2017 Presidents Cup results: Team USA wins cup at Liberty National

Sunday at the Presidents Cup was a mere formality in this biennial exhibition match between the 12 best American players and 12 best international players (excluding Europe). It was not a matter of if the USA would win, but when. They took the largest-ever lead into a Sunday singles session at any of these cup events, Ryder or Presidents. The Presidents Cup has not been competitive since its 1994 founding, with the USA improving to 10-1-1 now. In years past, particularly before the 2015 edition, the entire viability of the competition has been questioned and that should return again after this blowout.

This was not a contest. It was a mismatch on paper and it was never competitive when the shots started flying on Thursday afternoon. It was over after the first session. Locked up after the second session. An embarrassment after Saturday’s double session. And a bore during Sunday’s singles. The American side was so dominant through the first three days that they almost pulled off an unprecedented Saturday closeout. That’s not supposed to happen in these things, where a four- or five-point margin is considered a major runaway. The Americans were ahead 14.5 to 3.5 heading into Sunday singles. Only a late win Saturday evening by Anirban Lahiri and Si Woo Kim got in the way of the ignominy of the USA winning it before Sunday.

The US needed just one of the 12 points available on Sunday to clinch the cup, and indeed they played like it. In recent years, the Internationals have been competitive in singles, as well as the Four-ball format. It’s the Foursomes alternate-shot game that has kept the Internationals from winning any of these things. They made it respectable on Sunday with a strong singles session, but the Americans could have spent the entire evening at 1 Oak in Manhattan, walked out of the club and onto the ferry to the course, and it wouldn’t have mattered.

A Kevin Chappell half point in the leadoff match got the USA inches closer, and then Daniel Berger getting Kim dormie with two to play made it official. Berger would win the match one hole later to push the USA’s point total to 16 and make the remaining matches nothing but a formality. If we’re being realistic, the entire day was a formality. The US set goals to win the session and set an all-time points mark, both of which they failed to meet as the Internationals made it slightly more respectable with a Sunday push.

But those little side goals for the final day don’t really matter. What does is this new core of American team golf, a crop of 20-somethings at the very top of the game, with strong relationships built over years of junior golf. It had Twitter lit up late on Sunday as the debates over decades of dominance, both in this event and in the much more competitive Ryder Cup, were already starting.

It is no doubt one of the strongest teams the Americans have ever put forth. The Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed duo, which surprised us all at the 2014 Ryder Cup, seems as steady and unstoppable as ever. Now they’re joined by contemporaries like Player of the Year Justin Thomas, former rookie of the year Daniel Berger, and U.S. Open champ Brooks Koepka. Throw in the still spry Rickie Fowler and world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, and you’re looking at a loaded group of players who should comprise these rosters for another decade, at least.

The point is that this dominance could just be starting. This was a noncompetitive bore on Sunday, but watching the ass-whupping over the first three days was still a sight. The intercontinental trash talk ahead of next year’s Ryder Cup in Paris has already been turned up thanks to this showing in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.

Here are your results from this year’s Presidents Cup: