The hosts dominated the fourballs by taking four of five points on Friday to go with their 4-1 thrashing in Thursday's foursomes for an 8-2 lead at Quail Hollow Club.

The Americans were again forced to fend off a late fightback by the Internationals that saw three of the five matches come down to the final hole but ended in the same 4-1 score line with the US winning three and the other two finishing in ties.

The Internationals, with a record eight Presidents Cup debutants in their 12-man team, started as massive underdogs against a US squad featuring nine of the top-15 players in the world ranking.

But they now require some help from the golfing gods just to avoid a humiliating defeat.

The all Aussie pairing of Adam Scott and Cam Davis went down 2&1 to Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. PHOTO: Rob Carr/Getty Images.

The US have dominated the biennial competition with an 11-1-1 record and are in position to register a Presidents Cup first – clinching the golden trophy on Saturday and making Sunday's 12 singles matches nothing more than a victory lap for the hosts.

With two sessions scheduled for a marathon Saturday (foursomes and fourballs), the Americans will target the 15 1/2 total points needed to lift the Cup for a 12th time and extend their unbeaten run on home soil.

Sent out first by US captain Davis Love III, major winners Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas set the tone by taming the Australian duo of Adam Scott and Cam Davis 2&1 to get the US on the scoreboard.

"Cam was playing really good, and that finally allowed me to free up a little bit," said Scott. "We really found our stride around the turn, and then we were playing really good golf.

"He carried me the whole front nine. But we were playing two really good players who just got on top of us early and played the way they do and made it hard for us to get back in it."

The day ended in an explosion of cheers from the pro-American crowd when Max Homa rolled in a pressure-packed birdie putt on the 18th to save a 1-up victory for him and partner Billy Horschel over Canadian duo Corey Connors and Taylor Pendrith.

Also earning a point for the US were the stellar partnership of World Nos.4 and 5 Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, who a day earlier had hammered the Internationals' most experienced pair of Scott and Hideki Matsuyama 6&5 in foursomes.

Picking up where they left off on Thursday, Cantlay and Schauffele charged to a 5-up lead on Matsuyama and South Korean Tom Kim after just eight holes but needed to work to close out a 3&2 win.

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns, the only American pair to lose on Thursday – they went down to Davis and Si Woo Kim– could not get in the win column but did earn the US a half point when their match with South Korea's Sungjae Im and Colombian Sebastian Munoz finished in a tie.

Kevin Kisner and Cameron Young also secured a half point for the US as their match with Chile's Mito Pereira and South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout finished deadlocked.

Saturday's matches:

Corey Conners/Sungjae Im vs Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas

Hideki Matsuyama/Adam Scott vs Collin Morikawa and Cameron Young

Tom Kim and KH Lee vs Sam Burns and Scottie Scheffler

Si Woo Kim/Cam Davis v Max Homa and Tony Finau