Scheffler's pars on the final two holes were enough to give the world No.1 and Sam Burns a 1-up win over Lee and Sungae Im after the US only grabbed the lead at the 17th.
Lee and Im had a series of opportunities to take control of the match but blew their chances mid-round as the top-ranked Scheffler and Burns prevailed for the first time playing together in the fourball format.
"Sam hit probably the shot of the match there on 14," Scheffler said. "We lost 13 to go 1 down, and then he hit one in there to a couple feet and we were able to square the match up.
"I felt like that was really a big moment for us as a team, and he stepped up when we needed him to."
Theirs was the only match to go the distance as Lee's fellow Australian Adam Scott, partnering New Zealand's Cup debutant Ryan Fox, suffered a 3&2 loss to Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa.
Justin Thomas and rookie Jackson Koivun won 4 and 3 against Canada's Corey Conners and Colombia's Nico Echavarria at Medinah Country Club's No. 3 course.
The Japanese pair of Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune defeated Cameron Young and Xander Schauffele 3 and 1 and the South Korean tandem of Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim beat Chris Gotterup and Patrick Cantlay 3 and 2 to give the International team hope of a first Presidents Cup victory since 1998 at Royal Melbourne.
Scheffler has struggled in international competition despite being part of two winning Presidents Cup teams. His individual record in the competition was 3-5-1 entering this week.
The Thomas/Koivun victory was clutch for the US as both golfers were captain's picks by Brandt Snedeker. Koivun's birdies at numbers three and six won those holes. Thomas was the closer with birdies on 14 and 15.
Clark set the tone in match four with birdies on three of the first four holes as he and Morikawa took an early two-hole edge.
The Internationals will look to fight back in the day-two foursomes format outside of Chicago.
International captain Geoff Ogilvy came away pleased to be close.
"Two-to-three their way is not too bad," the Australian said. "We had a couple of really good, solid matches there, and we had a match go up to 18, which would have been nice if it went the other way.
"But 2-3, we'll take that. The boys have got a round under their belt now."
With Reuters
