How Was the 2026 Presidents Cup at Medinah Received?

A dramatic U.S. comeback gave Chicago a memorable finish. Reactions to Medinah’s redesigned course and the galleries were more nuanced.

Medinah Country Club has another comeback in its team-golf history. Fourteen years after Europe’s “Miracle at Medinah” in the Ryder Cup, the United States entered Sunday’s Presidents Cup singles trailing the International team by three points. The Americans won 9½ of the 12 available points and took the Cup, 17–13. Jacob Bridgeman secured the decisive point on Medinah’s 18th green.

Did fans enjoy the Presidents Cup?

The finish gave spectators plenty to celebrate. Golf Channel reported that someone in the gallery encouraged Bridgeman as he stood over the short putt that would clinch the Cup. Bridgeman said the remark boosted his confidence. Coverage of Sunday described big crowds at Medinah, although there is no reliable spectator survey that would establish how attendees rated the entire experience.

The atmosphere built over the week. After Thursday’s opening session, Wyndham Clark said it felt “kind of dead out there” at times and wanted more noise from the home crowd. Golf Digest reported that the first tee was lively, but its stands emptied before the final two matches departed. Sunday’s comeback provided the energy that had been missing in some of those early stretches.

Medinah Country Club – Presidents Cup – 12th Hole

How did Chicago golf fans behave?

After the abusive treatment of European players and family members at the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, another U.S. team event invited scrutiny of the home gallery. The early impression at Medinah was reassuring. Reporting from Thursday described fans cheering for the Americans without the nasty comments or shouting during shots that marred Bethpage. One spectator from suburban Oswego told Golf Digest he wanted to support the U.S. without going “over the edge.”

Some American players wanted the crowd to be louder. Clark called Thursday’s atmosphere “kind of dead out there,” while U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker suggested that difficult viewing on some holes and a lack of birdies may have contributed to the quieter stretches. By Sunday’s decisive match, the crowd was audibly encouraging Bridgeman before he made the putt that clinched the Cup.

The week was not free of spectator interference. On Saturday, a fan deliberately kicked Corey Conners’ ball back toward the green after it crossed an out-of-bounds fence. Officials determined where it would have finished without the interference, and the International team had to replay the shot with a penalty. On Sunday, a spectator yelled “Go Scottie!” during Nico Echavarria’s backswing. Echavarria sliced his drive, and his opponent, Scottie Scheffler, immediately objected. Scheffler later conceded Echavarria’s long par putt so the interruption would not decide the hole.

The Echavarria incident was serious because the shout came during a player’s swing and could have affected a live match. It deserves more than a passing mention. But the available reporting does not support treating it as the defining behavior of Chicago fans or as a Bethpage-scale stain on the event. Scheffler’s response also kept the moment from becoming an advantage for his side. The fair assessment is that Medinah’s galleries were generally reported as more respectful than those at Bethpage, while two individuals crossed a clear line.

What did players and writers think of the new Medinah?

This was the first Presidents Cup on Course No. 3 since OCM’s extensive redesign. The work opened up sightlines, widened playing areas and changed several holes. For the competition, matches began on the members’ fifth hole, bringing a run of holes beside an out-of-bounds fence into play immediately. Later, a stretch around Lake Kadijah offered decisions over how much water to challenge.

That design gave golf writers and players more to discuss than whether the course was simply difficult. Golf Channel described how taking a safer line away from the opening fence could leave a harder approach. Justin Thomas said the fence holes were nerve-racking; he also praised the redesigned course’s appearance before the matches began.

There were reservations. Before play, Geoff Ogilvy, who helped design the course and captained the International team, said he would have preferred firmer conditions. U.S. captain Snedeker agreed that recent rain would make it difficult for the ball to run along the ground and show the full effect of the slopes. The course could still produce compelling match-play choices without playing exactly as its architects intended.

The tournament routing divided opinion, too. Brendan Porath of The Shotgun Start criticized the decision to start matches on the members’ fifth hole, arguing that an event should accept the course’s normal sequence. The tournament’s reasoning was clear: moving the start increased the chances that matches would reach the dramatic holes near the lake before ending. Golf fans can reasonably differ on whether that trade was worthwhile.

Medinah’s verdict

As an event, the 2026 Presidents Cup succeeded at something that cannot be planned: it produced a genuine contest and a remarkable final-day reversal. Media coverage praised the drama while also asking how the U.S. fell behind through the team sessions and why the International team could not turn its lead into a win.

As a course, the new Medinah made a strong first impression as a place for strategic match play, with its fence-lined opening and lake holes becoming talking points. The criticism centered on the temporary routing and on conditions that kept the ground game from fully emerging. A fuller verdict on the redesign will take more than one wet tournament week.

Chicago’s galleries brought energy to the finish without the sustained abusive behavior that overshadowed the previous year’s Ryder Cup. The incidents involving Conners’ ball and Echavarria’s swing should remain part of the record, but they do not erase the broader impression. For Chicago golf fans, the enduring image may be Bridgeman on the final green, backed by the crowd, completing a comeback at a club that already knew how quickly a team event can turn.