It was a grim day for the International Team on Thursday in the first round of four-ball play in the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal in Canada as the United States shut them out completely in a red wave.

American stalwarts Xander Schauffele and Tony Finau were first on the board as they took down Internationals Jason Day and Byeong Hun An. Russell Henley and Scottie Scheffler followed with a 3-and-2 takedown of South Koreans Tom Kim and Sungjae Im. Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala scored another full point for the US Team with a 1-up win over Australians Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee. Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns struck another blow for the US with a 2-and-1 win over Hideki Matsuyama and Corey Conners. Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark sealed the deal with a 1-up win over Taylor Pendrith and Christiaan Bezuidenhout.

Bezuidenhout, the only South African in the International Team, was in the fourth match out. Clark and Bradley took an early lead thanks to an 11-foot birdie putt from Bradley on the first hole. Clark, making his Presidents Cup debut, extended their lead with a birdie on the short par-three seventh.

The International Team fought back as Canadian Pendrith made birdies on the eighth and 10th holes to square up the match. Bradley brought the fireworks with a 35-foot hole-out birdie on 13 and the US Team never relinquished the lead again. Bradley sealed the victory with a 19-foot birdie putt on the final hole.

The matches were close. The score after the opening session was not. The Americans clung to a 1-up lead in all five matches when they delivered shot after shot, putt after putt, until this already lopsided series took a familiar turn. It was the third time the US shut out the Internationals on the first day, and the first time since 2000. The Americans went on to an 11-point victory that year.