NAPA, Calif. – Emiliano Grillo of Argentina won his PGA Tour rookie debut Sunday at the Frys.com Open by holing a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th for a 3-under 69, and then making the most out of a second chance in the playoff to beat Kevin Na.

Nearly as impressive as his closing birdie was the way the 23-year-old Argentine bounced back from a shocking miss.

Grillo had a 3-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to win and was stunned when it caught the left lip and spun away. Then, he drove into the fairway bunker on the 18th on the second extra hole with Na in the fairway.

The next mistake belonged to Na.

He used driver off the fairway for the second time and hooked it behind a tree, leaving him little chance of getting his third shot on the green. Na wound up with a bogey. Grillo hit a bold approach shot over the edge of a bunker to just inside 10 feet. Needing two putts for the win, he made it for birdie.

Earlier this year, Grillo missed a short birdie putt to win the Puerto Rico Open, and wound up losing in a playoff.

“The difference was I hit this one good,” Grillo said. “My caddie said, ‘Are you OK?’ I said, ‘Yeah, sure. Third time a charm.’ I stayed positive and hit a great shot in there.”

Grillo has won his last two tournaments in thrillers. He made a 25-foot birdie putt on final hole of the Web.com Tour Championship two weeks ago and earned $180,000. This one was worth a lot more.

Not only did he earn $1.08 million, he’s going to the Masters next April.

“You say Masters, I can’t believe it,” Grillo said. “When I got the (PGA Tour) card after the Web.com Championship, I saw I was 71 or 72 in the world and said, ‘We got a chance of getting top 50 by the end of the year, let’s try to get it done.’

“Maybe we can play the tournaments we always wanted to play.”

Grillo moves to about No. 36 in the world ranking, which puts him in the HSBC Champions in Shanghai and the Bridgestone Invitational, two World Golf Championships. He’s also in the PGA Championship and The Players Championship, both offering $10 million purses.

Na, who got up-and-down with a 6-foot putt on the 18th in regulation for a 70 to force a playoff, told Golf Channel after the playoff ended that he rarely misses driver off the tight fairway grass and that maybe the fact it was getting dark and the ball was slightly above his feet caused him to hook it.

Na, who earned $648,000, declined to come to the media room for interviews.

Jason Bohn (70), Justin Thomas (69) and Tyrone Van Aswegen of South Africa (68) all finished one shot out of the playoff.

Grillo was the first to reach 15-under 273 with his 25-foot birdie putt. Thomas and Bohn each had birdie chances on the par-5 18th hole. Thomas, who closed with five pars, narrowly missed a 30-foot putt. Bohn sent his fairway metal into a concession area, pitched across the green to 15 feet below the hole and missed it on the low side.

Bohn’s bigger mistake was earlier in the round. He was leading at 15 under and was 50 yards from the hole on the par-5 16th hole when he chunked a wedge. His next wedge slid 8 feet by the hole and he two-putted for a bogey.

“I was fairly focused on 16 where I just kind of laid the sod over it and chunked it,” Bohn said. “There’s times when you think that – trust me – when you’re out there, ‘Oh, don’t chunk this one.’ But this wasn’t one of those times. Kind of rattled me a little bit. To make a bogey from 40 yards short of the green is pretty unacceptable when you’re trying to win a golf tournament.”

But then, just about everyone could look back at lost chances.

Nine players had at least a share of the lead at some point during a final round at Silverado that was up for grabs until the very end. It started with Brendan Steele, who was trying to go wire-to-wire and was still in position until he hit a poor fairway bunker shot on No. 12. Steele made five bogeys over the next six holes and closed with a 76.

Justin Rose was tied for the lead at the turn and was poised to rely on his experience until he missed a 3-foot par putt at No. 12 and dropped two more shots coming for a 72. He wound up three shots out of the playoff.

Thomas, coming off a strong rookie season, holed a 45-foot birdie putt on the 13th to get into position. But he missed a 7-foot birdie chance at No. 14 and never got a closer look at birdie the rest of the way, including the par 5s at Nos. 16 and 18.

Van Aswegen birdied two of the last three holes to at least have a chance at a playoff until Grillo and then Na each made birdie. The South African woke up to the room spinning, was taken in an ambulance to the emergency room and treated for dehydration, and narrowly got back to the golf course in time to warm up. He was helped by morning fog that led to a 20-minute delay.

Canada’s Graham DeLaet fell 28 spots down the leaderboard Sunday with a final-round 77. The Weyburn, Sask., native finished at 7-under.

NAPA, Calif. – Brendan Steele did just enough to keep the lead Saturday at the Frys.com Open, even though he missed a chance to do more.

As one player after another was piling up birdies on the closing three-hole stretch at Silverado, Steele managed three pars for a 3-under 69 and a one-shot lead over Andrew Loupe and Kevin Na.

Loupe had five straight birdies early and four straight birdies late for a 63 and was one shot behind. Na played the closing stretch in 3 under for a 64.

Canada’s Graham DeLaet sits at 12-under, 2-back of the lead, after a 69 Saturday.

The PGA Tour season opener is wide open going into the final round. Sixteen players were separated by only four shots.

Steele was at 14-under 202 as he tries to go wire-to-wire.

Rory McIlroy never got anything going and was eight shots behind.

NAPA, Calif. – Brendan Steele felt no different about his game Friday than when he tied the course record with a 63 in his opening round at the Frys.com Open. The difference was seven shots. What didn’t change was his position on the leaderboard.

Steele had to settle for pars on the closing three holes at Silverado that tend to produce birdies, giving him a 2-under 70 on a course that was getting firmer and featured much stronger pin positions.

All that mattered was a two-shot lead going into the weekend.

“I expected today to be tough,” said Steele, who was at 11-under 133. “And it’s always tough to follow up a round like yesterday with anything even under par. I think we’ve seen guys over the years follow 63 up usually with something around par. If you can go lower than that, you probably have a pretty good-sized lead.”

He’ll take the two-shot margin over Canada’s Graham DeLaet (68) , Will Wilcox (67), Jhonattan Vegas (71) and Harold Varner III (70).

One thing didn’t change for Rory McIlroy. He can’t seem to make a putt.

McIlroy, the No. 3 player in the world, shot 71 and was six shots behind. Considering how many putts he missed, it felt like an even greater margin.

“Not to be able to break 70 today is quite disappointing,” McIlroy said.

His only two birdies were on par 5s where he missed putts for eagles. And he ended his round by missing a birdie putt from just outside 12 feet, a familiar sight for him over two days at Silverado.

“I think it’s more mental than anything else,” McIlroy said. “Whenever you don’t see anything go in, it makes it harder and harder each and every hole that goes by. … I don’t expect to hole everything, but I expect to hole more than I am at the moment.”

And with that, he signed a few autographs and headed straight for the practice green.

With tougher pins, Silverado played about one shot more difficult. It was just as tough to get some separation.

The cut was set at 2-under 142, and a 54-hole cut was in play for Saturday because 81 players advanced to the weekend. That group includes Brandt Snedeker, who birdied his last two holes to make it on the number.

Missing putts was a familiar sight for everyone.

“I actually felt like from tee-to-green, I played way better than yesterday, to be honest,” said Vegas, who followed his 64 with a 71. “I just couldn’t buy any putts.”

This is a big week for Vegas, who received a sponsor’s exemption after losing his card and needs to make the most of what limited tournaments he can play this year.

And it’s a big start for Varner, who joins Tiger Woods as the only players of black heritage on the PGA Tour this year. Varner made back-to-back birdies and was closing in on the lead when he had to settle for four straight pars at the end. It was nearly dark when Varner played his last hole, though he never considered coming back to finish Saturday morning.

“Six hours of sleep is way more important than one putt, I think,” Varner said. “I’m staying in American Canyon. It says it’s 25 minutes, but it’s yet to take me 25 minutes to get back. I’m going to get it tomorrow. I’m pretty excited.”

Steele opened his round with a birdie, which he thought might be a sign of another low score. He made two birdies in three holes to start his back nine and was thinking he might get a chance to pull away at 12 under, especially with a pair of par 5s and a short par 4 among the three closing holes.

Plus, he ended that side with five straight birdies Thursday. It just didn’t quite work out that way.

Steele missed the green on the par-5 16th with a wedge in his hand. His tee shot on the short 17th settled in a divot. And then on the par-5 18th hole, he drove left into the rough, laid up in the group and missed the green again.

“So those last three you think you can score on were kind of a struggle,” he said.

But he wasn’t alone. Justin Thomas, coming off a strong rookie season and a 66 to start the new season, caught Steele with a 20-foot birdie putt at the turn and had his hopes ruined by missing the green at No. 4 with a wedge, and then taking double bogey on No. 6. A birdie on the last hole for a 70 put him in the group at 8-under 136 that included Justin Rose (69), Russell Henley (69 and Martin Laird (71).

NAPA, Calif. – Brendan Steele had an ideal start to the new PGA Tour season at the Frys.com Open with a round that featured nine birdies, no stress and a simple explanation.

“As weird as it is to say, it was kind of a basic 63,” he said.

It gave him a one-shot lead over Jhonattan Vegas among early starters in ideal scoring conditions at Silverado, which has such subtle movement in the greens that the course doesn’t always yield low scores even when players have a short iron into the putting surface.

Of the early starters, 21 players were at 68 or better.

That included Rory McIlroy, who is between two seasons. The world’s No. 3 player had numerous birdie chances and didn’t convert nearly as many as he would have liked. What pleased McIlroy was the quality of his game from tee-to-green, far crisper than it was at the Tour Championship three weeks ago.

“Definitely a step in the right direction today,” McIlroy said.

Vegas, who won as a rookie in 2011 at the Humana Challenge, lost his card this year and failed to get it back at the Web.com Tour Finals two weeks ago. He is relying on his limited status as a past champion and sponsor exemptions, so it was important to make the most out of his exemption this week.

Harold Varner III, who joins Tiger Woods as the only players of black heritage on the PGA Tour this year, made a strong rookie debut with a 65. The group at 66 included Justin Thomas, with Justin Rose among those at 67.

Steele posted a target early with a 29 on the back nine, including five straight birdies before making the turn. At one point, he rolled in putts of 25 feet, 20 feet and 18. That prompted this observation from Steve Wheatcroft.

“Just hang in there,” he said Wheatcroft told him. “It’s a long season. You’ll make one eventually.”

Sang-moon Bae, unable to defend because of his mandatory military service in South Korea, won last year at Silverado at 15-under par. No one had better than 65 the entire tournament last year, which made Steele’s round stand out even more.

Steele wasn’t surprised.

This is the third straight year of a wraparound season that starts in October with a two-week break after the old season ended. Steele had some good results toward the end of last season, took a short break, started practicing and liked how his game felt.

“In the pro-am yesterday I was like, ‘We need to get this tournament going.’ I hate it when I’m home and I feel really good,” he said. “It’s hard to keep it. I always say that your game is either coming or going, right? So when it’s coming, you want to be in the right place.”

McIlroy is coming and going as it relates to seasons.

While this is the season opener on the PGA Tour, he leaves after this week for three tournaments in Asia to finish off his European Tour schedule with hopes of winning another Race to Dubai title. This is only his fifth tournament dating to the PGA Championship, when he returned from a two-month hiatus to heal his injured ankle.

His game looked good, but he struggled to match the speed with the line for a number of birdie chances from about 12 feet or in.

“Gave myself a lot of chances,” McIlroy said. “I converted a few, but I’ll need to hole a few more. I feel like this is a golf course that you can give yourself a lot of chances. If I can keep hitting the ball the way I am and just hole a few more, I’ll be OK.”

Varner made a flashy finish to get near the top of the leaderboard. He holed an 18-foot eagle putt on No. 16, stuffed a sand wedge into 2 feet for birdie on the 17th and had to settle for a birdie on the par-5 18th when he narrowly missed another eagle chance.

Varner earned his card through the Web.com Tour, and he already noticed one big difference. While a tournament in wine country doesn’t attract a massive crowd, it was still far more than he was used to seeing.

“It’s fun until you hit one too far left or right,” Varner said. “I get a little nervous because there are people over there. Usually there is no one over there and I just go find it. But there are so many people, you might hit them. So it’s good. Different experience. I guess you’ve just got to get used to it.”

Weyburn, Sask., native Graham DeLaet leads the Canadians in the field following a 5-under 67 performance to finish T7. Nick Taylor and David Hearn shot 71 while Adam Hadwin opened at even-par. Cory Renfrew, who claimed medalist honours at the Monday Qualifier, posted a 1-over 73.

NAPA, Calif. – The Frys.com Open is everything Rory McIlroy thought it would be.

And the tournament hasn’t even started.

He knew nothing about Silverado Resort, which is hosting the PGA Tour season opener for the second year and is expected to stay here even longer, except that it was located in the middle California’s most famous wine country.

“Expected vineyards, wine, good food,” McIlroy said Wednesday. “Got all those boxes ticked last night.”

McIlroy, who for now is No. 3 in the world ranking, represents the biggest star power at this event since Tiger Woods began what amounted to a rehab assignment in 2011, and his week ended with a fan throwing a hot dog on the green he was playing.

McIlroy was part of the “Turkey Eight” that signed off on a one-sided deal three years ago – eight PGA Tour players in an exhibition in Turkey agreed they would play the Frys.com Open at least once over the next three years. Woods was supposed to be at Silverado this year, too, until he had his second back surgery. Also in the field from Turkey are Charl Schwartzel, Justin Rose and Webb Simpson.

Hunter Mahan also is playing. He was in Turkey, but he fulfilled his commitment last year, liked it so much that he came back. It’s all about location.

Here’s how the first tournament of the new season is shaping up:

SEASONS BLUR: When the new seasons gets started Thursday morning, it will have been 18 days since the last season ended with Jordan Spieth becoming the first $22 million man in golf ($10 million of that from winning the FedEx Cup).

For all the angst over golf not having an offseason, only the starting line has changed.

The PGA Tour has 47 events that occupy 43 weeks of the year. Ten years ago, it had 48 events that occupied 44 weeks on the calendar.

And one thing hasn’t changed. The offseason is as long as a player wants it to be. Chris Kirk played three FedEx Cup playoff events, had two weeks off, went to South Korea for the Presidents Cup and is teeing it up at Silverado. Phil Mickelson played three FedEx Cup playoff events, had two weeks off, went to South Korea, and golf won’t see him again until January in California.

RORY’S SCHEDULE: See if you can follow along.

McIlroy feels as though his “new season” started in August when he returned from two months of healing his injured ankle. He is playing the Frys.com Open, which is the first event of the new PGA Tour season. And then he heads to Asia for three tournaments to end the season on the European Tour.

And then he gets two months off.

“I feel like I’m in the middle of a nice little run to the end of the year,” McIlroy said. “I guess for a lot of guys, even the guys that played a full PGA Tour schedule last season and then played the Presidents Cup and they’re coming here, it’s a lot of golf. But as I said, I haven’t played as much as those guys, so I’m happy to be playing and happy to play quite a bit until the end of the year.”

STRONG FIELD: For a time of the year when the “stars” were going to be taking time off, the Frys.com Open has six of the top 30 in the world. McIlroy and Rose are at Silverado as a part of the Turkey agreement. But that doesn’t account for Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama, Robert Streb and Brandt Snedeker.

This is the third straight year that the Frys.com Open has started the PGA Tour’s new wraparound season. The previous two winners, Jimmy Walker and Sang-moon Bae, both reached the Tour Championship.

AT STAKE: The winner of the Frys.com Open gets a spot in the Masters and the same number of FedEx Cup points as winning the Memorial or Arnold Palmer Invitational.

But he won’t be getting any Ryder Cup points.

The illustrious Ryder Cup Task Force decided to count PGA Tour events toward the U.S. standings at the start of 2016 (Kapalua) instead of the start of the season.

BIG DAY: McIlroy already has had a good time in Napa based on the wine and the food (and yes, he likes the golf course).

So has Justin Thomas. The second-year player played the pro-am with a couple real Warriors – Steph Curry and Andre Iguodala.

CHAMPION KIRK: A tradition that never gets old on the PGA Tour is celebrating the previous week’s winner.

Chris Kirk knows the feeling. Kirk wound up making the most significant putt in the Presidents Cup, a 15-footer down the hill on the 18th hole for a 1-up victory over Anirban Lahiri. Kirk was stopped four times on his way from the range as players congratulated him on a great week.

Kirk said his biggest weakness all week in South Korea was putting. He discovered later he was set up too close to the ball. But he made the one that mattered. Asked if he was getting as many congratulations for the Presidents Cup as he was for winning the Colonial, Kirk smiled and said, “More.”

With another PGA season in the books, perhaps one of the most intriguing storylines which emerged this year is the breakthrough success of Aussie golfer Jason Day.

During the first half, all the buzz was about American Jordan Spieth; but as the season wrapped up, the golfing world took notice of Day’s brilliance.

After capturing the Farmer’s Insurance Open title in early February, the 27-year-old from Queensland, Australia had his challenges returning to the winner’s circle in the months that followed.

While Day was experiencing a dry spell, Spieth claimed the Valspar Championship in mid-March, the Masters Championship in April, the U.S. Open in June, and the John Deere Classic in early July.

Despite his best efforts to join the former University of Texas Longhorn in the winner’s circle, Day came up empty – until a trip to Oakville for the RBC Canadian Open.

Entering the final round at Glen Abbey, Day found himself in a tie with two-time Masters champion, Bubba Watson, for second place – both stood two shots behind home grown hero, David Hearn, of Brantford, Ontario.

By the time he reached the 18th hole, Day had worked his way into a three-way tie with Hearn and Watson. And it was on the 18th that the Aussie completed his comeback by draining a tough birdie putt to put himself one shot up, which would hold as the margin of victory.

The 6-foot, 195 pound golfer said afterwards that the victory was even sweeter given his close call at St. Andrews – site of the British Open – in which he narrowly missed out on being part of a four-way playoff for the championship.

“For it to be the third oldest tournament, and to come off what happened last week and be able to get the putt to the hole this time and come out as a winner, it just feels fantastic,” he said. “That’s what we try to play so hard for. I’m really glad to be the Canadian Open champion.”

Day also pointed out that being able to pull through in the clutch had huge significance for the mental side of his game.

“Confidence-wise, my confidence is over the moon right now,” he added after his big victory on Canadian soil.

Judging by Day’s results for the remainder of the season, his win at the RBC Canadian Open was the spark that he needed to break open the flood gates to success.

Following his triumph, Day would go on to capture the PGA Championship, the Barclays title, and the BMW Championship.  As a result of his victory at the BMW Championship on September 20th, the 27-year-old fulfilled a childhood dream by becoming the world No. 1.

For Day, who was introduced to the game during his early childhood by his father, the road to the top has been anything but easy. After the death of his dad at the age of 12, Day struggled to cope with the loss.

“That’s when I started getting into trouble; started drinking a little bit; started getting into fights,” Day revealed in a recent RBC mini-documentary about his journey.

His mother, Dening Day, refused to see her son waste his talents; and decided to take out a second mortgage on the family house so that he could attend the prestigious Kooralbyn International School to hone his skills on the golf course.

It was at Kooralbyn where Day met golfing coach Colin Swatton, who would take over as the father figure in his life and steer him back on the right path.

“He’s a life changer…..The reason why I’m here is because of that guy,” Day said about Swatton, who was the best man at his wedding and today acts as the 27-year-old golfer’s caddie and coach.

Despite the many impressive accomplishments this season, perhaps the most notable victory for Day and Swatton came at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin. It was at the PGA’s final major of the season where the talented young golfer would display his mental toughness to win his first career major.

While there were many – including his rivals – who expected or hoped Day would underperform or fold given the pressure, the Aussie proved otherwise.

“Typically in a major you’re looking for somebody in Jason’s position to miss a couple of shots and just feel the nerves of his own. And he went about it like a seasoned veteran; it was almost like it was his fifth or sixth major. I wouldn’t say I was surprised, but I was amazed that he kept pulling driver and kept hitting it in the tight zones,” said Spieth in his press conference after his final round at Whistling Straits.

Day finished at 20 under par, three shots clear of Spieth, to claim the PGA Championship; and proved to the entire golfing world that he had the maturity, poise and mental toughness to win the big one.

While Day experienced a slight let down at the year-end TOUR Championship, and in the process relinquished his hold on the world No. 1 ranking back to Spieth, his brilliance over the second half of the season has many excited about a budding rivalry.

With five tournament victories this season to his credit, Day, who finished in a tie for 10th at the year-end event, says he’s happy with his results – but far from content.

The talent Aussie golfer, who grew up idolizing Tiger Woods during the time when the 14-time major champion dominated the PGA TOUR, is very much eager to achieve his own version of greatness.

In fact, Day’s commitment to excellence dates back to his days at Kooralbyn, when he would wake up every morning before the other students in order to get in extra practice on his golf swing.

But perhaps, the 27-year-old, who is now in his prime, described his ambitions for greatness best after his victory at Glen Abbey in July.

“I just want to be the best I can be while I’m on this Earth and while I have the opportunity to play golf,” Day said simply about his dedication to reach his full potential.

With Day eager to regain the distinction as world No. 1 and Spieth eager to continue his winning ways, it appears that the battle lines have been drawn between the PGA’s top two golfers.

Factor in a healthy Rory McIlroy, and a highly motivated Bubba Watson, and the 2016 PGA story line promises to be one of the most exciting in all of sports.

Victoria native Cory Renfrew posted a 7-under 65 to earn medalist honours at the Monday Qualifier for the Frys.com Open – the season-opening event on the PGA Tour.

The 29-year-old collected eight birdies en route to a four-stroke victory over runners-up Ben Geyer, Eric Hallberg and David Bradshaw. The quartet completed the full field of 144 hoping to notch a win at Silverado Country Club in Napa, Calif.

Renfrew spent this past season honing his game on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada circuit, finishing 40^th on the money list.

This will be the UBC graduate’s third foray on the PGA Tour. He Monday qualified into the 2015 Waste Management Open and finished T59 and played in the 2012 RBC Canadian Open.

Renfrew will join fellow British Columbians Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin, as well as, David Hearn (Brantford, Ont.) and Graham DeLaet (Weyburn, Sask.) to complete the Canadian contingent vying to begin the 2015-16 campaign with a victory.

INCHEON, South Korea – The final hour when both teams thought they had it won. The clutch putt that turned a rookie into the hero. The stubbed chip that made the local star cover his face with both hands as if he wanted to hide.

The Presidents Cup, packed with raw emotion and endless nerves, was unlike any other over the last 10 years.

Except for the outcome.

The Americans won for the sixth straight time Sunday when Chris Kirk made a 15-foot birdie putt to win his match in a stunning turnaround on the final hole, and Bill Haas provided a storybook ending with the winning point for his team and for his father.

“A moment I’ll never forget,” U.S. captain Jay Haas said, so choked up when it ended that he couldn’t speak.

Haas used a captain’s pick on his son, sent him off in the 12th and final singles match at the Jack Nicklaus golf Club Korea and then saw Bill Haas hit all the right shots to hold off Bae Sang-moon for a 2-up victory.

The 15 1/2-14 1/2 margin was the slimmest since the famous tie in South Africa in 2003. Not since 2005 has the Presidents Cup been decided by the final match.

That’s what the International team wanted when it demanded the number of matches be reduced (from 34 to 30). It almost got something even better _ the shiny gold trophy that again stays with the Americans.

“Irrelevant of the outcome – we obviously would have loved to have won – we put on a show of golf this week,” captain Nick Price said.

The final session was not without its share of heartbreak.

Anirban Lahiri, the first player from India to make the International team, battled Kirk shot-for-shot over the final hour holes and looked like a winner when he played a delicate pitch to perfection on the par-5 18th and had 4 feet for birdie. Kirk’s chip ran 15 feet by. Based on the status of other matches still on the course, it looked like the International team would finally emerge a winner.

And then Kirk made his putt on the final turn, and one of the most stoic players on the PGA Tour unleashed a fist pump.

Moments later, Lahiri missed.

His putt caught the right edge of the cup and spun out, and he dropped his putter over his back in disbelief.

“I have to give credit to Chris for making that putt,” Lahiri said. “These things are scripted, I guess, and I wasn’t in the script this time.”

Neither was Bae, the only player under the Korean flag who was playing for the final time before he starts mandatory military service. When it became evident the Presidents Cup would be decided by his match with Haas, the American was 1 up and not giving away any shots. Bae holed a 10-foot putt on the 16th to halve the hole. He came within inches of holing a bunker shot on the 17th to halve the hole, which assured the Americans would do no worse than tie.

Facing that tough chip below the 18th green, Bae hit it heavy and the gallery groaned as it rolled back to his feet. He crouched over that covered his face as his caddie, Matt Minister, placed a hand on Bae’s shoulder to console him. Bae chipped about 12 feet by the hole, and when Haas blasted out of a bunker to 8 feet, Bae conceded the putt.

“I wanted to make the winning point for the team, but at the end of the day, our team lost,” Bae said. “So I was very sad and disappointed about it.”

The Americans had a one-point lead going into the decisive singles session, and for the longest time, appeared to be in control all day. They had early leads in nine matches. The International side had to have all the close matches go their way, and that’s what happened.

Marc Leishman took his first lead against Jordan Spieth on the 15th hole and made a 7-foot putt on the 18th for a 1-up victory. Hideki Matsuyama won the 18th hole with a birdie to beat J.B. Holmes.

Two halves were just as critical. Louis Oosthuizen hit a splendid second shot to 12 feet for eagle on the 18th and tied Patrick Reed, and Thongchai Jaidee escaped with a half-point against Bubba Watson in the most unlikely scenario. Thongchai drove into the water and saved par, while Watson missed a 5-foot birdie putt.

Phil Mickelson had an unbeaten record (3-0-1) for the third time in the Presidents Cup, trouncing Charl Schwartzel. Zach Johnson also went unbeaten in easily beating Jason Day, the PGA champion and No. 2 player in the world who failed to win a match this week.

The shortest match belonged to Adam Scott, who won six straight holes against Rickie Fowler and ended it on the 13th green.

Ultimately, though, the Americans were posing with the gold cup, just like always. The series now is 9-1-1 since the Presidents Cup began in 1994, though the International team headed home with belief they are getting closer.

It might have found a stalwart in Branden Grace, who went 5-0 to join Shigeki Maruyama as the only International player to win all five matches.

Scott now has played on more teams (7) of any player to have never won a Presidents Cup. He looked down the row at Grace, Matsuyama, Lahiri and Day and described them as the “future of this event.”

“They are the ones who are going to take it forward,” Scott said. “I’m tipping that every one of them is going to be excited to make the 2017 team after getting a taste of how close this was today.”

INCHEON, South Korea – Anirban Lahiri was seconds away from being the star in a dream debut at the Presidents Cup.

The rest is a blur.

His birdie putt just inside 4 feet rammed off the right side of the cup and spun out. His putter tumbled out of his hand and over his back. He stood on the 18th green with his hands clasped together, the tips of his fingers covering his mouth.

“I would like to rewind and just change the last 10 seconds of it,” Lahiri said.

It wasn’t all on Lahiri, the 28-year-old who made history in these matches as the first player from India. The Presidents Cup would have then ended in a tie the way it played out with Bill Haas winning the final match for a 15½-14½ victory for the United States.

At that moment, rarely has such a competition seen such a swift turnaround.

The Presidents Cup was tied, and with the status of other matches on the course, a point from Lahiri looked as though it would be the winner for the International team. Lahiri was all square with Chris Kirk, both players short of the green on the par-5 18th and facing tough chips.

Lahiri played his to near perfection, up the slope and rolling to 4 feet away. Kirk had a steeper slope and, wanting to at least make sure he had a putt, he chipped in 15 feet long and faced a tough downhill putt that broke two directions.

Kirk’s putt dropped on the final turn. Lahiri quickly settled over his putt … and missed.

“I have to give credit to Chris for making that putt,” Lahiri said. “These things are scripted, I guess. And I wasn’t in the script.”

He was the last player to file out of the closing press conference for the International team. He spoke with poise, exuding the kind of graciousness that already has made him popular with the PGA Tour players he will join next year in America.

Lahiri is not the first player to be exposed for a miss on a big stage. The most famous missed putt in a Ryder Cup was by Bernhard Langer in 1991 at Kiawah Island. Lahiri’s captain, Nick Price, missed a short putt to lose a critical match at the Presidents Cup in 2003 and snapped the putter over his knee. Hunter Mahan muffed a chip short of the green to end his last chance in Wales at the 2010 Ryder Cup.

There are stars. And there are nightmares.

“This is certainly not how I would’ve wanted to have my first Presidents Cup play out,” Lahiri said. “I do feel terrible right now, obviously. It’s going to be hard for me to sleep tonight. I’m sure the rest of the team is going to help me out with that with the evening’s festivities.”

As disappointed as Lahiri was in the outcome, he was thrilled for Kirk. They were the only two players who had not earned a point for their teams, and the normally stoic Kirk was so excited that he slammed his fist toward the ground when his putt went in.

“One thing I’ve learned is to never wish bad on anyone else,” Lahiri said. “When it did go in, I was happy for him.”

Lahiri still knew his short putt for a halve would be critical. It would have assured the International team a tie, and perhaps inspire Bae Sang-moon in the final match to level his match with Bill Haas for the victory.

“I didn’t do my part,” Lahiri said.

He said Bubba Watson was among the first to approach him to share how Watson also had missed that putt. Price also consoled him privately and in public.

“I feel so bad for Anirban, as we all do,” Price said. “We are going to cheer Anirban up. We are going to make sure he goes away from here with a wonderful experience and not let him dwell on what happened today.”

For Lahiri, he has to move on. He was headed to his next tournament in Macau and had two events in Malaysia and China at the end of the month.

Lahiri, who won two European Tour events early in the year to qualify for his first Masters, finished fifth in the PGA Championship and narrowly missed earning enough money for a PGA Tour card. But he did well enough in the Web.com Tour Finals to earn a U.S. card, and he plans to play a full schedule in America.

And he would like nothing more than to be on the next International team in 2017 at Liberty National.

“Hopefully, I get a chance to redeem myself in years to come,” Lahiri said.

INCHEON, South Korea – Jordan Spieth made 7-foot putts on the final two holes to complete the biggest comeback all week and allow the Americans to escape with a split of the foursomes matches Saturday morning in the Presidents Cup.

The Americans had a 7 1/2-6 1/2 lead going into the four matches of fourballs in the afternoon.

The lead could easily have belonged to either team during a final hour at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea that featured clutch putts and big blunders.

The only match that lacked any drama was Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace, the International juggernaut this week. They stayed undefeated for the week in a 3-and-2 victory over Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed.

Spieth and Dustin Johnson were 3 down at the turn to Jason Day and Charl Schwartzel and still two holes behind when Schwartzel came up short and into a creek with a wedge from the 14th fairway. It was the first of two big mistakes by Schwartzel.

Johnson hit his tee shot to 7 feet on the par-3 17th, and Spieth poured in the putt to square the match. Both teams missed the fairway, and Schwartzel tried to reach the green from a bunker. He missed it so badly that the ball barely left the ground, smacked into the base of the lip and stayed in the bunker. The International team made bogey.

Spieth, however, played overly cautious with a wedge that left Johnson a 30-foot putt that was extremely fast at the hole, and he ran it 7 feet by. Spieth had to make that par putt for the win, and one of golf’s best putters left little doubt.

“We could have made it a little easier from 90 yards out. I could have gotten us below the hole,” Spieth said. “But man, what a comeback we had there. That was a great fight. And it was a huge point in The Presidents Cup.”

The Americans lost chances to pick up wins in the other two matches.

Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes looked a like a sure winner when Watson hit the green on the par-5 18th shot with his second shot, while the International team had to lay up and Leishman’s third shot with a wedge was some 30 feet short.

Holmes ran the long eagle putt about 5 feet by the hole, and Scott was furious with himself when his birdie putt – that seemed to be the best chance for a halve – ran about 8 feet by the hole. Leishman made his putt for par, and Watson missed the 5-foot birdie putt for the win.

The Americans had control of the other match, too, going 1 up on the par-3 17th when Bae Sang-moon’s touch chip failed to reach the green, allowing Bill Haas and Matt Kuchar to go 1 up heading to the 18th.

Hideki Matsuyama hit his second shot to about 25 feet for a certain birdie. Haas went over the green with his second shot, and Kuchar’s chip wasn’t strong enough and failed to reach the green. The International team won with a birdie for a half-point.

For the fourballs session, U.S. captain Jay Haas kept Watson and Holmes together for a fourth straight match, while Johnson sat out the session and Spieth was with Reed, his partner from the Ryder Cup.

Scott had his fourth partner in four matches, this time going with Anirban Lahiri.