Schauffele is in the opening match with Tony Finau against Jason Day and Byeong Hun An, while Cantlay is the fifth and final match with Sam Burns against Hideki Matsuyama and Corey Conners, one of three Canadians on home soil.

Scott is in the second game out with Min Woo Lee, one of his many proteges, against Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala.

International captain Mike Weir has been preaching the present to his team. In some respects, they consider the start of these matches to be 2019, when Ernie Els spearheaded a change in logo to give a team from all over the world a new identity.

They had a great chance in Australia in 2019. They had a great rally at Quail Hollow in 2022 after getting in a big hole early with a team decimated by defections to LIV Golf.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys on the team, and they’re not remembering past defeats or anything like that,” Weir said.

Scott would not be one of those young guys, although he now is embracing the youth movement. He is one of only three players — Matsuyama (5) and Day (4) are the others — who have played more than twice in the Presidents Cup.

Nothing compares with 10 tries without winning.

“That’s a long stretch,” Finau said. “That’s tough luck at the end of the day. Adam is an incredible guy. As a competitor, I don’t feel bad for him. I’m sure he has some Presidents Cups where he had a winning record and the team loses. You can’t really solely blame it on Adam. These are team events.

“But at the end of the day I’m on the U.S. side and for this week we don’t want any of those guys to win.”

That’s been the message for the Americans, who don’t want their own streak to end. They own a 12-1-1 record since the Presidents Cup began in 1994. But they are coming off another road loss to Europe in the Ryder Cup, and the risk being without a professional cup for the first time since 1998 if they don’t win at Montreal.

“You have to earn it,” Finau said. “It doesn’t matter how good our record is in the Presidents Cup. At some point they’re going to start winning some Presidents Cups. It’s going to happen. We’re not going to play this many and … I obviously want the Americans to win the next 50. It’s not going to happen.

“They’re going to start [winning]. We don’t want that team to be against us.”

The opening fourballs session is followed by five foursomes matches on Friday, a double session (four matches each) on Saturday, followed by the Sunday singles.

Scott is a strong voice given his experience, even though it’s mostly a losing experience. He is more determined that ever to deliver his best performance. He is running out of time.

“I started by having very lofty goals as a kid. My dreams were big, and I’ve achieved some of those but I haven’t achieved them all, including winning this event,” Scott said. “It’s the lack of accomplishing them that keeps me motivated at this point.”

What would a victory mean? Scott can’t even imagine.

“I think if I answered now,” he said, “I would probably underestimate the impact it would have if we were to get a win.”