MONTREAL (AP) — The Presidents Cup matches were close. The score after the opening session was not.

The Americans held a one-lead lead in all five matches Thursday as they delivered shot after shot, putt after putt, until this already lopsided series took a familiar turn.

United States 5, International 0.

The Americans fell behind on the first day of the fourballs matches in Royal Montreal feisty Scottie Schefflerlate heroics from Xander Schauffele and plenty of help from the putting-challenged international team.

It was the third time they sidelined the Internationals on the first day, and the first time since 2000. The Americans earned an 11-point victory that year.

“We’re excited about our start – high fives, celebration – and we’ll keep the pressure on,” said USA captain Jim Furyk.

International captain Mike Weir had a plan for the first two days and he didn’t see anything on the course that would make any changes for the foursomes on Friday. Adam Scott has never been on a winning team since his debut in 2003 and he wasn’t about to lose hope.

‘The best news is that there is tomorrow for us. It’s not over yet,” Scott said. “We’re going to have to come out, fight really hard, find the equipment, win a session and go in the right direction. The score line looks rough. But I don’t think there was that much difference today.”

Three matches reached the 18th green. One finished at number 17. The shortest match saw Scheffler and Russell Henley get the final say in a 3-on-2 win over Tom Kim and Sungjae Im.

Scheffler and Henley never trailed in what was the spirited game of an otherwise flat day, with the Canadian crowd largely silent after Mackenzie Hughes, who sat out the first session. had a beer on the opening tee to get them going.

Scheffler and Kim are good friends who play a lot of money games in Dallas. On the par-3 seventh hole, 22-year-old Kim holed a putt from just inside 30 feet and pirouetted onto the green, shouting, “Let’s Go!”

Scheffler matched the birdie from about the same length, and the world’s No. 1 player turned to Kim and shouted, “What was that?”

Things got exciting on the next hole when Kim made another long birdie, celebrated this wildly and then he and I walked to the ninth tee without even looking at Scheffler’s putt.

“It’s the same thing I would have done at home if he made a putt … and he celebrated like that. So it’s all fun. We enjoy competing against each other,” Scheffler said. ‘That’s how it is here. It’s fun to compete and fun to represent our country, and at the end of the game you take off your hat and shake hands.

“We’re friends after, we’re not friends during, I guess.”

It never looked like the Internationals would win the session. They didn’t expect a shutout either.

Taylor Pendrith, one of two Canadians in the lineup, birdied the 12th as he and Christiaan Bezuidenhout battled out their match against Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark.

Schauffele and Tony Finau missed par putts from 1 meter on the 16th and their opener against Jason Day and Byeong Hun An was all square.

It could have gone either way. But things only got worse for the Internationals.

Bezuidenhout missed three putts from 2 meters in the space of four holes, preventing his team from squaring the match. Scott missed a few putts from 10 feet.

The Americans delivered the goods.

Schauffele made up for his brief miss by hitting his tee shot to 8 feet to a backpin on the par-3 17th for birdie, then hitting his approach shot to 10 feet on the 18th to close out the match.

“Tony got the party started on the front nine and he had my back all day,” Schauffele said. “I thought it was my time to get him back.”

Bradley, next year’s Ryder Cup captain who marks 10 years since his last Cup match, holed a 35-foot putt on the 13th to complete a 1-up win over Scott and Min Woo Lee with a 10-foot putt. Emotions poured out of him.

“It was 10 years of pent-up energy not to play this one,” Bradley said. “I had such a good time there today.”

Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala came back from a 1-hole deficit after 11 holes when Morikawa birdied the 12th and 14th holes. Theegala stuck it with an approach to just within 1 meter. He made the putt, the first time he had taken his golf ball out of the cup all day.

In the anchor match, Patrick Cantlay was ruthless as ever and Sam Burns made a 10-foot birdie on the 13th hole to move them into second place, with Corey Conners and Hideki Matsuyama never able to take the lead.

In 1994, the Americans also won the opening session. This was the eighth time in the last nine Presidents Cups that they have led after the first day.

There are five foursome matches on Friday. Furyk keeps two teams together, including Scheffler and Henley, while Cantlay and Schauffele look to build on their foursome record.

“The last few road games have been close,” Cantlay said. “I think it’s a big statement. I think we have to build on that tomorrow.”

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