7:05 PM ET

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Round 2 of the Presidents Cup was more competitive than the first, but the U.S. team still piled up four more points to take an 8-2 lead heading into the weekend at Quail Hollow Club.

There are still 20 points at stake over the next two days, so the International team isn’t completely out of it. But it’s going to take one of the biggest comebacks in Presidents Cup history for the sizable underdog to avoid losing in the event for the ninth consecutive time.

The U.S. needs to win only 7½ of the remaining points to win the Presidents Cup for the 12th time in 14 events.

“Get to 15½ as quickly as you can,” Jordan Spieth said, when asked Friday what the U.S. team message would be on Friday night.

The Americans matched their biggest lead after Round 2 by winning three matches and tying in two others on Friday. They were also ahead 8-2 at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey in 2017, when they ended up winning 19-11. In the last Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne in Australia, the U.S. trailed 6½ to 3½ after Round 2, before rallying for a 16-14 victory under captain Tiger Woods.

According to ESPN Stats & Information research, since the Presidents Cup format was changed to four days in 2000, teams that were leading after Round 2 have won in seven out of 10 events. The U.S. team has led eight times after Day 2 and went 7-0-1 after doing so.

The overmatched International team tied two matches and had a chance in the final one, until Max Homa sank a birdie putt on the 17th hole to take a 1-up lead and then made another 15-footer on the 18th for the win.

The Americans’ strongest teams continued to roll, as Spieth and Justin Thomas defeated Australia’s Adam Scott and Cam Davis 2 & 1, and Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele took down Hideki Matsuyama and Tom Kim 3 & 2. Both of those U.S. teams are already 2-0.

What’s surprising? World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler hasn’t won a match yet. After Scheffler and Sam Burns lost by dropping the final four holes in Round 1, they tied their match with Sungjae Im and Sebastian Munoz on Friday. It’s the first time a world No. 1 hasn’t won either of his first two matches in the Presidents Cup since Greg Norman in 1996. — Mark Schlabach

Here is some of the best action from Friday:

Team USA for the win

Luck is on the Americans’ side

As if the Americans needed anything else, they’re getting all of the good bounces on Friday, as well. Spieth’s second shot on the par-4 15th should have been in the creek, but it took a fortunate bounce off a rock and somehow ended up bouncing over the green. He got up and down for par and halved the hole.

Hometown team in the house

Twitter drama

One of the reasons the International team is currently taking a beatdown is that many of the best players it expected to have on its roster were ruled ineligible after playing in LIV Golf events. That includes Open Championship winner Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann and Louis Oosthuizen. LIV Golf CEO and chairman Greg Norman wished the International team well on Twitter. Team captain Trevor Immelman didn’t seem amused, responding, “LOL.”

“Look, any of you that have known me for the longest time know that I’m an extremely open and honest person,” Immelman said. “I pretty much say it exactly as I’m thinking it. What I said was exactly what I was doing when I read that tweet. I was laughing out loud.”

A sweet spot

The Americans are loving the par-5 seventh hole at Quail Hollow. Three of the five U.S. teams carded eagles on the hole, with Burns, Young and Patrick Cantlay all making eagle putts. Burns sank an 80-footer, the longest putt of his PGA Tour career. Two International team players, South Korea’s Im and Japan’s Matsuyama, made birdies on the 527-yard hole, but still lost to eagles.

JT is still dabbing

The dab might have gone out of style a few years ago, but Justin Thomas is still doing it. He threw up a quick dab after sinking a birdie putt on the par-3 fourth hole. Thomas, an avid Alabama football fan, surely wasn’t honoring former Auburn and Carolina Panthers star Cam Newton, who was the king of the dab in the NFL.

Presidents at the Presidents Cup

Rowdy at the first tee

Best of Round 1

A little bit of luck

An inch either way and this Max Homa shot would have gone straight into the water. Instead, it hit the most conveniently placed rock possible. Homa and Tony Finau managed to salvage par out of it.

We’ve all been there

Not exactly what Justin Thomas was intending with this shot out of the bunker. It could have been worse!

Faces in the crowd

They don’t call it the Presidents Cup for nothing. According to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are planning to attend the four-day tournament at Quail Hollow Club this weekend. Cooper told reporters that President Joe Biden might also be coming Sunday. “I think that will just add to the aura of the event,” Cooper said. Cooper watched players tee off of No. 1 in a suite with former North Carolina and Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams.

No bounces allowed

Weather a factor?

The wind is howling at Quail Hollow Club, as a storm system is starting to blow through Charlotte. Xander Schauffele had to remove his hat before hitting his second shot from the No. 13 fairway. Temperatures have been in the mid-90s for much of the week. The passing cold front is supposed to drop temperatures by nearly 20 degrees; forecasts call for highs of 75 degrees Friday.

The Justin and Jordan show

The pairing of Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth is working out early in their match against Sungjae Im and Corey Conners. On the first hole, Spieth hit his tee shot into the left rough. Thomas made a 7½-footer to save par. On the next hole, he hit his tee shot into the pine straw, leaving Spieth with a tricky recovery shot off a bad lie. Spieth knocked it to 10 feet. Then, on the par-3 fourth, Thomas somehow chunked his tee shot, leaving the ball about 44 yards from the hole. Spieth, one of the best scramblers in the game, knocked the second shot to about 4 feet. As Spieth walked up to the green, Thomas patted himself on the back. The U.S. squad was 2-up through five holes after a birdie on No. 5.

Young crushing it

It didn’t take U.S. team rookie Cameron Young long to make an impact. Playing with Collin Morikawa in the third match, Young, one of the longest hitters on the PGA Tour, crushed a 306-yard drive down the middle of the No. 1 fairway. After Morikawa hit the second shot to 25 feet, Young nearly holed out from the fringe. They made par and halved the hole.

Arrivals and more

Jack Nicklaus was captain of the U.S. Presidents Cup team four times and Gary Player captained three squads. Nicklaus was the captain in 1998, which is the only time the Americans have lost this event.

What’s your AIM name?

For years, AOL Instant Messenger was the way to communicate with friends online. Almost everyone who used it probably remembers what they used for a screen name. American golfer and No. 20 Max Homa chose … “nexttigerwoods59.”

That’s the perfect encapsulation of what those screen names were like — goofy, a little lofty, ultimately charming. Scheffler, on the other hand, did not have an AIM name at all — and he had a great explanation as to why not.