MONTREAL — For all the talk about the United States’ dominance of the Presidents Cup, its disparity in world ranking averages with international challengers and its relative lack of depth, the competition should never be so one-sided.

As dominant as Scottie Scheffler has been in the world of golf this year, the difference between the elite of the elite competing in Presidents Cups and Ryder Cups is truly minuscule.

Add to this the fact that the events are a match play format and the perceived or actual differences in team strength are even smaller because they are played hole by hole rather than total strokes.

So days like Friday at Royal Montreal shouldn’t be a surprise, even if it’s understandably seen that way.

A day after the humiliating and disappointing loss to the Americans, the Internationals bounced back with a similar barrage, this time winning all five foursome games and turning what seemed like a foregone conclusion into a competitive Presidents Cup ahead of Saturday’s eight games. (Saturday morning four-ball games take place here.)

Playing in the four-a-side format that traditionally draws attention to the Internationals, they made easy work of the Americans in three games, prevailed in two more games and leveled the competition at 5-5, with 20 points still to be determined on Saturday and Sunday had to.

“Incredible. “Incredible day for us,” said Adam Scott, 44, the veteran of this competition, who is participating in the Presidents Cup for the 11th time but has never won one. “To come back after a hard day yesterday and show everyone what being on this team is simply incredible.

“We have a big day tomorrow and a bigger day on Sunday. I think we can enjoy this evening and then come out of it incredibly focused. This team now knows what they are capable of.”

Si Woo Kim capped the rousing comeback by hitting a 15-footer for par on the 18th green that prevented the Americans from taking at least half a point on the day, drawing deserved celebrations. It sealed a one-two victory for Kim and Byeong Hun An over Scheffler and Russell Henley.

It was an impressive display of fortitude a day after he was embarrassed despite all the games being close.

The turnaround was so impressive that the Americans only led by one game for one hole – when Scheffer and Russell Henley birdied the second hole.

That day, the international team won a combined 27 holes, while the Americans won just seven.

Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im got things started by defeating the top American duo of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele. They defeated the US duo at Nos. 7 and 6 and finished with seven straight birdies, a remarkable achievement on the alternate shot.

Cantlay and Schauffele are 3-0 combined in previous Presidents Cups and 5-2 overall, including the Ryder Cup. They trailed by 4 after six holes.

“Almost unknown,” said Scott, who played in the group behind Taylor Pendrith and beat Sahith Theegala and Collin Morikawa for fifth and fourth place. And a lot of that was because of what they did.”

Canadians Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes, who dropped out on Thursday, lost just one hole in their match against Wyndham Clark and Tony Finau, winning 6 and 5.

Jason Day came through with a clutch flop shot behind the 18th hole and helped secure a 1-up victory over Max Homa and Brian Harman with his partner Christiaan Bezuidenhout.

In the final match, Kim and An defeated Scheffler and Henley, who were trailing with five minutes left but were unable to tie the match.

“Today was an important day for them,” said Scheffler. “They really, really went out and played great. It seemed like yesterday they hit a lot of good putts late in the round that somehow missed the edge. Today those putts ended up at the bottom of the cup. Just hats off to these guys.”

The international team’s great pride was obvious. This week there’s no prize money at stake, no world ranking points and – broadly speaking – not much to tarnish your legacy in this team competition.

But no one likes to be beaten down like the Internationals on Thursday. Winning back a few points would have been a decent achievement. To get them all?

“Just really proud of the boys,” said international captain Mike Weir. “I had confidence in our guys. Playing so well yesterday and not having any points on the board was disappointing. I couldn’t be happier to see the hard work and persevere.”

The Americans entered the Presidents Cup with twelve players with an average of 12.4 in the Official World Golf Ranking. These include No. 1 Scheffler, No. 2 Schauffele and five of the top 10.

The international team achieved an average of “only” 34.3 in the OWGR, but in reality this discrepancy is small. A similar disparity occurred last year in Rome, where the Europeans beat the Americans (eight of the U.S. players who played in the Ryder Cup are playing in this Presidents Cup) in relatively easy fashion.

In fact, on paper, the Americans almost always have the stronger team than the Europeans, and anyone who follows the competition knows how that worked out. The U.S. hasn’t won the Ryder Cup in Europe in more than 30 years.

In contrast, the international team has only had one victory in the Presidents Cup, in 1998, when Shigeki Maruyama (who is alternate captain this week) won 5-0 in Australia and the biggest drama was Tiger Woods’ singles match against Greg Norman was.

Since then, the Internationals have managed just one draw (in 2003) and suffered nine consecutive defeats.

Even with a stronger US team, that makes little sense. Maybe the Americans win in most cases. But nine in a row?

“It’s certainly something I’ve thought about,” Scott said. “With Hideki too, Jason. We’ve been here for over 10 years now, each of us. It is an achievement beyond our individual achievements that we are missing out on (by not winning this event). I think if I were to answer now I would probably underestimate the impact it would have if we got a win.”

That’s in play now, a possibility with two days to go that seemed almost unthinkable 24 hours earlier.