Mike Weir’s strategy questioned on Saturday at Presidents Cup

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Mike Weir needs one more miracle comeback this week at the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal.

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The International captain has made a career out of accomplishing the unexpected, from winning the Masters to defeating Tiger Woods head-to-head at this event on this golf course. After a rollercoaster double session of play on Saturday, Weir’s underdog home side will need to channel all of that to overcome a four-point deficit in Sunday singles play and win the Presidents Cup.

“Just keep fighting, we’re right there,” Canadian Taylor Pendrith said Saturday night. “Obviously we’re going to need a really solid day, and everybody’s going to have to play great to put points up on the board, but we’re right there and a really good day tomorrow can win this thing. Everybody’s got to bring their best stuff.”

After a late rally in dying sun on Saturday that saw Jim Furyk’s team secure the final two matches with wins on the 18th hole, Team U.S.A. will begin the final 12 singles matches with a dominating 11-7 lead in the race to 15.5 points.

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The stunning finish was just the latest twist in what had turned into a thrilling and competitive week of match play action.

Following a nearly two-hour fog delay, Saturday’s marathon double session began at approximately 9 a.m. with teams locked in a 5-5 tie. Saturday morning’s drama couldn’t match the Friday frenzy of an International turnaround sweep with both teams looking a little sleepy and birdies hard to come by.

As the sun came out on Day 3, stars on both teams began to shine; none brighter than International sparkplug Tom Kim who has proven to be one the game’s most electric personalities and a match play force to reckon with.

In the morning four ball session, the team of Kim and Si Woo Kim made six birdies in the opening 10 holes, defeating Team U.S.A.’s Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark 4&3.

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“It’s always fun to play with Tom,” Si Woo Kim said. “Luckily he’s my teammate. Yeah, we played as a unit, so I think that’s huge for us. He played so good.”

All three Canadians lost their morning matches with Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes dropping their match to world No. 2 Xander Schauffele and Tony Finau, while Taylor Pendrith and Adam Scott lost 2&1 to world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa.

With those results, and some shaky play from Hughes and Pendrith in particular, Weir’s decision to stick with all three Canadians in the afternoon alternate-shot session while trailing 8-6 was quickly second-guessed. In fact, Weir asked all eight players from the morning session to play again in the afternoon despite a 4 a.m. wake up call, and despite the fact it meant leaving Aussie stalwart Jason Day and three others on the bench for the entire day.

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“I can’t believe that Mike Weir is doing this,” said analyst and former player Brad Faxon. “I just think it’s a show of no confidence for the four players who sat.”

Instead, Weir stuck with the Canadians, and stuck with the pairings that sparked Friday’s stunning comeback. As with any coaching decisions, people will judge it by the results; and for Weir it seemed to be working.

Until it didn’t.

For most of the afternoon, Pendrith and Hughes delivered for their captain with both players making key putts and winning holes.

Pendrith faded down the stretch with a number of shockingly poor short iron shots, but the Richmond Hill, Ont. native managed to win his afternoon match, in large part thanks to the great play of his partner Adam Scott down the stretch. The pair won 2-up over Brian Harman and Max Homa.

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“Hopefully I can recover. It was worth it coming out this afternoon to win a point,” 44-year-old Adam Scott said. “I’m stoked with that, and hopefully it’s going to be close going into tomorrow. We’ve got a big day.”

Hughes was doing his part as well, with his incredible intensity and fantastic short game making up for some issues getting off the tee for most of the afternoon. But on the 18th hole, a visibly exhausted Hughes left the most important chip of the day woefully short, and following a Conners miss from 12 feet and a Sam Burns make from four, it was a critical loss for the Canadian duo.

“It stinks, I mean, I had a little chip there, and that’s going to sit with me for a while,” Hughes said. “Just didn’t quite have it today. I didn’t play that great in the morning, and they trusted us to come back out in the evening or this afternoon and put a point on the board.”

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Even the dynamic Kim duo couldn’t get it done, losing their match when Patrick Cantlay showed his match play colours draining a 17-footer for birdie and a 1-up victory with partner Schauffele.

“It’s special every time we tee it up together in these events,” Cantlay said of playing with his good friend Schauffele. “Finishing like that after yesterday, getting the momentum going into singles tomorrow, the team is going to sleep well tonight, and we’ll come out tomorrow firing.

SATURDAY MORNING RESULTS
Scheffler & Morikawa WIN 2&1 Scott & Pendrith
Schauffele & Finau WIN 3&2 Conners & Hughes
Bradley & Clark 4&3 S. Kim & T. Kim WIN
Cantlay & Burns WIN 2&1 Matsuyama & Im

SATURDAY AFTERNOON RESULTS
Harman & Homa 2 UP Pendrith & Scott WIN
Morikawa & Burns WIN 1 UP. Conners & Hughes
Cantlay & Schauffele WIN 1 UP. S. Kim & T. Kim
Scheffler & Henley WIN 3&2 Matsuyama & Im

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