FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, expected to be a dominant force for the U.S. team, had a deeply disappointing opening day at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, failing to win a point in either session.
The three-time major champion, who has not secured a full point in the event since 2021, now holds a career Ryder Cup record of 2-4-2. His struggles were part of a wider American collapse on Friday.
In the morning foursomes, Scheffler and partner Russell Henley suffered a decisive 5 and 3 loss to Ludvig Åberg and Matt Fitzpatrick. He later teamed with J.J. Spaun in the afternoon four-ball, where his uncharacteristically poor tee-to-green play was compounded by consistent struggles on the greens.
“We gave ourselves plenty of opportunities,” Scheffler said. “It really just came down to me not holing enough putts.”
Despite the performance, U.S. Captain Keegan Bradley expressed confidence in his top player. “When you’re the No. 1 player in the world, you have a day that maybe it wasn’t his best, normally you bounce back,” Bradley said. “We are not worried about Scottie Scheffler.”
Putting woes were a common theme for the American side. Bryson DeChambeau, who also lost both of his matches, felt the Europeans simply couldn’t miss. “They made everything,” DeChambeau said. “There were so many putts that just didn’t go in for us that went in for them.”
Bradley acknowledged the European team’s putting prowess but insisted he would not deviate from his pre-tournament strategy. “We’re sticking to our plan,” he said. “We’re not going to panic.”
For Saturday’s morning foursomes, Bradley will send most of his losing Friday pairs back out, including Scheffler with Henley and the duo of Collin Morikawa and Harris English, who lost 5 and 4 to Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood. The one change will see Cameron Young replace Justin Thomas to partner with DeChambeau.
The decision to retain the Morikawa-English pairing is notable, as analytics from DataGolf identified them as the worst potential tandem of any possible combination for either team based on strokes gained.
“We came in here this week with a plan, and the players are prepared for that plan,” Bradley reiterated. “In the morning session, we just didn’t make any putts. Everything else was pretty good.”
The U.S. now faces the fourth-largest deficit after day one of a Ryder Cup on home soil. Of the three previous occasions, the Americans only mounted a successful comeback once, at Brookline in 1999. Bradley, however, framed the challenge as an opportunity.
“We knew this was going to be difficult,” he said. “What a stage, what an opportunity that they have to go out there tomorrow and prove to everybody that now they are down, now they have got to go catch up. I like that.”
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