Great Britain & Ireland Extends Lead to 11.5-4.5 Over U.S. on Day 2 of the 2026 PGA Cup

The Great Britain & Ireland Team picked up where it left off, nearly sweeping the morning foursomes before splitting the afternoon four-ball session to take an 11.5-4.5 lead over the United States on the second day of the 32nd PGA Cup.

The GB&I Team needs just two points to win its first PGA Cup since 2017 as the event heads into the singles matches Sunday at The K Club.

“The goal today was to win the day; we were pretty far from that,” said U.S. Captain Ben Polland, PGA Director of Golf at Shooting Star of Jackson Hole. “The GB&I team has just played incredible. I was out there watching every match and did not see many missed shots or many opportunities for our guys. You were only winning holes with birdies or eagles, and in most cases you're tying holes with birdies. They didn't give a lot of room. The guys had a good effort, not too much was given to GB&I, they just took it all. We've got our work cut out for us tomorrow, but we're trying to find ways to get these guys prepared to do their best.”

GB&I took the first three points of the morning foursomes session. Brian Bergstol (Nazareth, Pa.) and Brandon Bingaman (Plano, Texas) just missed getting at least half a point in their match with GB&I’s James Freeman and Gareth Davies, losing 1-up after being 3-up through 7 and tied through 15. Graeme Robertson and Gavin Hay added a 2&1 victory over Tyler Collet (Vero Beach, Fla.) and Jesse Droemer (Houston, Texas).

In a rematch from Friday’s foursomes, Simon Thornton and Matt Ford posted a commanding 4&2 win over Americans Michael Kartrude (Port St. Lucie, Fla.) and Ben Kern (Columbus, Ohio), who had won the first-day’s battle, 5&4.

“They gave us a barrage of birdies around the turn yesterday,” said Thornton. “Today we sort of got ahead and kept the momentum going and maybe gave them one hole. But the rest of it, we were ahead very comfortably really.”

The morning session came down to a battle between Zach Haynes (Bowling Green, Ky.) and Ryan Lenahan (New Hudson, Mich.) of the U.S. against GB&I’s Ashley Mansell and Harry Casey. With the Americans down by four through 10, a second GB&I session sweep in this PGA Cup seemed imminent.

Then Mansell and Casey bogeyed 11. Then they bogeyed 12. A clutch birdie from Haynes and Lenahan at the par-4 13th had the Americans just one back as they entered the home stretch. Mansell and Casey bogeyed again at the par-4 16th, leading to the match ending in a tie. While they would have preferred a full point, the Americans were glad to get on the board and carry some momentum into the afternoon four-ball.

“We definitely had our chances, but after nine holes, you know, we would have taken a half point,” said Haynes. “I'm proud of the way we fought. We just didn't have anything go our way, and the other team played solid. We kind of got some things to go our way and played well in the back, which felt good and we carried that over to the second match.”

In the afternoon, the four-ball matches were split 2-2. GB&I’s Toby Hunt and Ben Amor picked up another point following a 2&1 victory over Kartrude and Austin Hurt (Bainbridge Island, Wash.).

Bergstol and Bingaman responded with a 3&2 win in their rematch from the morning against Freeman and Davies. The Americans were 7-under through 11, Bergstol carded six birdies and the pair never trailed.

“It was nice for Brandon and me,” said Bergstol. “We played together all three times and every one had gone to the 18th hole before that and we lost. We were up early yesterday and lost. Today we were up three [in foursomes] through 7 and still lost. This time we jumped out pretty early on them and were able to hold on. That feels a whole lot better than playing all 18 holes and getting nothing out of it.”

Collet and Garrett Sapp (Cypress, Calif.) battled GB&I’s Robertson and Hay all the way to the 18th green. The Americans were briefly up by one after Sapp’s birdie at 9, and the match was tied through 13, but his second birdie at the par-4 16th was not enough to overcome Robertson’s back-to-back birdies on 14 and 15 as GB&I won the match, 1-up. Robertson and Hay are now both 4-0-0 in this year’s matches.

The final match of the afternoon once again came down to Americans Haynes and Lenahan against Mansell, this time partnered with Ford, who birdied the first hole to give GB&I an early 1-up lead. Haynes and Mansell traded birdies on holes 6 through 8 to bring the match back to a tie before the Americans took the lead for good.

“Ryan's just really solid, he's always in the hole and his short game's great, which freed up Zach to kind of just start swinging easy, which he did,” said Polland. “He was striping it.”

Haynes knocked in birdies at the par-5 10th and par-4 11th to move the U.S. to 2-up. Ford responded with a birdie at 13, which was negated by Lenahan’s birdie at the par-4 15th, and the Americans won the match, 2&1.

“On hole 1, the other team bounced one in from off the green from like 50 yards [for birdie],” said Haynes. “That was kind of how our day was going, it seemed like. But we rebounded on 3 with a birdie and that middle of the round was solid. Hole 11 was huge, Ryan was in there tight, and I was able to make it as well. That got us up top and that was definitely kind of the turning point in the match. We were able to just hold on the rest of the way in.”

As the PGA Cup moves to the singles matches, the Americans find themselves seven points behind with 10 points available. A tall task, but one the Americans have seen before: In 2019, the U.S. captured eight of 10 Sunday singles matches for a 14-12 comeback victory.

“These guys have nothing to lose,” said Polland. “They know that and tomorrow is a totally different game. It's mano a mano, nobody has anyone to back them up. I know how good all these players are, they just need to go out and do their thing. I think we can start scraping away some points early in the day and then hang in there. Once GB&I feel like there's a lot of red up on the board, those guys are going to start to feel a lot of pressure they haven't felt yet this week. It's going to be difficult for them to close it out.”

For additional information on the PGA Cup, visit here.