One of the images which arguably best summed up Europe’s dominance over the first two days at the 2023 Ryder Cup was the sight of world number one Scottie Scheffler letting his emotions get the better of him after a record loss on Saturday morning.
On paper, USA went into the 2023 Ryder Cup with a fantastic chance of becoming the first side since 2012 to win the event on away soil. Five of the world’s top 10 were in Zach Johnson’s team – including world number one Scottie Scheffler – while no player in his side was ranked lower than 25.
However, Europe were phenomenal on Friday. Luke Donald‘s men did not lose a single match as they took a 6.5-1.5 lead. Many would have expected quite the reaction from the American side on Saturday.
Scheffler was put in the second match in the third session, alongside Brooks Koepka. And their opponents were Viktor Hovland and rookie Ludvig Aberg. Few would have foreseen what would happen next.
Scottie Scheffler explained why he got so emotional after record Ryder Cup defeat
Hovland and Aberg were superb as Scheffler and Koepka crumbled. The match was over after 11 holes, with the Europeans winning by a record margin of 9&7. And it appeared to be all too much for Scheffler after.
He was seen on the verge of tears, so it was little surprise that he was left out of the afternoon matches.
And speaking after he proved a bit of a point by halving his match with Jon Rahm in the Sunday singles, Scheffler explained the toll the week had taken on him.
“After finishing yesterday, I had plenty of time to rest and get ready for this morning. Pretty much all there is to say,” he said.
“It’s a tough week, and sometimes you get on the wrong side of things. And like Brooks and I went out, and we both just decided we were going to play terrible. I kind of started the party. I got off to a bad start, and things spiraled out of control from there.
“I was emotional after the round because I care a lot about this tournament. It’s one of my favourite tournaments of the year. These team events are tough to beat. Like the guys said, this felt like the closest group of guys that we’ve had. And at the time I felt like I was letting these guys down. I was put out in the morning to get a point, and so far I had played in three matches and felt like we had a good chance of getting a point on Friday, and then we went out Saturday morning and just wasn’t able to get much momentum going. And it was pretty tough.
“Going out first today, I wanted to do what I could to get a point on the board for our team. We wanted to come out fighting, no doubt about that, and I put up another good fight on 18 for another halve, which is tough. I really don’t know what to say because I just wanted to win my match today for these guys. That’s really all there is to it. There’s a long answer, but the short one is I just wanted to win the match for my teammates, pretty much it.”
How Scheffler has fared throughout his Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup career
Scheffler has an incredibly mixed record in team events. His Ryder Cup debut could have hardly gone better, with 2.5 points coming from three matches. He beat Rahm in the Sunday singles on that occasion.
But he only took half a point from his four matches at the Presidents Cup in 2022. So it was alarming that he was so underwhelming in Rome the following year.
| Event | Record W-L-H | Points won |
| 2021 Ryder Cup | 2-0-1 | 2.5 |
| 2022 Presidents Cup | 0-3-1 | 0.5 |
| 2023 Ryder Cup | 0-2-2 | 1 |
| 2024 Presidents Cup | 3-2-0 | 3 |
Scheffler was much more dominant at Royal Montreal in the 2024 Presidents Cup. He won three points from five matches as USA retained the trophy relatively comfortably.
Nevertheless, he will surely feel that he needs to make a statement when he tees it up at Bethpage next year, particularly as the travelling European fans will probably have little problem reminding him of what happened against Hovland and Aberg.
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