In its most dramatic moments, this Presidents Cup delivered something special

MONTREAL — ALL MORNING, KEEGAN BRADLEY THOUGHT HE MIGHT THROW UP.

“I was in the team room and I couldn’t eat,” he said Sunday afternoon, once it was all over. “I can’t ever remember feeling like that. Y’know, I’ve won a major, held leads in big tournaments — but this was so nerve-wracking, when you look around the room and you think of what you need to do. For the guys and, like, being a captain’s pick, you don’t want to let him down.”

Bradley emphasized one specific word to describe the feeling.

“It was really heavy this morning,” he said. “It was heavy all week, but this morning I woke up and just felt like I had electricity going through my body.”

For years Bradley has talked openly about the challenges of managing anxiety under the pressures of professional golf. But even by his standards, this weight was different.

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“My goodness — the last time I played, I was the point to lose the Ryder Cup,” he said, referencing the team’s 2014 loss at Gleneagles in Scotland. Only one of his teammates from 2014 was in Montreal on Monday: U.S. team captain Jim Furyk. Nobody from the 2015 Presidents Cup made this team either, nor the 2016 Ryder Cup team. Bradley was the only one to reach back in time.

He carried the weight of these new teammates, and the weight of last year’s heartbreaking Ryder Cup snub, and the weight of 10 years’ expectations, and the weight of knowing that he was living the moment he’d dreamt of every year since. He shouldered it Sunday afternoon, when Bradley faced Si Woo Kim, who’d been the International team’s best player all week. Bradley birdied the first hole, and then the second, to take the lead. Kim battled back to 1 Up but then Bradley birdied 8 and 10 and 12 and 14, too, flipping the match and building a 3 Up lead.

He had a putt from less than four feet to win the match at No. 16, but there was a silver lining to that miss: it extended the match and set up the perfect finish. When Kim’s birdie try at No. 18 slid past the hole, it was official: The U.S. had won the cup. Bradley, suddenly weightless, shook hands with Kim and then turned and practically floated to his teammates, who swarmed the green; so did his family and their families, all of them celebrating the team win and the perfection of the moment, knowing just how much it meant to the man who finished it off.

But that heaviness takes a toll, too. Some 10 minutes later, once the TV cameras had left and the crowd had cleared and his teammates had charged off in the direction of other matches, Bradley finally had a moment to let it settle. He bent over double, hands on his knees, and admitted something aloud.

“I can’t believe it,” he murmured. “And I’m so glad it’s over.”

THERE’S AN INSTINCT, AFTER ANOTHER LOPSIDED PRESIDENTS CUP RESULT, to blow the whole thing up. I get that. I’m open to the idea of tweaking rules, rethinking the format, finding a way to give the underdogs a fighting chance. But the assertion that it doesn’t matter? That doesn’t check out. Not to the tens of thousands of golf fans that lined the fairways of Royal Montreal Golf Club on the weekend. And not to of the players, on either team, who were all in all week and proved, on and off the course, just how much this meant to them.

To Corey Conners, who called it “one of the coolest moments of my career” when he was serenaded from the grandstands on the par-3 13th green.

“With everybody, thousands of people around the green singing ‘O Canada’ and to hole a putt like that was really memorable and special,” he said.

To Mackenzie Hughes, Conners’ fellow Canadian, longtime buddy and college teammate. “Being with this group was the highlight of my career, and it was amazing to go to battle with these guys,” he said. “The week as a whole, being a rookie, getting to be around some of the best players in the world, it was magical. I knew it would be, and it lived up to all the hype and more.”

To Taylor Pendrith, the third of their Canadian trio, who earned two points for the Internationals after getting shut out in his 2022 debut and called the atmosphere “unreal.”

“The fans are all out,” he said. “They’ve been loud. You can hear the roars from a few fairways over and you know what’s happening. That’s what we were hoping for, and they’ve showed up.”

To Max Homa, who squeaked onto the team despite a mediocre finish to his season. He played fairly well in two foursomes losses and went off last in Sunday singles, giving him plenty of time to grow the chip on his shoulder. He started off in style, holing his approach shot at the first for an eagle 2. And he finished in style, too, surrounded by his victorious team.

“I know a lot of people didn’t think I should be on the team, but I think what I realized in the last week or so, and especially being here, is that the people that mattered did think I should be on the team,” he said. The implication was clear: the people that mattered were the ones that were here.

TOM KIM OFFERED AN APOLOGY.

He’d gone somewhere he regretted.

All week he’d been delightfully out of control as the heart and soul of the International side. On Thursday he’d gotten into a shouting back-and-forth with Scheffler after back-to-back birdies — all good. Friday, when he wasn’t in the lineup, he spent the day running and screaming and jumping and pumping up the crowd as his teammates rolled to a 5-0 session win. On Saturday morning he and partner Si Woo Kim earned a crucial point in their four-ball match. And on Saturday evening they faced down Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele in an epic clash of style and personality which finished in an American win when Cantlay buried a 16-footer for birdie in the fading light. Kim was still salty in the press room a few minutes later and suggested some unspecified members of the American team had crossed the line into poor sportsmanship. The reaction — from the American side and, later, from the general public — seemed like a collective eye-roll. Dishing it out is all good, but you have to be able to take it, too. That’s not easy. But it’s sports.

After his Sunday singles match, then, in which an exhausted and slightly muted Kim ground out a gritty tie with Sam Burns, it was notable to see Kim track down Schauffele and Furyk behind the 18th green. Here’s how he described that exchange:

“Yeah, it was just about my comments yesterday. I just told him like, hey, I didn’t mean it to go in such a negative way. If it did, I just said I’m sorry,” Kim said. “I really didn’t mean it to — because when I played with Patrick and Xander, obviously we’ve battled a few times and they’ve always been such great competitors. They’ve never — I’ve always felt like there’s such a good sportsmanship between us. It was just outside the ropes, and I felt like that was a little misunderstanding on my part, which I should have explained better.

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“So I went to him and I said, ‘I didn’t mean it that way. I apologize if it came out wrong. It was just this and this happened, but if it affected you guys so negatively, I really do apologize. I didn’t mean to do it in that way.

“This event is all about doing things you would never do and creating energy and doing all these things. I do certain things on the greens when I make putts, and I expect them to do the same thing. It’s all part of the game.”

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER SLAMMED HIS HAT ON THE GROUND.

We’d seen the World No. 1 fired up as early as Thursday, when he unleashed an uncharacteristic scream in Kim’s direction after canning a long putt. But on Saturday evening, as the Cup’s chippiest session yet neared a stirring conclusion, Scheffler reached another level.

It was tough to know where the fire originated. Perhaps it was aggravation with his opponent, Hideki Matsuyama, with whom he’d had an animated discussion on a drop at No. 15. Perhaps it was anger at a fan who’d crossed the line, yelling something vile enough in his direction that Scheffler’s father — and, subsequently, his caddie Ted Scott — went under the ropes to confront him. Perhaps it was pent-up frustration at recent Cup failures; despite his ascension to world-beater, Scheffler has struggled in team play, going just 0-5-3 combined in his previous two cups. Or perhaps we’re just getting a better look at the competitive fire that has always burned just below the surface, the fire that’s gotten him to this point, the fire that makes him a money-game menace at home and a formidable opponent in any contest anywhere. Perhaps it was all of the above.

Whatever the inspiration, when Scheffler holed a match-ending three-footer for par at No. 16 on Saturday night, he let loose. A chest bump with Scott. An aggressive embrace with his partner, Russell Henley. A brisk handshake with his opponents. And then back to yelling at (with?) his teammates before spiking his hat, Gronk-style, on the side of the green.

By the time I asked Scheffler about it on Sunday evening he’d snapped back into media mode: Professional, well-spoken, humble, sharing the credit, yielding no more details than he needed to.

“I think it’s a fun event. I loved playing away games when I was in high school, playing basketball. Hearing stuff from the crowd I think only makes us more motivated to go out there and do our best,” he said underselling both the crowds and the level of his motivation. “I was just proud to earn a point for the team, and it felt like an important one at the time just to get a point late on Saturday. I think Russ and I were just both really excited. I think we’re both guys that usually keep a pretty even-keel attitude on the golf course most weeks, and I think Russell is one of the most underrated players on our Tour. So it was fun to go out and earn a point with him.”

Fun, for sure. Something else, too.

ADAM SCOTT WINCED.

He’d entered the week with optimism in spades. Something about this team felt different, he said. His game felt different, too — much better than a couple months ago. All summer he’d used the Presidents Cup as a motivator to work harder, to get better, to dial in. And now he was here, playing the 11th Cup of his career, still chasing his first win.

“These guys are no joke. They are incredible players,” he said in his Wednesday press conference. “They are going to step up this week.”

Five days and five matches later, at the same podium, Scott tried to stay optimistic. His team had battled back from that devastating 0-5 opening session with a 5-0 session sweep of their own. He and partner Taylor Pendrith lost a close match against the top-ranked American squad of Scheffler-Morikawa on Saturday morning, and then they earned the Internationals’ lone point in afternoon foursomes. On Sunday he, like several of his teammates, had a glimmer of hope (a 1-up lead) that was eventually extinguished by Morikawa down the stretch. His team had officially lost their 10th Cup in a row, and it wasn’t close.

“Like I said earlier in the week, I had a great feeling for this team coming in. I felt like there’s been an evolution under this Shield the last two Cups, four or five years of that, and buy-in from all the international players. It’s something that they aspire to play for,” he said.

“But you know, the result, unfortunately, is the same. With a deep dive, I think there are positives, always, to see, and hopefully this competition inspires all of us sitting up here to play really hard, go on with our careers the next two years, win big events, and come back better prepared and ready to win in Chicago.”

Once again, Scott went all five sessions; he’s now been on the team for 55 sessions and played 54 matches. At 44, he was significantly older than his next-oldest teammate. But stats reveal he was one of the Internationals’ better-performing players, he earned two points and he shows no real signs of slowing down.

“I think I can play for another couple years. I’ve come this far,” he said, to applause from his teammates. “If I can play in a couple more years and contribute a point, then I’d love to be on a winning Presidents Cup team. I’d love to push along and give it one more shot if I can.”

AS THE AMERICAN TEAM WALKED OFF THE STAGE, one man stayed back. Xander Schauffele had been Team USA’s first man out in the morning, and he’d scowled his way to six front-nine birdies and a 4-and-3 beatdown of Jason Day. He’d worn a grin every minute of the three-and-a-half hours since then.

All week, Schauffele had looked different. He’s always thrived in these team weeks but for his first few Cups he was comfortable with a mischievous presence, as the team’s entertaining little brother who doubled as match-play killer. This week, while more mischievous than ever, he seemed in charge. Leading in early-week betting games. Leading off Sunday singles. And leading the team with a 4-1 record, gaining the most strokes of anyone in the event in the process (Cantlay, his ever-underrated partner, was the only one to match his level). Whether he’s freed up by his major championship wins, by his continued elite play, by the changing of the guard on this team, by turning 30 or something else, it was clear that this was Schauffele’s team.

“I like to have a good time,” he’d said after his match. “I didn’t really grow up playing team sports. I played soccer when I was a really young kid, and that doesn’t really count. But I really enjoy this team aspect and the atmosphere and having all the captains and the wives and the caddies, just everyone, all our supporting staff all in one room having dinner and having a good time — I really enjoy that bit.”

And now, wearing a grin and a buzz, he stood at the end of the stage, holding his hand out to every teammate that walked past for a high-five and a back-slap like he was a basketball coach greeting players as they came off the court.

On his way out the door, a reporter flagged down Schauffele to ask him one more question: When did he become a leader?

“When you say leader, I just think I sound old,” he said as he walked out in the direction of the afterparty, a chance to celebrate a team win, an individual win, the close of a season, a special, specific moment in time. He shouted one thing back before disappearing into the night.

“I’m not ready to be old!”

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com. You can subscribe to get his Monday Finish newsletter in your inbox here.