US wins Presidents Cup over International team

JERSEY CITY (Reuters) – The United States won a seventh consecutive Presidents Cup over the International team on Sunday even as the final margin of eight points disguised the one-sided nature of the event.

A Sunday rally by the beleaguered Internationals, who won six of the 12 singles matches and halved three others, allowed the visitors to avoid a record defeat and escape Liberty National with a little pride.

The US, led by unbeaten Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, prevailed 19-11 to claim the cup for the 10th time in 12 stagings of the biennial event. The record winning margin is 11½ points by the US in 2000. The result left the International team searching for ways to make the event more competitive heading into the 2019 installment at Royal Melbourne in Australia.

But no matter what they had done it would not have been enough to stop the home team this time.

“It’s tough to be on the receiving end of another loss for all of us,” International captain Nick Price said after presiding over his third straight defeat at the helm. “This is a juggernaut of a US team. They’re an overpowering team.”

The American team certainly impressed Donald Trump, the first sitting US President to present the cup to the winning captain.

“I’ve been watching this from the beginning, and I have to say our team USA, wow, did you play well,” Trump said.

The International team of players from the rest of the world, excluding Europe, started the final day needing to sweep every match to snatch victory.

A touch embarrassed after performing miserably in the foursomes and four-ball matches, the Internationals performed much better in man-to-man play on Sunday, though it was too little, too late.