FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Scottie Scheffler is the No. 1 player in the world, dominating the game for the majority of the past two years.
But the four-time major winner apparently isn’t very good at foursomes.
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The alternate-shot format that is used for two sessions and eight matches at the Ryder Cup seemingly befuddled Scheffler again, who along with partner Russell Henley took a beating from Europeans Ludvig Åberg and Matt Fitzpatrick on Friday morning at Bethpage Black.
Two years ago, Scheffler was on the losing end of a 9 and 7 thrashing along with Brooks Koepka to Åberg and Viktor Hovland.
Scheffler and Henley will at least get some time to recuperate, as they were dispatched after playing just 15 holes and ended up losing 5 and 3.
“I felt like Russ and I did some good things. We just didn’t hole enough putts early,” Scheffler said. “We had some chances. I think the putts just didn’t fall. But overall, the guys we played, they played a really good round, and go back out this afternoon and see what we can do.”
For Scheffler, it was part of a somewhat alarming trend associated with the format that has now seen him go 1–6 foursomes across three Ryder Cups and two Presidents Cups.
The only time he was on the winning end of a foursomes match was last year at Royal Montreal, where he and Henley prevailed together at the Presidents Cup.
But he went 0–2 with Sam Burns at the 2022 Presidents Cup and 0–2 at the 2023 Ryder Cup, once with Burns and also with Koepka in a match that brought the world No. 1 to tears.
“It hurt a little bit because I didn’t feel like I was as prepared as I could have been,” Scheffler said two weeks ago at the Procore Championship, where he won for the sixth time this year. “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.”
To be fair, Henley had his struggles as well, and therein lies the challenge in foursomes, where the format means you can be exposed.
Teeing off in the second group, Scheffler and Henley immediately lost to a birdie on the first hole, won the second with a birdie to get back to tied … and then didn’t make another birdie until the 13th hole. By then they were 4 down.
Making matters worse, the lead group of Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas couldn’t hold the early crowd buzz and birdie on the first hole. They didn’t make another birdie until the 14th—when they were 3 down and ended up losing 4&3.
Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood built up a 5-up lead through 12 holes over Collin Morikawa and Harris English and ended up 5 and 4 winners.
The only American hope was Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, who held a 2-up lead through 12 holes.
So a format that the home team has dominated in the last six Ryder Cups—the winning team won foursomes in each of the last five years—saw the script flipped so far with four-ball to come in the afternoon.
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