{"id":912933,"date":"2026-09-28T15:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T15:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/912933\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T15:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T15:04:10","slug":"presidents-cup-2026-will-americans-learn-from-myriad-medinah-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/912933\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidents Cup 2026: Will Americans learn from myriad Medinah mistakes?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared in the \u201cLive From with Rex & Lav\u201d newsletter. Click here and subscribe<\/a> for more news, insight and opinion from golf\u2019s biggest events.<\/p>\n

MEDINAH, Ill. \u2013 Another Presidents Cup celebration was underway on the 18th green, with the Americans mobbing Jacob Bridgeman after the rookie earned the clinching point during a historic day for the home team.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d staged a memorable final-day rally here at Medinah, winning a record 9 \u00bd of the available 12 points<\/a> in singles to turn what had been a daunting three-point deficit into yet another ho-hum victory. Players hugged and wrapped each other in Cubs W flags. They posed for pictures and began double- and triple-fisting Michelob Ultras. Under immense pressure to avoid becoming the first U.S. Presidents Cup team to lose on home soil, the revelry was well-earned.<\/p>\n

But the eventual margin of victory \u2013 17-13 \u2013 won\u2019t tell the full story of this Presidents Cup, and it remains to be seen whether the American brain trust will recognize how close they came to complete and utter embarrassment.<\/p>\n

This was Brandt Snedeker\u2019s first tour as captain, and it almost certainly will be his last. A feisty, scrappy and antsy competitor, Sneds brought many of the same mile-a-minute characteristics to his captaincy, seeming to lack the necessary temperament and calm decision-making processes that define the best leaders. At times, he seemed completely overwhelmed by the role, running late for pairings announcements, forgetting players\u2019 names and even admitting, in a TV interview, that his \u201chead was spinning a little bit.\u201d He repeatedly lamented his mistakes and screwups.<\/p>\n

Though it was refreshing to hear such personal accountability in a team setting, these were also admissions of incompetence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody knows the weight a captain carries on their shoulders all week,\u201d Snedeker said afterward<\/a>. \u201cEvery decision you make carries a serious consequence.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he nearly cost the Americans the cup.<\/p>\n

He opted to use red-hot Jacob Bridgeman \u2013 the No. 1 putter on Tour, a top-5 birdie machine \u2013 exclusively in foursomes, not fourballs, where Bridgeman\u2019s chief advantage was negated, and paired him with fellow short-knocker Russell Henley at wide-open, beefy Medinah. (They went 0-2.)<\/p>\n

He put high-variance Justin Thomas in the alternate-shot format because Snedeker \u201ckind of felt like I\u2019d roll with it\u201d based on Thomas\u2019 strong play individually on Thursday. (He went from first-to-worst, statistically.)<\/p>\n

Snedeker sat Scottie Scheffler on Saturday<\/a> afternoon after a victory, and without Scheffler\u2019s input, and without informing him ahead of his TV interview, creating an awkward hmm-now-what? moment for both the world No. 1 and Sam Burns, who was sent out later without his typical foursomes partner (he played poorly and lost).<\/p>\n

And on Saturday night, Snedeker and his assistants \u2013 led by 2025 Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley and upcoming captain Jim Furyk \u2013 committed malpractice with their frontloaded singles lineup by nominating Scheffler and Chris Gotterup first instead of matching them against the Internationals\u2019 stronger opponents. It was self-sabotage: It allowed Snedeker\u2019s counterpart, Geoff Ogilvy, to sacrifice his weakest pair and diminished the Americans\u2019 sizable advantage. It didn\u2019t end up mattering, with the American talent and depth overwhelming the opponent over four days and 30 points, but even in hindsight Snedeker didn\u2019t recognize the strategic miscue. In fact, he doubled down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI messed up the snake draft this week, and that was the first time I got it right \u2013 and those guys were ready to walk through that door for me. I\u2019m just so damn proud of this team,\u201d Snedeker said. \u201cI\u2019m tired of hearing how these guys aren\u2019t close. I\u2019m tired of hearing how we can\u2019t play team golf. Guys just proved it right then and there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uh, no. That wasn\u2019t the lesson of this Presidents Cup.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that, even in victory, the Americans still lack a cohesive and coherent plan for team play. Too many pairings make too little sense, a confounding mix of data and vibes, friendship and familiarity. It wasn\u2019t a coincidence that Snedeker was unable to adequately explain the thought process behind certain partnerships, when it appears the core principles for pairings \u2013 twinning in fourballs, opposites in foursomes \u2013 are either being blatantly ignored or disregarded.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, it\u2019s imperative that Furyk tabs savvy, level-headed assistants with defined roles and shores up his back-end staff with the game\u2019s best statisticians and strategists. Billion-dollar businesses don\u2019t function on guts and instincts. The European Ryder Cup team learned this decades ago, and yet it still seems to escape U.S. leadership.<\/p>\n

Amid the celebration on Sunday evening, after all of the high-fiving and back-slapping, Snedeker didn\u2019t sense any cause for concern. History will remember them as winners, record-setting champions, and that\u2019s all that mattered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis team is going to be a problem in Ireland!\u201d he woofed.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t exactly clear what he meant, of course.<\/p>\n

Because the biggest problem the Americans currently face is largely internal.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Presidents<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Rex and Lav give their grades for the American and International players<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article originally appeared in the \u201cLive From with Rex & Lav\u201d newsletter. Click here and subscribe for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-912933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}