Team USA captain Brandt Snedeker gave President Trump full credit after a Sunday singles surge flipped a three-point deficit into an 11th straight Presidents Cup title.
The Americans finished 17-13 over the International side at Medinah Country Club, erasing a 10½-7½ hole entering the final session and winning nine of 12 singles matches. OutKick reported the U.S. outscored the visitors 9½-2½ on Sunday to lock down the Cup.
Snedeker made the credit explicit. Trump, serving as honorary chairman, had told the captain he would bring energy the team needed. After the win, Snedeker kept his word and pointed straight at the president.
He told the gathering:
"One last shoutout: Donald Trump. President Trump. He told me, 'I am going to bring energy today for you. You guys need it.' I told him if we did this, he gets all the credit. So, thank you, President Trump."
That was no throwaway line. The Americans had never trailed on home soil entering the final session in the event’s history. They still closed it out, improving their all-time Presidents Cup mark to 14-1-1 and stretching a home winning streak that already stood at eight entering the week.
Before Sunday singles began, Trump addressed the crowd from the first tee. He kept it short after PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp floated the idea of a longer speech.
Trump recounted the exchange and then delivered the only message he wanted to leave:
"Brian said, 'Could you make a short speech?' I said, 'No, I don't have the courage to make a speech. These people wanna see golf. They don't wanna hear speeches.' I'll only say this: Our country is doing great, better than ever before."
He also pushed back on coverage of the reception he received.
"You know, the fake news media will say I get a very bad reception. But we get a good reception."
After the clinching putts, Trump shook hands with Snedeker. Earlier he had greeted 21-year-old U.S. rookie Jackson Koivun before the Auburn product’s match. The president’s presence and the captain’s public thank-you framed a day that started with the Americans in an unfamiliar hole and ended with another Cup raised on home ground.
Snedeker front-loaded his order with proven match-play names. Cameron Young led off and beat Ryo Hisatsune 3&2 after trailing by two through four holes. Justin Thomas, carrying a 20-10-5 career record in Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups into the day, dismantled Corey Conners 5&3 by winning five of the first six holes.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler took care of Nico Echavarria 2&1. Rookie Chris Gotterup, 27, edged Christiaan Bezuidenhout 1 up and finished the week 3-1. Collin Morikawa edged Hideki Matsuyama 1 up on the 18th after the match went all square; Matsuyama missed a par putt that would have extended it.
Patrick Cantlay supplied the highlight-reel moment. He drained a 57-foot birdie from just off the 16th green against Adam Scott, yelled “YES! YES!,” and closed Scott out 2&1 on the 17th. Xander Schauffele, after losing the 15th and 16th while still four up with four to play, steadied and beat Ryan Fox 2&1.
Not every American carded a win. Wyndham Clark fell to Tom Kim and finished 1-4 for the week. Sam Burns lost to Sungjae Im. Russell Henley halved with Nick Taylor and left Medinah winless in three matches, with only a half-point to show. Kim led all scorers with four points on the week.
Koivun came from two down at the turn against Si Woo Kim, the International team’s highest-ranked player at No. 14. The rookie won holes 11, 12, 13, and 15, carried a 1-up lead to 18, and secured the point that pushed the U.S. total to 14½ after Kim lipped out a birdie try. Eight Americans had entered the week ranked higher than Kim; seven sat inside the world’s top 10 while the visitors had none.
Jacob Bridgeman, another Presidents Cup rookie, delivered the winning point. He beat Min Woo Lee 1 up, burying an eight-foot par putt on 16 after Lee missed a four-footer, then converting on 18 to finish the job. The Americans needed 15½ to win the Cup outright. Bridgeman’s putt got them there.
By the time Cantlay and Morikawa had posted, the U.S. led 13½-12½ with four matches still on the course. Koivun’s point and Bridgeman’s clincher turned a week that had threatened to break the home streak into another American title.
Thursday left the U.S. ahead 3-2. Friday flipped everything. The International side swept the foursomes 5-0, the same 5-0 Friday foursomes hammering they had delivered at Royal Montreal in 2024, and the Americans headed into Saturday staring at a 7-3 hole.
Saturday brought partial recovery. The Americans led all four matches at one point in each of the day’s two sessions and finished with a 4½-3½ edge, yet still trailed by three entering Sunday. That set up the first home-soil final-session deficit in event history, and the largest single-day U.S. singles haul of the week.
Just the News noted the Americans’ 11th consecutive Presidents Cup victory came in 2026 at Medinah Country Club in Illinois, with Trump on site for the Sunday finish. The home soil streak is now nine straight. Overall, the U.S. has won 11 in a row and sits 14-1-1 all-time in the competition.
Context from the broader year still hung over the week. American men had claimed just one major in 2026, Clark’s U.S. Open, and the U.S. had dropped the prior Ryder Cup 15-13 to Europe at Bethpage Black. The next Ryder Cup lands at Adare Manor in Ireland in 2027; Americans have not won that event on European soil since 1993. Medinah offered a different script: depth, early Sunday firepower, and two rookies finishing the job.
Snedeker’s lineup choices and the players’ response produced the 9½-2½ singles margin. Prior U.S. Sunday singles hauls had been 7½-4½ at the 2024 Presidents Cup and 8½-3½ at the most recent Ryder Cup. This one was louder, and the captain made sure the honorary chairman heard the thanks in public.
When a captain says the president brought the energy and then hands him the credit on the spot, the record stands without the usual filter. Team USA trailed, charged, and closed, and Snedeker pointed to Trump as the difference he promised.
