United States secure sixth successive Presidents Cup title on the final hole

The United States won the Presidents Cup for the sixth successive time ©Getty Images

The United States secured their sixth consecutive victory at the Presidents Cup after a thrilling 15½-14½ success over the international team which was sealed on the very last hole.

America began the 12 singles matches today with a 9½-8½-lead, the smallest advantage held on the last day of the event in its 10-year history, and they were to be in front by the same margin at the end of play at South Korea's Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Incheon.

With the score locked at 14½-all and just one match out on the course, Bill Haas, the son of the United States’ captain Jay, knew he needed to defeat Korea’s home favourite Bae Sang-moon to claim the Cup and he held a one shot lead heading to the final hole of the tournament.

Bae therefore needed to win the 18th if he was to halve the match, but a poor approach shot gave him too difficult a putt to potentially secure the hole and instead he was forced to concede, giving the United States the overall victory.

It means that the US have won every edition of the biennial Presidents Cup - a match-play competition which pits them against a team from the rest of the world excluding Europe - since 2003 when the event was tied.

Sangmoon Bae was unable to level the match on the final hole of the tournament — Bae Sang-moon was unable to level the match on the final hole of the tournament ©Getty Images

Earlier in the day, the overall match was soon levelled after Australia’s Adam Scott dominated his contest with Rickie Fowler, winning 6&5.

The international team then took the lead after Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Australia’s Steven Bowditch secured victories in their singles matches, one up against JB Holmes and two up against Jimmy Walker respectively, shortly after American Dustin Johnson had won his clash with New Zealand’s Danny Lee 2&1.

Haven fallen behind the US team sparked into life with Phil Mickleson defeating South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel 5&4 before Chris Kirk birdied the 18th to finish one shot ahead of India’s Anirban Lahiri to edge his team ahead once again.

A dramatic finish was on the cards after Australia’s Marc Leishman held on to a one shot lead over world number one Jordan Spieth until the conclusion of their tie to level the scores at 13½-all with just three singles matches left to finish.

Despite only two matches being halved, between America's Patrick Reed and South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen and the US' Bubba Watson and Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee, almost every game proved to be a close affair.

This theme continued into the final stages of the cup with Zach Johnson overcoming Australia’s Jason Day, 2&1, to put the Americans back in front.

The Cup would then go to the final match after South Africa’s Branden Grace, who won each point he had participated for, beat America’s Matt Kuchar to draw the international team level.

That set up Haas for the final drama, with his father claiming the winning honours ahead of Zimbabwe's international captain Nick Price.

Having now won nine of the 11 editions of the tournament the United States will hope to continue their domination at the 2017 event, which is due to take place at the Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey.

Melbourne in Australia is set to host in 2019.