Writing from Medinah, Illinois
Sunday, September 27, 2026
It wasn’t an upset, the American comeback victory to win the 16th Presidents Cup at Medinah Country Club, but it wasn’t completely expected either.
The U.S. team had to surmount a three-point deficit by the foggy dawn’s early light, had to finally play well on the back nine, and had to hope the International squad finally missed some clutch putts.
All of that happened, and a little bit more, to enable the Americans to score a 17-13 victory by winning 9.5 of Sunday’s dozen available points.
The outcome did something else. It confirmed that 21-year-old Jackson Koivun is not only a compelling character, but a formidable player. His 2 up victory over Si Woo Kim didn’t clinch the Cup – credit Jacob Bridgeman’s 1 up win over Min Woo Lee 19 minutes later for that – but it set up the outcome and confirmed American captain Brandt Snedeker’s faith in him.
Koivun, one of the six players Snedeker picked for his side, was the only undefeated American (3-0) this week, and displayed a calm demeanor down the stretch when many in the gallery of some 30,000 roaming about Course No. 3 were losing their marbles.
“It’s just been such a cool learning experience,” said Koivun, who made his debut as a professional at the John Deere Classic in July and won shortly thereafter. “I had some goals coming out but for it to come this quickly is definitely shocking.”
The comeback came about thanks to a series of quick starts – in five of the matches, the U.S. never gave up the lead – and rallies in a couple of others.
“These guys never lost faith,” Snedeker said. “Medinah has a history of crazy things happening. I’m proud of Koivun – we put him in a tough spot and he came through. The kid’s special. He’s different.”
So were the Americans on Sunday, playing with verve throughout the lineup.
“Today we were told, ‘Go out and finish your business,’ ” Collin Morikawa said after his 1 up victory over Hideki Matsuyama. Morikawa did with a 30-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole to square his match. Matsuyama’s bogey at the last set the margin.
By and large, the Americans did. And criticism Snedeker received – and some self-criticism – played a part in the motivation.
“We love Sneds,” Xander Schauffele said. “He wears his heart on his sleeve. We knew where he was mentally all week, and we played hard for him today. That's all we could do, regardless of the outcome. I think every one of us took it personally, and we played our asses off.”
The International side felt it. They briefly led in four matches at one point Sunday, and then things turned.
“We were on a knife edge all day,” International captain Geoff Ogilvy said. “We gave it a good crack. It’s tough to beat the U.S. in singles on U.S. soil. Things just drifted the wrong way. And the crowd got involved, as it should.”
In on case, too involved. Among those with misplaced marbles was a lout who yelled in Nico Echavarria’s backswing on the 14th tee, causing him to mis-hit his shot. Echavarria glared at the spectator, as did Scottie Scheffler. At the green, in a position to win the hole, Scheffler conceded Echavarria’s 32-foot par putt and then sank his own putt to halve the hole, a sportsmanlike gesture of the first order.
“There’s no place in our game for that,” Scheffler told NBC after his 2 and 1 victory.
“It didn't happen just once,” Echavarria said. “It was a tough environment. Yeah, it's unfortunate that in some way the crowds can affect performance like that. But we have the No. 1 player in the world who's a class act. I wasn't expecting for him to give me that putt for par, and he did, and we tied the hole.”
The drift was strong. Only Tom Kim (3 and 2 over Wyndham Clark) and Sungjae Im (3 and 1 over Sam Burns) won matches for the Internationals. By the time Nick Taylor came back to salvage a half-point with Russell Henley, the Cup had been lost.
However, the dramatics of the final day, and the Internationals’ strong showing for the second and third days, should quell the argument that the Presidents Cup is a competition whose time has passed. Plus, with the amount of corporate sales and the large weekend crowds, it’s a money-maker, and the PGA Tour isn’t opposed to making a profit.
It took 2 hours 27 minutes from the moment Cameron Young scored the day’s first victory for the Americans by sinking a 30-footer to Bridgeman closing out Lee at the last to win the Cup. In between, there was a near-ace by Patrick Cantlay on the 13th hole, in his 2 and 1 victory over Adam Scott, and a 57-footer by Cantlay for a deuce on the 16th to go Dormie 2.
The birdies finally came for the U.S. team on the back nine, 14 of them in all on a Medinah layout that was both set up tough and, with browning greens a week after the last significant rain, finally played relatively firm and fast, the way Ogilvy envisioned it when he and his cohorts rebuilt the course in a $25 million renovation.
And overall, the Americans played it better than his players.
Around Medinah
The U.S. leads the all-time series 14-1-1, with 10 straight triumphs. … President Donald Trump spent the day at Medinah, greeting the American players on the first tee and then participating in the trophy presentation after shaking the hand of every player on each side, and engaging in a long conversation with Snedeker. … The teams shook hands in an impromptu Stanley Cup-style line during the awards ceremony. … Security was increased for the Trump visit, visibly around the first tee grandstand, where fans had to go through an additional set of metal detectors, and more subtly on the rest of the grounds. There were additional uniformed officers and military out and about. … The 17th Presidents Cup will be at Kingston Heath in Australia in two years.
– Tim Cronin