With great power, great responsibility

World No. 1 Scheffler needs to be his best self for Team USA to succeed; Stray Shots

Will Scottie Scheffler lift presumed partner Russell Henley and rookie J.J. Spaun? (Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)

It is perhaps a bit simplistic to say you NEED your best players to BE your best players at the Ryder Cup.

Certainly, there are surprising heroes, players who come out of nowhere to grab a crucial point and tip the scales of a competition that for so long seemed to go down to the wire but for five straight Ryder Cups has seen the home team prevail by big margins.

But it is certainly no stretch to suggest that the United States could use Scottie Scheffler playing in the Ryder Cup like he has on the PGA Tour for the better part of the last two years.

The now four-time major winner — who recently won the Procore Championship for his sixth victory of the year (including two majors) — will be leaned on heavily to try to help the U.S. prevail next week at Bethpage Black against a tough European team. that is looking to win an away match for the first time since 2012.

Scheffler, the No. 1-ranked player in the world by miles, will undoubtedly be a key factor for both sides. He can only be part of five of the overall points, but with the margins being what they are, those points are crucial.

Any European victory over Scheffler is almost viewed as a double victory — a bonus like a 3-pointer and one in basketball. Scheffler can ask Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson all about that. For the majority of their Ryder Cup careers, taking them down was a psychological boost that went beyond the point of the match.

(It is still amazing to think that Woods played on eight U.S. teams and was part of just one winning outcome.)

Scheffler, of course, is not Woods. And he came to the Ryder Cup under far different circumstances.

It is all but certain that he was the last man chosen for the 2021 team that won handily at Whistling Straits. Scheffler had yet to win on the PGA Tour, and there was plenty of conjecture about picking someone such as Kevin Na instead of the unproven tour rookie.

But U.S. captain Steve Stricker went with Scheffler, who came through in a big way. He went 2-0-1 including a singles victory over Jon Rahm, the reigning U.S. Open champion. The U.S. cruised to a 19-9 victory.

The following year, Scheffler won four times on the PGA Tour, including the Masters, and his career took off as he reached world No. 1 for the first time.

He added two more tour victories in 2023 and went to Rome as the No. 1 player in the world. But at the 2023 Ryder Cup, Scheffler, by then a six-time winner and clearly the best American player, struggled along with the rest of the U.S. squad. He went 0-2-2 and was part of an embarrassing 9-and-7 foursomes loss with partner Brooks Koepka on Saturday to Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Åberg.

The U.S. lost 16½-11½.

Scheffler has used that as a motivational tactic to be better prepared this time.

“I felt like for myself going into the last Ryder Cup, my prep work may not have been as good as it should have been,” he said before winning the Procore event last week in Napa. “I think I could have been a little bit sharper at that tournament. It’s just because it’s just different playing tournament golf, it really is. That was a learning experience for me. Like I said, I learned from it and now we’ll be pretty sharp heading in.”

Since the last Ryder Cup, Scheffler has added 13 PGA Tour victories (he has 19 overall which ties him with the likes of Ernie Els, Ben Crenshaw, Hubert Green and Tom Kite on the all-time PGA Tour list) over the past two years, including three major titles. He also won the gold medal at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

“I think anytime you have tough losses, it can go one of two ways,” Scheffler said. “It can be something that you can use for something good or it can kind of break you down. Over time, playing professional golf you’re going to have great wins, you’re going to have great losses. When I look back at the ’23 Cup, I think I halved two matches and lost two, so I think I left there without winning a single match and that hurt.

“Like I said, when you represent your country, you want to do your best. So putting the flag on my chest means a heck of a lot to me. There’s a reason I get emotional talking about it, there’s a reason I get emotional at the Olympics. I love my country and I love the opportunity to be able to represent them. It hurt a little bit because I didn’t feel like I was as prepared as I could have been. So going into this Cup I’ve put a lot of work into my game over the last couple years to get ready and to go play this event.”

Although nothing has been made public, Scheffler will almost certainly partner with Russell Henley in the opening session of foursomes on Friday. They played together twice in that format last year at the Presidents Cup, were practice-round partners in Napa and played the first two rounds together.

It is not coincidence that Scheffler may have found himself a foursomes partner. And it’s possible they play together in fourball, too, although that nod could go to Sam Burns, as well.

All of that will be disclosed soon enough.

For now it’s fair to acknowledge that the U.S. could use a big week from it’s ace if it is to regain the Cup.