The 2026 Presidents Cup begins Thursday at Medinah Country Club with the most familiar partnership on the United States roster going first. Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns will lead off the opening four ball session against Min Woo Lee and Sungjae Im, setting the tone for five matches that place chemistry ahead of simple world ranking math.
United States captain Brandt Snedeker said comfort and personality drove his opening selections. That logic starts with Scheffler and Burns, longtime friends whose history reaches back to junior golf. Their friendship is established. Their record together in major team events is not. They went 0 wins, 3 losses and 1 tie as partners across the 2022 Presidents Cup and 2023 Ryder Cup.
That contrast makes the opening match immediately compelling. Scheffler enters as the top ranked player in the world, but team golf has not produced the same dominance seen in his individual career. He owns a 3 win, 5 loss and 1 tie record across two Presidents Cups. Pairing him with Burns gives the Americans a natural partnership and an early opportunity to rewrite that record.
Lee and Im provide the International Team with two players capable of making birdies in bunches, exactly what four ball demands. Each player uses his own ball and the lower score from the partnership counts on each hole, which rewards aggressive play and creates more room for momentum swings than alternate shot.
Five matches to start the week
The second match sends Cameron Young and Xander Schauffele against Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune. Young and Schauffele give the United States two of its highest ranked players, while Matsuyama supplies the International side with major championship experience alongside Hisatsune.
Justin Thomas will guide rookie Jackson Koivun in the third match against Corey Conners and Nico Echavarria. Thomas has extensive experience in international team events, and Snedeker described him as a natural partner for Koivun. The pairing also puts former Alabama golfer Thomas beside former Auburn star Koivun, turning college rivals into teammates.
Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa face Ryan Fox and Adam Scott in the fourth match. Morikawa has been one of the most reliable American performers in this competition, compiling six wins and two losses in his first two Presidents Cups. Scott is making his 12th consecutive appearance and has played in every edition since 2003, but the International Team is still seeking its first victory during his career in the event.
The final match pairs Chris Gotterup and Patrick Cantlay against Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim. Cantlay brings a 10 win and 4 loss Presidents Cup record alongside rookie Gotterup. The International side answers with an energetic Korean partnership led by Si Woo Kim, its highest ranked player.
Russell Henley and Jacob Bridgeman will sit for the United States on Thursday. Nick Taylor and Christiaan Bezuidenhout are the two International players left out of the opening session. Every player must appear at least once before Sunday singles, so the captains will begin rotating their lineups as the week develops.
Why Thursday matters
The Presidents Cup consists of 30 matches across four days. Thursday features five four ball matches. Friday shifts to five foursomes matches, where partners alternate shots with one ball. Saturday contains four matches in each format before all 24 players compete in Sunday singles.
The United States needs 15 points to retain the Cup and 15 and one half to win it outright. The Americans won 18 and one half to 11 and one half in 2024 and have captured 13 of the 15 previous editions, with one International victory and one tie.
That history makes the United States the clear standard, but the opening session can change the mood of the entire event. The 2024 competition demonstrated how quickly momentum can reverse. The Americans swept the first session, then the International Team answered with a sweep of its own on the second day.
Snedeker is betting that familiar personalities will handle the pressure better than pairings assembled only from rankings and statistics. Scheffler and Burns get the first chance to validate that plan. Their opening match will reveal whether a comfortable partnership can finally produce the team result expected from two of the best players on the American roster.