'There's A Long Way To Go' - Mike Weir Targets Friday Fightback At Presidents Cup
Mike Weir feels there's still a long way to go in the Presidents Cup and hopes his Friday foursomes pairings can spark a comeback
International captain Mike Weir insists there's still a long way to go in the Presidents Cup despite Team USA's dominant start in Canada.
The home side go into Friday's Presidents Cup foursomes trailing 5-0 after a clean sweep from Jim Furyk's men on Thursday, but Weir is not about to throw the towel in already.
Weir says there's plenty of golf left to play, he has full confidence his team's spirit is strong enough to engineer a miraculous comeback and is hopeful of making in-roads on Friday.
Tom Kim is sitting out on Friday after his eventful match with Scottie Scheffler, and Weir is hoping a Canadian pairing of Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners can spark some life into a subdued home crowd at Royal Montreal Golf Club.
There are all sorts of problems for Weir to now fix if the hosts are to somehow get back into the Presidents Cup, but one thing not broken is the team spirit.
"The hardest part? Well, it's certainly not the team unity and the team spirit. Our guys are still very positive," said Weir.
"Look, reality is it wasn't a great day, but it's like the first period of a hockey game the way I look at it. You're down, but there's a long way to go. Still significant sessions left.
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"That's the way we're looking at it."
Part of the response has to come in Fridays foursomes, where the captain hopes his Hughes-Conners partnership can help spark something with the Canadian home crowd.
"I mean, we hope that creates spark, but it's been a pair in my mind talked amongst us for a long time," said Weir.
"Not only are they good friends, but a lot of things show that it's a great pair, too. It wasn't like a knee-jerk reaction decision to what happened today or anything."
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Weir has also dropped Kim from Friday's line-up, but he insists that was always the plan, and although they had such a disastrous start the International side are sticking to that plan.
"Well, that was part of the plan," Weir said of Kim not playing. "It was not a change after or anything. We have a plan for fourball, and we have a plan for foursomes. Tom wasn't in the plans for today but doesn't mean he might not be down the road.
"We're sticking with the plan.
"There was really nothing, talking amongst our guys, that swayed us to make any changes at all. Maybe if someone had gone out there and shot 9-under on their own ball or something like that, there may have been wiggle room to make an adjustment. Who knows.
"But we just feel like we had a plan in place going into the week. We like how it's lined up. So I would say no, there wasn't really any big discussion on making a change."
Presidents Cup Friday foursomes draw & tee times
- 1:05pm Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele v Hideki Matsuyama/Sungjae Im
- 1:19pm Sahith Theegala/Collin Morikawa v Adam Scott/Taylor Pendrith
- 1:33pm Max Homa/Brian Harman v Christiaan Bezuidenhout/Jason Day
- 1:47pm Wyndham Clark/Tony Finau v Corey Conners/Mackenzie Hughes
- 2:01pm Scottie Scheffler/Russell Henley v Si Woo Kim/Byeong Hun An
Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.
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