While Scottie Scheffler leaves golf fans amazed in most of the rounds he plays, his performance at the 2025 Ryder Cup left many stunned for all of the wrong reasons.
Scottie Scheffler went into the 2025 Ryder Cup with a point to prove. He had struggled in Rome two years earlier, suffering a record defeat on Saturday and failing to win any of his four matches.
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However, the world number one could have hardly looked more determined to make amends in New York. He had won two majors in 2025, while the cherry on top of the icing came as he won the Procore Championship just before heading to Bethpage.
The difference noticed in Scottie Scheffler at the 2025 Ryder Cup
Unfortunately for Keegan Bradley and Team USA, Scheffler was nowhere near his best. He lost all four of the matches he played over the first two days.
His only point came in the Sunday singles against Rory McIlroy, who was clearly exhausted.
Scheffler is far from the only elite player to struggle on the Ryder Cup stage. The likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have losing records from their careers.
And speaking to CBS about playing alongside the 29-year-old in two Ryder Cups now, Harris English explained the difference he noticed in Scheffler from when he was a rookie in 2021.
“Whistling Straits was kind of his coming out party. He beat Jon Rahm pretty bad on Sunday. He hadn’t won before that, and that was kind of his coming out party of Scottie Scheffler’s here to stay. We’ve all known how good he was for a long time,” he said.
“I remember getting paired with him at Erin Hills when he was an amateur, and after the round I texted the guy who runs the Walker Cup and I was like, ‘if you leave this guy off the Walker Cup team, you’re an idiot’. He’s one of the best amateurs I’ve ever seen. It’s just incredible to watch.
“Fast forward to the Ryder Cup [last year], you can tell how much more pressure he’s under at a Ryder Cup, especially this year of knowing he’s going to play five matches, number one in the world. You could tell he feels more pressure in that than he does playing in majors.
“We all feel for him and we all rallied around him. I know he didn’t play his best golf, but I know he’s trying his hardest, if not harder in a Ryder Cup than he is other tournaments. It is what it is. He’s going to keep working as hard as he can and keep setting the bar high for all of us out on the PGA Tour.”
The problem Scheffler faces heading into the 2027 Ryder Cup
Unless something very strange happens, Scheffler is going to be the talisman of the American side heading into Adare Manor in 2027. His victory at The American Express hints that he is ready to pick up where he left off in 2025.
The problem stems from the fact that Scheffler could have hardly been more impressive ahead of Bethpage. That momentum did him few favours by the time he got to New York.
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So if he goes into 2027 off the back of a similar run, it is probably fair to say that he will be unable to be confident that form is going to count for anything by the time the Ryder Cup starts up again.
Team USA could certainly help him. Despite Bradley’s passion for the event, it does appear that the American side are playing catch up with the well-oiled European machine.
At some stage, it is all going to click for Scheffler at the Ryder Cup and he is going to be the dominant force the PGA Tour sees most weeks.
However, Europe’s goal will be to continue piling that pressure on so it only gets harder for Scheffler to shine.
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