Sunday's Singles Set, With the Internationals Needing a Huge Day

Four-point leads in cup matches have been overcome before (Medinah, anyone?), but the U.S. lineup is front-loaded for Sunday.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Sunday singles pairings for the Presidents Cup suddenly took on new meaning late Saturday afternoon as the International team rallied to win late matches with birdies on the 18th hole.

That turned a potential United States rout into a much-less certain four-point advantage heading into the final day at Quail Hollow.

The 11-7 advantage is still a significant one—it requires the International team to win 8.5 of the available 12 points on Sunday.

But U.S. captain Davis Love III is well aware of four-point leads. He was the captain of the 2012 U.S. Ryder Cup team that led 10-6 and lost 14.5 to 13.5. No doubt International captain Trevor Immelman will be preaching that to his underdog team right up until the first tee on Sunday.

Four points is the largest deficit ever overcome at the Ryder Cup. The U.S. did it in 1999.

The biggest at the Presidents Cup is three points, which the U.S. came back from to force the event’s only tie in 2003.

Love appeared to learn his lesson from 2012, making sure he has a lot of strength at the beginning of his lineup on Sunday with Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay and Scottie Scheffler taking the first six spots. The U.S. needs just 4.5 points to win.

Immelman has strength at the beginning, too, but oddly left his star player, Tom Kim, until the 10th position. And if things are close, he’s got two guys who didn’t play at all Saturday—Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Mito Pereira—going in the last two positions.

The lineup (times ET):

• 12:02 p.m.: Si Woo Kim (Int.) vs. Justin Thomas (U.S.)
• 12:14 p.m.: Cam Davis (Int.) vs. Jordan Spieth (U.S.)
• 12:26 p.m.: Hideki Matsuyama (Int.) vs. Sam Burns (U.S.)
• 12:38 p.m.: Adam Scott (Int.) vs. Patrick Cantlay (U.S.)
• 12:50 p.m.: Sebastian Munoz (Int.) vs. Scottie Scheffler (U.S.)
• 1:02 p.m.: Taylor Pendrith (Int.) vs. Tony Finau (U.S.)
• 1:14 p.m.: Corey Conners (Int.) vs. Xander Schauffele (U.S.)
• 1:26 p.m.: Sungjae Im (Int.) vs. Cam Young (U.S.)
• 1:38 p.m.: K.H. Lee (Int.) vs. Billy Horschel (U.S.)
• 1:50 p.m.: Tom Kim (Int.) vs. Max Homa (U.S.)
• 2:02 p.m.: Mito Pereira (Int.) vs. Collin Morikawa (U.S.)
• 2:14 p.m.: Chrstiaan Bezuidenhout (Int.) vs. Kevin Kisner (U.S.)