Few would have ever imagined that Scottie Scheffler would go into the Saturday afternoon session at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black off the back of three defeats.
Unsurprisingly, Keegan Bradley put his full faith in Scottie Scheffler in New York. Unfortunately for the Team USA captain, the world number one had a torrid time over the first three sessions at Bethpage.
It meant that Scheffler went into his match alongside Bryson DeChambeau on Saturday afternoon still awaiting his first win of any kind in the Ryder Cup since Whistling Straits in 2021.
It is fair to say that the game has changed dramatically since then. So with that in mind, here is a look at five notable incidents in the game of golf since Scheffler’s most recent Ryder Cup victory.
Five notable events in golf since Scottie Scheffler won a Ryder Cup match
Jon Rahm continues to star for Team Europe on the Ryder Cup stage
Jon Rahm is undoubtedly a talisman of the European side. The two-time major champion finds another gear in the Ryder Cup, like so many of the Spaniards to feature in the competition before him.
Rahm’s victory alongside Tyrrell Hatton against Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay on Saturday saw him win his sixth point since losing to Scheffler at Whistling Straits.
That run includes three wins from three matches at this year’s event.
Rory McIlroy completes the Career Grand Slam at The Masters
When Scheffler beat Rahm in Wisconsin four years ago, there were five players who had won the Career Grand Slam. But Rory McIlroy would add his name to that list at The Masters in 2025.
McIlroy did his best to throw the tournament away on Sunday at Augusta National. But a fifth major title ensured that the Northern Irishman secured sporting immortality.
A record defeat rocks the Ryder Cup in Rome
Scheffler’s Ryder Cup performance this year was not quite as surprising as it perhaps should have been given that he previously had a nightmare in Italy two years earlier.
He failed to win either of his matches on the opening day. And to add insult to injury, he was on the receiving end of a record loss at the hands of Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg.
The European pair beat Scheffler and Brooks Koepka 9&7 in foursomes, leaving the world’s best player in tears. It was little shock when Zach Johnson sat him out of the afternoon matches.
LIV Golf is formed
It is bizarre to think about now, but there was no LIV Golf in 2021. There were rumblings at the Ryder Cup of a new league starting up, with the funding coming from Saudi Arabia.
Of course, within 12 months, LIV Golf was off and running after signing a host of names from both the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. The backlash Phil Mickelson faced over his move prompted him to miss The Masters that year – an event eventually won by Scheffler.
Scottie Scheffler becomes a PGA Tour winner
One of the big storylines at the 2021 Ryder Cup was the fact that Scheffler had not yet won on the PGA Tour. In fact, he was something of a contentious pick for the week from Steve Stricker.
The wait for a maiden victory would not last too much longer however. Scheffler won the WM Phoenix Open in 2022 – just a few months before he became a major champion.
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