There are times when world number one Scottie Scheffler looks invincible. His mere presence on page one of the leaderboard strikes fear into leaders and challengers alike. But when it comes to team events, particularly the Ryder Cup, players can get at him.
Scheffler has won just three of his twelve Ryder Cup matches since his debut in 2021 while his Presidents Cup record stands at three wins, five losses and one tie since debuting in 2022.
Overall he has six defeats in his Ryder Cup career, eleven across both team events with foursomes being his worst format with one win and seven defeats.
At the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome, Scheffler was reduced to tears after he and Brooks Koepka suffered a record breaking 9&7 defeat to Viktor Hovland and college graduate Ludvig Åberg in the Saturday foursomes which culminated in the then world number one being dropped for the afternoon fourballs.
Scheffler has been utterly dominant in the men’s stroke play game but that has not transferred to match play situations at all. But he isn’t the only leading American to look virtually unstoppable as an individual only to perish under the pressure of a team environment.
Of the players who have made multiple Presidents Cup appearances and won multiple majors since 2000, Scheffler is bottom. Tiger Woods went 27-15-1 in the Presidents Cup. Phil Mickelson went 26-16-13. Jordan Spieth is 13-5-1.
However, like Scheffler, Woods, Mickelson and Spieth have underwhelming Ryder Cup records. Woods went 13-21-3, Mickelson 18-22-7 and Spieth 8-9-5, despite his strong partnership with Justin Thomas.
Scheffler’s greatness is unquestioned but as the USA looked to have birthed a golden generation of Ryder Cup teams in 2021, they have lost the last two editions. Heading to the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in twelve months time, Scheffler needs to put his match play record right and become the real leader that the Americans need.
For the 30-year-old, it hasn’t been for a lack of trying. Which might be his downfall.
“I think the matchplay over stroke play is always a little bit overblown,” he said ahead of Thursday’s start against the International team at Medinah.
“In matchplay, if you play really good golf, you’re going to win your match. If not, you’re not going to.
“As a hypercompetitive person, I think sometimes I can probably try too hard. When you look at this format, maybe my record hasn’t matched up to what I think that it should be, could it be trying too hard?
“For me it’s different in the sense that you also have a partner with you and you’re playing for somebody outside yourself, and that’s a lot different as well.
“Striking the balance between how much you care, I think that’s something I’m always trying to figure out. Definitely for me, I think trying less would be really important.
“It’s just one of those things that’s a lot easier said than done.”
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