U.S. Wins Presidents Cup for 10th Straight Time at Medinah

MEDINAH, Ill. -- The International team had the lead, had the momentum and had Geoff Ogilvy's troops playing some of the best golf the non-American side has shown in years. They still lost.

The United States won the 2026 Presidents Cup on Sunday at Medinah Country Club for its 10th consecutive victory in the competition, a streak that now stretches back to 1998 and has become one of the more lopsided recurring results in professional sport. According to the Presidents Cup's official website, Xander Schauffele ran off four straight birdies to spark a Sunday charge, Sam Burns finished the week unbeaten, and Keegan Bradley delivered the clinching point when Si Woo Kim missed a 10-foot putt on the 18th hole.

Nobody was breathing easy for most of the week. The International team built a 7-3 lead heading into Saturday's double session, putting the Americans in territory they haven't occupied in a long time. As reported by CBS Sports, the United States came into Saturday's play trailing by four, an unfamiliar spot for Brandt Snedeker's squad. The last time the U.S. trailed going into singles was 2019, when they came from behind to win 16-14.

Saturday didn't go cleanly for either side. Per CBS Sports coverage of the day's action, the Americans jumped ahead in all four matches on the front nine in both sessions, and the Internationals steadily clawed back in both. Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim beat Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa in the afternoon four-ball to keep the pressure on, and Min Woo Lee and Sungjae Im salvaged a half-point against Justin Thomas and Jackson Koivun. The International side carried a 10.5-7.5 advantage into Sunday's 12 singles matches, needing just four points to pull off what would've been the upset of the decade in team golf.

They didn't get there. Schauffele, Burns, Russell Henley -- who per the Presidents Cup's official site capped a strong debut performance -- and Bradley did enough when the format switched to the individual game Americans have always preferred.

Bleacher Report noted that the United States would need to avoid losing the Presidents Cup for the first time since 1998, and they managed it, though the margin of drama was narrower than the final line suggests.

The structural problem for the International team remains the same one it's always been. The format pits the world's best golfers not in Europe -- those players compete in the Ryder Cup -- against a U.S. squad that benefits from deeper FedEx Cup depth and, frankly, a home-crowd advantage this week at a Chicago-area venue where the Americans knew the course. According to the Wikipedia entry for the 2026 Presidents Cup, the U.S. team's top six earners were drawn from FedEx Cup points compiled through the BMW Championship, led by Scottie Scheffler at nearly 15,000 points, a full 7,000 clear of the second-ranked Cameron Young.

At some point the PGA Tour and the Presidents Cup organizers will have to decide whether the format is serving the event or just producing ceremonial drama in the middle rounds. Ten straight isn't a dynasty. It's a structural imbalance wearing a trophy.

For now, Snedeker gets the cup, Bradley gets a confidence boost going into his Ryder Cup captaincy next year, and the International team goes home having played a competitive week that still ended the same way they all end.

Sources cited:
- Presidents Cup official website (presidentscup.com) (https://www.presidentscup.com/)
- CBS Sports (https://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/presidents-cup-2026-standings-scores-live-updates-results-scoreboard-day-3/live/)
- Bleacher Report (https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25503173-presidents-cup-2026-leaderboard-final-saturday-scores-top-pairings-and-reaction)
- Wikipedia, 2026 Presidents Cup (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Presidents_Cup)