Saturday night, it looked like the Internationals' year. They'd swept Friday's foursomes 5–0, gone into Sunday up 10½–7½ (their best position since 1998, the last time they won) and needed just five points from twelve singles matches to lift the Cup.
Then Sunday happened.
Brandt Snedeker's team came out at Medinah and took the day over. Justin Thomas set the tone early with a 5&3 win over Canada's Corey Conners. It was his first singles win in four tries at this event, and when you've lost three of them you don't forget it. Cameron Young beat Ryo Hisatsune, and Scottie Scheffler finished his best team-event week yet at 3–1.
The Internationals kept swinging. Tom Kim beat Wyndham Clark 3&2 and Sungjae Im took down Sam Burns, and for a while the projected score sat dead even. But the U.S. kept answering. In the end it came down to Jacob Bridgeman against Min Woo Lee, and Bridgeman closed him out 1 up to clinch it. It's the biggest comeback in Presidents Cup history and the Americans' 11th straight win.
Why it matters for the rest of us
Nobody at Medinah was guaranteed anything on Sunday morning. The U.S. was down three with twelve matches to play, and every player still had to go win his own.
Most of us will never play in front of a gallery like that, but we've all stood on a tee a few shots back and wondered if the round was already gone. Sunday was a reminder that it isn't gone until you stop playing. Take it one match, one hole and one shot at a time.
Hats off to Geoff Ogilvy's International side too. They built a lead nobody saw coming and made the Americans earn every point. Conners and Taylor wore the maple leaf with pride all week. It's a good week to be a golf fan.