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Scottie Scheffler’s Ryder Cup Performance Is a Stain on His 2025 Season
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — If you’re trying to pick the worst part of the American collapse at this Ryder Cup, where the deficit is seven points going to Sunday, there are no shortage of candidates.
Captain Keegan Bradley’s pairings are on the list, as is a course setup that hasn’t helped the home team and the Americans’ utter futility on the greens compared to the Europeans. And if you’re looking at the bleak individual records, one figure jumps off the page:
Scottie Scheffler, 0–4.
Yes, the world No. 1 is winless so far at Bethpage Black, having lost twice in foursomes and four-balls. Perhaps not everyone predicted the Americans would win this week, but no one could have foreseen such a bad week from Scheffler.
That begs this discussion among our SI Golf panel:
Fact or Fiction: Scottie Scheffler's Ryder Cup Performance Is a Stain on His 2025 Season
Bob Harig, SI Golf Senior Writer: FICTION. It will bother him immensely. And it is shocking that he’s struggled as he has this week. But it won’t take away from his six wins, his two majors, his strengthening of his world ranking. For reference: nobody was taking anything away from Tiger Woods in 2002 and 2006, when he had two-major seasons and didn’t particularly shine at the Ryder Cup in U.S. defeats.
John Pluym, SI Golf Managing Editor: FACT. Scheffler has been a disaster. It doesn’t matter how he performs in Sunday’s singles. When you’re the world No. 1, then you better play like it. He hasn’t. The team formats don’t fit his game. I wrote about his overall record when I answered Friday’s question. Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Justin Rose have played this weekend like they’re the top-ranked players in the world. And that’s why they have a six-point lead. I expect the Euros to dominate the singles on Sunday and put the finishing touches on one of the greatest performances in Ryder Cup history.
Jeff Ritter, SI Golf Managing Director: FACT. It stings this week, but I’d like to see how he fares in singles against Rory McIlroy before handing out a final verdict. In the end, a two-major season is historic and will live in history. This Ryder Cup performance will be a footnote—a fly in the ointment—and that’s unfortunate given how great Scheffler has been for long stretches this year.
Michael Rosenberg, SI Senior Writer: FICTION. A stain? A few months after Tiger Woods’s first Masters win, he went 1–3–1 in a Ryder Cup that the U.S. lost. Scheffler has not been himself this week, but Europe is kicking everybody’s butt, not just his. On a very fundamental level, golf is a game of failure. Everyone has lousy weeks. Only a few players in history have achieved what Scheffler did this season.
John Schwarb, SI Golf Senior Editor: FACT. It’s not solely his stain, of course, but no American came to Bethpage on a more lofty perch. Most of the team gathered at the Procore Championship two weeks ago (sure feels a lot longer ago) on a bonding/staying-fresh trip and Scheffler won it! Then the world No. 1 comes here and hits shots like the 104-yard wedge into 18 Saturday morning that woefully missed the green, put his partner in jail and helped the Europeans win 1 up. It’s the biggest stunner in a Ryder Cup full of them for the U.S.
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John Schwarb is a senior editor for Sports Illustrated covering golf. Prior to joining SI in March 2022, he worked for ESPN.com, PGATour.com, Tampa Bay Times and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He is the author of The Little 500: The Story of the World's Greatest College Weekend. A member of the Golf Writers Association of America, Schwarb has a bachelor's in journalism from Indiana University.
Bob Harig is a senior writer covering golf for Sports Illustrated. He has more than 25 years experience on the beat, including 15 at ESPN. Harig is a regular guest on Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio and has written two books, "DRIVE: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods" and "Tiger and Phil: Golf's Most Fascinating Rivalry." He graduated from Indiana University where he earned an Evans Scholarship, named in honor of the great amateur golfer Charles (Chick) Evans Jr. Harig, a former president of the Golf Writers Association of America, lives in Clearwater, Fla.
Jeff Ritter is the managing director of SI Golf. He has more than 20 years of sports media experience, and previously was the general manager at the Morning Read, where he led that business's growth and joined SI as part of an acquisition in 2022. Earlier in his career he spent more than a decade at SI and Golf Magazine, and his journalism awards include a MIN Magazine Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award for sports reporting. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a master's from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
John Pluym is the managing editor for NFL and golf content at Sports Illustrated. A sports history buff, he joined SI in April 2022 after having spent 10 years at ESPN overseeing NFL coverage. Pluym has won several awards throughout his career, including honors from the Society of News Design and Associated Press Sports Editors. As a native Minnesotan, he enjoys spending time on his boat and playing golf.
Michael Rosenberg is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, covering any and all sports. He writes columns, profiles and investigative stories and has covered almost every major sporting event. He joined SI in 2012 after working at the Detroit Free Press for 13 years, eight of them as a columnist. Rosenberg is the author of "War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and America in a Time of Unrest." Several of his stories also have been published in collections of the year's best sportswriting. He is married with three children.