International sweep puts Team USA in a 7-3 hole at the Presidents Cup

MEDINAH, Ill. (AP) — Ryan Fox and Nick Taylor each delivered clutch moments Friday that carried the Internationals to another stunning sweep in foursomes at the Presidents Cup, giving them a 7-3 lead going into the weekend as they look to end more than two decades of losing.

“It was an incredible day for us,” International captain Geoff Ogilvy said.

It was the second straight time the Americans were shut out in foursomes. Unlike two years ago at Royal Montreal, they had swept the opening session and could afford getting blanked.

Now the Internationals have their largest lead after two sessions since Royal Melbourne in 1998, the only year they won the Presidents Cup.

Taylor and Corey Conners were 1 up over Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns going to the 18th hole at Medinah when Taylor went into the trees and Conners could only punch back to the fairway. The Canadian duo were playing their third shot before Scheffler hit his second.

Taylor hit a cut 9-iron from 151 yards that plopped down a foot from the cup for a par, and Burns' birdie putt to halve the match rimmed out.

“Maybe I bailed myself out after that drive,” Taylor said. “Yeah, when it mattered most, it was nice to hit a close one in there and apply the pressure back to them.”

Fox and Min Woo Lee were in match equally tight with the Americans taking their first lead on the 12th hole. Fox holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-4 15th to square the match, and he made a birdie putt from 20 feet on the par-3 16th to go 1 up. They halved the last two holes, with Fox making a 4-footer for par on the 18th.

The other matches weren't close. Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im won four straight holes on the front nine to build a 3-up lead, and after Russell Henley and Jacob Bridgeman narrowed the deficit to 1 down, Matsuyama made a 20-foot birdie that carried them to a 3-and-2 win.

Adam Scott and Christiaan Bezuidenhout never trailed in a 3-and-2 victory over Justin Thomas and Cameron Young, while Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim had an easy time against the once formidable duo of Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, winning 4 and 3.

“You’re going to have sessions like this in these things,” U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker said. “I feel terrible for the guys because I know they grinded out there and gave me everything they had today, and it wasn’t meant to be. That being said, there’s still 20 points out there.

“There’s a lot of golf left to play.”

Saturday is pivotal in this format. After two days of one session each, there are four matches of fourballs in the morning and four matches of foursomes in the afternoon. Two years ago in Canada, the Americans won six out of eight and sailed to another win.

“There's a lot of golf left,” Scott said. “Tomorrow is a big day. I think we had a similar situation two years ago in Canada. Hopefully we learned from that, and we can back a great day up tomorrow.”

See AP’s full golf coverage here

International teams' Hideki Matsuyama, of Japan, reacts to missing his putt on the seventh green against the USA team during the Presidents Cup golf tournament second round foursomes match at Medinah Country Club, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, in Medinah, Ill. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

USA teams' Sam Burns reacts after missing his birdie putt on the 18th green to lose to the International team during the Presidents Cup golf tournament second round foursomes match at Medinah Country Club, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, in Medinah, Ill. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

International teams' Christian Bezuidenhout, of South Africa, celebrates on the seventh hole with Adam Scott, of Australia, during the Presidents Cup golf tournament second round foursomes match against the USA team at Medinah Country Club, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, in Medinah, Ill. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

International teams' Nick Taylor, of Canada, reacts to missing his shot on the eighth green against the USA team during the Presidents Cup golf tournament second round foursomes match at Medinah Country Club, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, in Medinah, Ill. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

USA teams' Scottie Scheffler, right, and Sam Burns greet International teams' Corey Conners, of Canada, left, and Nick Taylor, of Canada, after their Presidents Cup golf tournament second round foursomes match at Medinah Country Club, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, in Medinah, Ill. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday turned away an attempt to use a new Missouri congressional map backed by President Donald Trump, putting an end to a long-running legal dispute as absentee voting is underway in the midterm elections.

The justices halted a federal appeals court ruling that would have revived the Republican-friendly map for the November elections, which will determine control of Congress. There were no noted dissents.

The Supreme Court instead let stand a decision by the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled earlier this month that a citizen petition prevents the new map from being used unless first approved by voters in a November referendum. The decision means Missouri residents will vote under the same congressional districts used in the 2024 and 2022 elections.

“At this late date, ordering reversion to the 2025 map in the midst of an ongoing election would usher in electoral chaos,” the high court wrote in an unsigned opinion. “The District Court and Court of Appeals should not enjoin or otherwise prohibit the use of the 2022 map in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri.”

Republicans had hoped the new House map — which already was used in the August primaries — could help them win an additional seat as part of a nationwide redistricting battle pushed by Trump to gain an edge in the midterms.

The new map had targeted a district held by longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.

“I think my reelection prospects shot up significantly,” a jubilant Cleaver said after the Supreme Court ruling.

A panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled Monday that switching districts between the primary and general elections would violate the U.S. Constitution. The panel directed a district judge to bar Missouri from using anything other than the new map but delayed the order's effect until next Monday to allow time for an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The legal wrangling has caused confusion for more than a million potential Missouri voters — nearly 1 in 4 statewide — who were shifted from one district to another, resulting in different candidates on their ballots. Absentee voting began Tuesday under the 2022 congressional districts. Thousands of ballots already had been mailed, and some already have been cast.

A decision from the Supreme Court is “a big sigh of relief," said Kansas City election director Shawn Kieffer. He added, "We just want it over, so we can do our job properly.”

Republicans currently hold six of Missouri's eight House districts. At the urging of Trump and Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe, Missouri lawmakers last September passed revised districts that were intended to help them win seven seats in the midterms.

The redistricting significantly reshaped a Kansas City-based district held by Cleaver. It shed parts of Kansas City to neighboring districts with Republican incumbents and stretched the remainder of Cleaver's 5th Congressional District far eastward into rural Republican areas.

The result was about 59% of potential voters were new to the district, according to an Associated Press estimate. The ripple effects also shifted some voters in most of Missouri's other congressional districts.

Cleaver was unopposed in the Democratic primary. Republican state Sen. Rick Brattin won a six-way Republican primary under the revised districts. They remain the candidates for the general election, even though the district boundaries have reverted to their prior lines.

Cleaver said the court ruling affirms the people's right to use to referendum petitions against state legislative actions they don't like.

“We just received a healthy dose of encouragement that the voice of people in the United States still matters," he said.

Brattin was a plaintiff, along with Republican Rep. Bob Onder and two other voters, in a federal lawsuit that led to the 8th Circuit's ruling and the last two appeals to the Supreme Court. He had no immediate comment.

At least 16 lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts related to Missouri's congressional redistricting. The battle has been the longest and most complex among roughly a dozen states that sought to change their U.S. House districts over the past year.

Missouri's new map survived most of the lawsuits, including ones contending that mid-decade redistricting violated the state constitution and that the new districts ran afoul of requirements to be compact. In one case, the Missouri Supreme Court allowed the new districts to be used while election officials worked to verify petition signatures seeking to put the map to a statewide vote.

Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins waited until the legal deadline on Aug. 4 — the day the new districts were used in the primaries — to reject the petition. He asserted referendum petitions aren't allowed for congressional redistricting.

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled Sept. 3 that the referendum petition was valid. It ordered Hoskins not to use the new map and to instead use the districts adopted in 2022, after the last census. The U.S. Supreme Court let that ruling stand on Sept. 8. But minutes later, U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark issued a conflicting order in favor of the new map.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 10 blocked Clark's order from taking effect. That day, the Missouri Supreme Court held Hoskins temporarily in contempt for telling local election authorities to use the new map after Clark's order.

But that wasn't the end of the matter. The 8th Circuit, hearing an appeal of Clark's blocked order, ruled in favor of the Trump-backed map Monday. That's what led to the latest decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, said the group was pressing forward with its campaign to persuade voters to permanently reject the new map in the November referendum.

“We have said from the beginning, people, not politicians will be the final deciders on this DC power grab," he said in a statement.

Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington contributed to this report.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court and redistricting at https://apnews.com/hub/redistricting.

FILE - Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, D-Mo., talks about the Missouri legislature's effort to divide his district among three districts in an effort to flip his seat to Republican, at St. James Church, Sept. 7, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

FILE - People opposed to new the U.S. House districts passed by the Missouri General Assembly demonstrate outside the state Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo., on March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb, File)