Scheffler's no-show a rare and ominous sign for USA

Scottie Scheffler of Team United States during the morning foursomes on day two.

The best golfer in the world stood on the 18th fairway with a wedge in his hand and watched his ball miss the green that he absolutely had to hit. 

It was a shockingly poor shot at the worst time. The match – and in all likelihood the Ryder Cup – was lost in the balance.

Scottie Scheffler isn’t the only American having a no good, very bad Ryder Cup. 

But the world No. 1 is the American who could least afford to go pointless in the first three sessions as the Europeans built a daunting and perhaps unassailable five-point lead.

For all of the comparisons to Tiger Woods that Scheffler has objected to over two sterling seasons dripping with accolades, trophies and cash, the one parallel he really didn’t want to draw out was at Ryder Cup.

For all Tiger’s greatness, his legacy in golf’s greatest biennial event was that of a below-average journeyman. Tiger was part of only one winning team in eight appearances and had a 13-21-3 (.392) match record.

Scheffler was part of one winning team as a rookie at Whistling Straits and through Saturday morning’s foursomes is now 2-5-3 (.350) in three Ryder Cups.

It’s a startling failure from a guy who came into the matches on a run of 15 consecutive top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour. 

He was the guy captain Keegan Bradley could rely on the most as he sent him off in all five sessions. 

Instead, Scheffler became just the second American player to compete in each of the first three sessions of a Ryder Cup and lose every match (Xander Schauffele did that in 2023).

In those first three critical sessions, Scheffler’s pairing led only 1 hole – after a birdie on the first in Friday afternoon four-ball with J.J. Spaun that was ultimately lost 3&2 against Jon Rahm and Sepp Straka.

“We gave ourselves plenty of opportunities. It really just came down to me not holing enough putts,” Scheffler said. “We put up a good fight at the end. The guys just really turned it on on the back nine, but it really came down to us not taking advantage of the holes early in the match that we needed to.” 

Scheffler got behind early by multiple holes in each of the first three matches and only in Saturday’s anchor foursomes with Russell Henley against Viktor Hovland and Robert MacIntyre did they fight back to square after 13 holes.

But MacIntyre’s dart on the par-3 14th put Europe back 1 up and Hovland’s 13-foot par save on the par-3 17th secured at least a half a point before Scheffler’s disastrous wedge on 18 sealed the fate of another lost session and had the Americans gasping for air.

“A calamity,” Nick Faldo said on the air after Scheffler’s misfired wedge. “What was that? You get that weird feeling in your gut and you just can’t make a follow-through. I’m still in shock from that wedge shot. You’re World No. 1, it was a pressure shot, and you missed the backboard on that one, didn’t you?” 

Replied analyst Notah Begay: “I think that was a little thin with a little dose of hosel in there.” 

Scheffler and Henley made six birdies in the alternate-shot format and got beaten by a pairing that out-putted them in making seven.

“Russ and I, we battled hard out there,” said Scheffler. “The guys we played against just played great. They did a good job. They holed the key putts. Obviously disappointed with the finish, but battled pretty hard this morning, and going to go out and do it again in the afternoon.” 

Desperate for a spark, captain Keegan Bradley teamed up his two biggest stars – Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau – in the Saturday four-ball against Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose. 

It was a reprisal of Scheffler’s only successful Ryder Cup performance in 2021 as a rookie at Whistling Straits, where he and DeChambeau took the only half point ever off the team of Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton and beat Fleetwood and Hovland.

While captain Bradley’s team has been outclassed in every session – through some fault of his own, sending out the dismal partnership of Collin Morikawa and Harris English twice to ignominious defeat in both foursomes sessions – it was the disappointment of his two lead ponies on Friday going a collective 0-4 that was crushing.

Had the U.S. gotten just one point each from Scheffler and DeChambeau, its 5½-2½ hole could have been a 4½-3½ lead and covered the mistake of sending out Morikawa and English. 

But instead, every U.S. misstep was magnified while Europe’s Luke Donald and his team never seemed to put a foot out of place.