MEDINAH, IL — Chicago’s own Bill Murray carried the Presidents Cup trophy to the first tee at Medinah No. 3 on Thursday, kicking off the 16th edition of the biennial competition between a 12-man U.S. team and a 12-man International team representing the world outside Europe.
Then, for four days, it played out like one of Murray’s classic comedies. Not Caddyshack, mind you, but Groundhog Day.
Bill Murray holds the Presidents Trophy at the first tee before the first round of the Presidents Cup.
The U.S. eventually won 17-13, a score that might suggest the 11th straight victory was another comfortable victory that could be a springboard toward next year’s Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in Ireland.
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That would miss the larger story, which is that this Presidents Cup was another warning that the U.S. has problems it hasn’t solved.
The International team, despite being undermanned on paper and playing in one of American’s great sports cities, pushed the United States team to the brink. The comeback victory Sunday may have saved the Americans from an embarrassing defeat, but it also allowed the underlying problems to remain hidden.
And that is precisely why the result could prove so frustrating when the Ryder Cup arrives.
Captain Brandt Snedeker had some bright moments. He followed his gut and gave rookie Jackson Koivun a chance to get his feet wet in a team competition filled with pros, having Justin Thomas mentor him as a partner. Koivun was the only player in the competition without a defeat, including an impressive upset of Si Woo Kim in Sunday singles after Kim had been an absolute menace throughout the week. After a 2-0-1 record, there’s every reason to believe that experience will benefit Koivun in future Cups.
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But Snedeker also made decisions that left plenty to question.
The United States’ win masked some of captain Brandt Snedeker’s questionable moves.
When the U.S. fell behind, he fell back on one of the oldest explanations in team golf — that the International team simply made more putts. Yes, that was true, but it didn’t explain why Jacob Bridgeman, arguably the best putter on the PGA Tour this season and who ranked fifth in birdies, wasn’t used in either four-ball session. The analytics surely had Bridgeman’s name near the top of the relevant categories.
Afterward, Snedeker acknowledged that he made a mistake by not getting Bridgeman into four-ball, where his game could have been particularly valuable. Perhaps he wanted to put rookie Chris Gotterup with a veteran, too, (Patrick Cantlay) for his debut, but it took Snedeker too long to pair him with Cameron Young, a duo that should be written in ink on 2027 Ryder Cup Captain Jim Furyk’s lineup for Day One already.
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Then there was Scottie Scheffler. Rather than trying to find another partner for the world No. 1 after he struggled with Sam Burns, Snedeker sat Scheffler. He didn’t need rest to beat Nico Echavarria, who had played only one match during the first three days.
Snedeker later conceded that International captain Geoff Ogilvy schooled him in the snake draft, putting Scheffler out first, for example, so Ogilvy could match his weakest link. That admission and self-awareness was one of the more remarkable parts of the week.
Wyndham Clark, Scottie Scheffler, who was benched by Snededker on Saturday afternoon, and Sam Burns.
On Saturday night, Snedeker took responsibility for his mistakes and admitted he hadn’t lived up to his end of the bargain as captain. When the Americans were asked at their winner’s press conference about a down-in-the-dumps Snedeker saying that he hadn’t done his job, Schauffele deadpanned: “One hundred percent agree with him.”
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But after the laughter died down, Schauffele added the important part. “No, we love Sneds. He wears his heart on his sleeve. We knew where he was mentally all week, and we played hard for him today,” Schauffele said. “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.”
But then came the familiar part.
As soon as the U.S. prevailed, Snedeker couldn’t help himself from providing Europe with bulletin-board material one year before the Ryder Cup, telling PGA Tour Radio, “This team is going to be a problem in Ireland.”
Are they, though? The real problem that shouldn’t be glossed over is that America’s overall record across its last four Cups stands at 37 losses, 26 wins and five halved matches in 68 team matches.
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Snedeker’s false bravado? Groundhog Day. Who can forget how two years ago, Keegan Bradley, the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup captain, famously predicted that the U.S. would go to Bethpage and “kick Europe’s ass.” So instead of using the narrow escape at Medinah as an opportunity to examine why an undermanned International team nearly pulled off a historic victory in the United States, the Americans are pointing to the trophy and saying they won.
Luke Donald and the Europeans aren’t exactly shaking in their collective spikes that the U.S. is suddenly prepared to reverse nearly 40 years of away losses. They may, instead, be looking at the result and wondering why the Americans aren’t treating it as the warning it should be reconsidering everything from the top down again. After all, the International team showed that the U.S. can be vulnerable, even at home, not that European team didn’t already know that after winning 15-13 at Bethpage.
The U.S. comeback at Medinah on Sunday changed the scoreboard, but it didn’t necessarily change the questions.
Why did the U.S. seem oblivious to the fact that most of the par 3s were set up at the one distance that the International Team had a statistical advantage? Why were players still were allowed to check out after the Tour Championship and show up unprepared? How could the captain sign off on the team staying in downtown Chicago, where it took a police escort to get them to the golf course nealry an hour away? There shouldn’t be a need for 4 a.m. buses and getting back to the hotel at 8:45 p.m. from a marathon day.
Team Europe captain Luke Donald being sprayed with champagne at Bethpage in 2025 after his squad won another Ryder Cup.
Those things are just the tip of the iceberg. At least at Adare Manor, all the players will be staying on site, and it does seem that Furyk has the ear of the PGA’s new leadership and is willing to shake things up. He’s just not going to send out a press release about it. That’s not his style. But Furyk couldn’t be too happy with his new Ryder Cup data analytics team: Justin Ray (who was part of the American loss at the Solheim Cup) and Hunter Stewart were part of the American team that just squeaked out a victory against an inferior opponent. Perhaps Furyk will be more apt to listen to them or will it just be more of the same.
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Which brings us back to Murray. In Groundhog Day, Ned Ryerson, the irritating insurance salesman played by Stephen Tobolowsky, repeatedly warns Murray’s character about the first step: “Watch out for that first step! It’s a doozy!”
The Presidents Cup felt like the same movie playing again.
Ogilvy deserves credit. It was clear he had tapped into Donald for advice. The two are contemporaries, with Donald also being close friends with International vice captain Camilo Villegas. Ogilvy’s tactical approach put his team in position to win. He simply couldn’t hide his weakest links in Sunday singles, while some of his biggest stars failed to deliver after he chose to backload his lineup. It’s also hard not to feel bad for Adam Scott. For the 11th consecutive time, Scott found himself on the losing side of the Presidents Cup. For one of the most accomplished players in the history of the competition, it’s an extraordinary run of futility. Even the Harlem Globetrotters lost to the Washington Generals once every blue moon.
“When you’re behind in these things, you have to go strong early,” Ogilvy said. “We had a bit of an insight that that’s what would happen and we made a plan for that.”
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It almost worked.
The U.S. comeback may have been the worst possible result for American Ryder Cup hopes. Not because winning is a bad thing, but because the victory could obscure the problems that nearly produced an historic home defeat.
The Americans escaped.
They kept the trophy.
And now they have a year to convince themselves that everything is fine.
But if the U.S. doesn’t learn from what happened at Medinah — from the lineup decisions, the missed opportunities, the tactical questions and the vulnerability exposed by an International team that nearly pulled off the unthinkable — then the Ryder Cup could bring another familiar experience.
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Groundhog Day.
And as Ned Ryerson reminds us, that first step can be a doozy.
Cameron Jourdan is an assistant editor of Golfweek, covering college and amateur golf, the PGA Tour and plenty more. Follow Cameron on X/Twitter (@Cam_Jourdan) or Instagram (@GolfweekJourdan).
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Groundhog Day at the Presidents Cup as win masks U.S. team struggles | Opinion
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