What Happens If the Presidents Cup Ends in a Tie This Week

The 2026 Presidents Cup could end in a tie, and if it does, there will be no playoff to decide the trophy. The two teams would simply share the Cup, a rule that has been used exactly once in the event's history.

How many points does a team need to win outright?

Thirty points are on offer across the week, and a team needs at least 15½ to claim the Cup outright. The International team held a 10½-to-7½ lead entering Sunday singles at Medinah, meaning the Internationals needed five more points to win outright while the U.S. needed eight.

What happens if the two teams tie?

If the Presidents Cup finishes 15-15, the two teams jointly retain the trophy rather than playing on. That arrangement traces to the only tie in the event's history, at Fancourt in South Africa in 2003.

That year, under a since-abandoned 34-point format, the U.S. and International teams finished level at 17-17. Captains Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player sent out world No. 1 Tiger Woods and world No. 2 Ernie Els for a playoff. The pair halved three extra holes in fading light — Woods holing a 15-footer and Els a six-footer to extend it at the third — before the captains agreed to stop for darkness and split the Cup.

The Ryder Cup also has no tiebreaking playoff, but a tie is resolved differently there: the defending champion simply retains the Cup rather than sharing it. The U.S. has gone 13-1-1 in the Presidents Cup since it began in 1994, and the International team's only outright victory came in 1998.