Presidents Cup: Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns sneak through tough opening round as U.S. takes early lead at Medinah

Nobody can legitimately question how good of a golfer Scottie Scheffler is. He's the top-ranked golfer in the world for a reason, and has absolutely dominated the PGA Tour over the last several years.

But Scheffler's struggles on the international stage, a trend he can't seem to shake, continued on Thursday at Medinah Country Club in Chicago.

Scheffler was in the opening group at the 2026 Presidents Cup on Thursday, playing alongside Sam Burns in the first of five four-ball matches against the International team. The two managed to sneak out a 1-up win over Min Woo Lee and Sungjae Im, thanks to a huge save at the 17th, to get the United States on the board. It was also the first Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup match that Burns and Scheffler have won playing together.

By the end of the day, the U.S. took a 3-2 lead over the International team ahead of the foursomes matches on Friday. They've led after the opening session in 12 of the 16 Presidents Cups.

"We just did our best to stay in it," Scheffler said. "I felt like both teams got off to pretty hot starts today and we cooled off a little bit off that."

Scheffler opened the day with a walk-in birdie. But that was about his only highlight. Lee and Im quickly tied the match back up as Scheffler struggled to get much of anything going. He missed the green at the short par-3 7th and hit his tee shot into the crowd, for example, and couldn't get many putts to fall the rest of the way.

That largely left Burns as the one to try and hold things down. He sank a big birdie putt at the 9th to keep the match tied as they made the turn, and Lee and Im missed three straight birdie looks of their own that would have given them their first lead of the day. They finally jumped ahead of Burns and Scheffler on the 13th after Scheffler missed a 3-footer for birdie, though Burns made a putt on the 14th to even things up once again.

Scheffler got a 4-foot par putt to fall on the 17th, while Im missed a similar look in a rough mistake, to finally put the Americans in the lead for good. Scheffler had to save par after landing in the bunker at the 18th, however, to avoid splitting the point.

Scheffler's record on the international stage is lagging behind his other accomplishments. He's got a 3-6-3 record at the Ryder Cup, and he entered this week with a 3-5-1 record in Presidents Cup matches. Scheffler has never won a Presidents Cup singles match, either, though he's 2-0-1 in those at the Ryder Cup.

Scheffler and Burns, who are very good friends off the course, were a combined 0-3-1 when paired together at the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup before Thursday's win. Not great.

Luckily for Scheffler and the Americans, they're now in the lead after the first day in Chicago. Just not by much.

"I saw those guys competing their asses off out there," U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker said. "I'm really proud of them. A session win is a session win, we're going to take it any way we can get it. So happy for Scottie and Sam to go out there in that lead match and get that big win for us to lead us off.

"This is a long week. This is one session. We've got four more to go. Just proud of the way these guys started us off."

While the Scheffler-Burns group was slow, two pairs of Americans wasted no time in their matches behind them.

Justin Thomas and rookie Jackson Koivun rolled to a 4&3 win over Corey Conners and Nico Echavarria in the third match of the day. Koivun made three birdies on the front side to grab a lead almost immediately, and Koivun — who only made his PGA Tour debut mid-season earlier this year — looked comfortable out there.

Thomas then sank a birdie putt of his own from off the green at the 14th to push their lead back to three, which was enough to carry them to the early win. Thomas has now won his last seven four-ball matches at the Presidents Cup, which is tied for the all-time record. And at 21, Koivun is now the second-youngest American behind only Jordan Spieth to win a Presidents Cup match.

Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa cruised to a similar 3&2 win over Ryan Fox and Adam Scott. Clark went 4-under on the front nine himself, which was more than enough to keep Fox and Scott at bay. Clark then pushed their lead to three with a birdie on the 15th, which allowed them to end the match on the following hole.

Scott is playing in his 12th career Presidents Cup, and Thursday was his 55th overall match, both of which tied the all-time record with Phil Mickelson.

While they were in the last and slowest group of the day, Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim had little issue getting past Chris Gotterup and Patrick Cantlay, winning 3&2 to secure an easy point for the Internationals.

They went 2-up through their first two holes to take control of the match almost instantly. While Cantlay and Gotterup rallied briefly — they made three birdies in a four-hole stretch to tie things up — that was all they could do. Cantlay became a non-factor the rest of the way while Kim and Kim easily pushed their lead to three before taking the win. Si Woo's birdie at the 14th was from distance, too, and banked in perfectly.

Tom nearly had a hole-in-one at the 16th and actually banked his ball off the flag stick. That would have been the third ace in Presidents Cup history.

Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune, meanwhile, took off on the back nine to grab their 3&1 win. After hanging in a battle on the front nine, the pair won back-to-back holes before making the turn to take control of the match while Xander Schauffele and Cameron Young struggled to get putts to fall. Eventually, after Young missed a birdie look at the 17th, Matsuyama and Hisatsune were able to put the Internationals on the board for the first time all day.

The two teams will return to Medinah on Friday for five foursomes, or alternate shot, matches.