The scoreboard always tells the story, and Thursday’s Presidents Cup story was that of a terrible four-ball session for the International side. Multiple matches were tight in spots, but the Americans will take a very deserved 5-0 lead to Friday’s foursomes, meaning things went about as poorly as they could have for Mike Weir’s home team.

Winners

Xander Schauffele – An absolute killer on Day 1. The problem for these American teams when they come up short in Ryder Cups is often their best players getting popped or handcuffed with an underperforming partner. That’s rarely shown up in Presidents Cups, and on Thursday, Schauffele’s breakout year continued as he led the team in the first match out of the day. When it looked like Jason Day and Ben An, who were game down the stretch, might clinch a half or even full point, it was Xander who choked them out with birdies, deflating the vibe of the entire session for the Internationals. It was a macho display from one of the USA’s elite players.

Scottie Scheffler – The world No. 1 zipped up the excitable Tom Kim and kept him at arm’s length for most of the match. His play was what you’d expect (it featured both impressive strokes gained stats and his clutch timing), disposing of the odd narrative that had taken root about him not winning a point in the last two team match play events. But his chirp back at Tom the Tank Engine was the golf equivalent of the “too small” gesture in basketball.

It was once again an amazing day for the Scheffler brand.

Roster Depth – I’ve highlighted the top two stars, but there was no real dud throughout the American effort. Tony Finau struggled down the stretch. Sahith Theegala was quiet for a bit before closing out his match on the 18th. Sam Burns’s strokes-gained numbers were among the poorest. But no one no-showed. Keegan Bradley poured in putts when it mattered. Wyndham Clark made three straight birdies in the middle of their match. Russ Henley was every bit the player as his partner, Scheffler, and fulfilled his captain’s live-tweeting claim from the course.

It turns out Cantlay, not Reed, might be the real Captain America with the first name Pat. He led the team in SG and completed the sweep against the strong International duo of Hideki and Conners.

Taylor Pendrith – He made six birdies and struck the ball well on home soil. A water ball at the penultimate hole (a relatively short par-3 that witnessed some horrid shots) was a deflator, but overall he was clearly the best International player. Still a Bagel Boy though, and 0-5 in his Pres Cup career.

Jay Monahan – Not booed when he walked out of the tunnel and onto the first tee. Not booed again when Mike Weir acknowledged his great work and thanked him. That’s a win for the commish these days.

Paul McGinley – There is perhaps no one in golf broadcasting better for the adversarial nature of match play, the mano-a-mano simplicity, than Paul McGinley. Obviously, he has a history with captaining in a match play event. He threw in plenty of strategy. And on the mic, it’s a chance to just let all his favorites rip about teams being “on the back foot” and “standing toe to toe” and “moral high grounds” and the “psychology of the 18-hole sprint.” He was a pig in sh*t, fully in his element and a perfect tower analyst for this kind of competition. Fun to listen to all afternoon.

Mac Hughes – One of the more impressive International feats if you’re into that sort of thing was the sitting Hughes ripping through a Stella Artois well before noon local.

He did not appear to abandon sip quite like Justin Thomas did a few years ago at the Ryder Cup. Again, if you’re into this sort of thing. If you’re not, you might think it’s thirsty.

The Iron Heads – The first day blowout illustrates just how hard it is for the heavy underdogs to punch through in team golf. It puts the Maridoe Miracle last week in an even better light, cementing that Iron Heads run in our golf memories.

Losers

Rationalizing – This was a total asskicking. It was not a 5-0 sweep where you could say you caught a couple bad breaks or lost out on the 50-50 balls that could have really tipped the scales in a different direction. Some argued it was not as bad as the score looked. The numbers don’t lie. Any attempt to make this sound competitive would sound like the guy on the patio saying his 78 could have been a 70 if only this, that, and the other had happened.

Royal Montreal – The golf course stinks. Montreal is great. Canada is great. Golf in Canada can be great. But this is just a cookie cutter bit of parkland monotony that’s been soaked and fully dartboard-ified. Each hole is fairly indistinguishable from the next. It felt, like the crowds and scoreboard, quite flat. Others will argue the venue is ancillary to these team events. But why not make it as good as it can be? What’s the downside? This is just blah. When you get a blowout competition, being able to see a great golf course with distinguishable holes and distinct challenges could only help.

Tom Kim – He was like the cornerback that bloviates all week, struts and celebrates after his first pass defensed, and then gets picked on and torched the rest of the day. The antics of walking to the next tee on Scheffler-Henley were called bush league, with Paul McGinley saying they had yielded the “moral high ground”.

He wasn’t nearly good enough to compete with Henley-Scheffler, and his pairing was disposed of on the 16th green. Afterwards, he called out the crowds, saying, “I think it was a little too quiet today being on home soil. I don’t think the fans were really — I wish they would have helped us out a bit more, especially being in Canada. I’m definitely expecting more crowds to be louder and for them to be on our side.” Now he’ll have to join them, as he’s on the bench until Saturday.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout – He hit some great shots to put his ball inside seven feet on three straight holes down the stretch to try to level the match against Bradley and Clark. The problem is he missed all three putts in successively worse fashion, finishing last among all 20 players in putting because of it. Remember the approach shots, I suppose, but those along with Pendrith’s birdies felt like the International’s best chance for a point, and they didn’t capture it.

Canadian Crowds – Kim was not alone in his observation. Pendrith said he wished they could have been louder. Johnson Wagner said it was relatively quiet and fairly serene on the green-to-tee walks for the Internationals, with minimal encouragement. The moderate-sized first tee grandstand was slow to fill in for the midday start.

It was a pretty disappointing display from a proud and rowdy sporting nation. One wife in the International delegation, per this Golf Digest report, called it a “lame” crowd and scene.

Golf Channel Leaderboard – It needed corrections issued by the commentators on a handful of occasions.

Ambient Noise – A humming plane, presumably affiliated with the broadcast, brutalized the sense of sound for much of the afternoon.

The Presidents Cup – Flat crowds. Another blowout. A potentially meaningless singles session set for an NFL Sunday. The overall competition and idea of the Pres Cup took a pretty big hit with the 5-0 whitewash on Thursday.

Friday’s Matches

Here’s the lineup for a pivotal Friday foursomes session:

Will Mike Weir and his team engineer an incredible comeback? If so, it’s going to have to start right now.

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.