Every time Scotty Schaeffler achieves a new feat in the world of golf, it appears to be accompanied by a recurring supplement, “the first player since Tiger Woods.” The first golfer on this planet currently has no true companions. Once the player reaches that position, the natural tendency is to shift the conversation to where they stand compared to the greatest ever.
Schaeffler regularly distances himself from comparisons, and knowing that a long life and successful wood has been achieved makes it impossible for Schaeffler, who is only 29 years old, to stand with him at this point in his younger career.
That conversation won’t really last for another decade as the 2025 Ryder Cup begins with Beth Page Black, but Schaeffler has the opportunity to start off from Woods at one event Tiger didn’t dominate on a daily basis.
Woods represented the United States as players on eight Ryder Cup teams and took part in the event in 2018 as the world’s top-ranked American with seven players, serving as the only exception. However, Tiger lifted the Rider Cup once in eight. He was a buzz saw that was not surprising on Sunday’s single (4-2-2), but he couldn’t grasp the Foursome and Fourball formulas.
Woods went 9-19-1 in his career in these formats (4-9-1 for foursome, 5-10-0 for four balls), but he was the best player on the planet for most of the year. Part of it was a suspicious pairing, but Tiger never understood how to adjust the singular focus of his game.
Of the seven partners he played multiple times, Davis Love III (2-1) was the only man he had to achieve a victory record, and both victories came in 2002.
Meanwhile, Schaeffler will enter the 2025 Ryder Cup with a 2-2-3 overall record. He was a breakout star in the Whisling Strait in 2021, helping the US win in their home soil with performances that will be a catalyst for the rise to the sport at 2-0-1. But two years ago in Italy, when he was an unquestionable top player on the US team, he was unable to win the match, making it 0-2-2 on four outings.
The 2025 event is particularly important to Schaeffler’s legacy as a Ryder Cup player. The Bethpage Black stages don’t spend more time in that spotlight than Scheffler, unlike what the game saw. He is an unquestionable star and the best player of an American team desperately to find a true leader on the course.
Much has been done about the ability of European teams to step up and find players to thrive in the Rider Cup atmosphere. Since 1979, all the top six points winners of the Ryder Cup play are Europeans. Of the players who have appeared in the Ryder Cup, most of the top performers of the past 20 years have come from the European side.
Sergio Garcia (25-13-7), Ian Poulter (15-8-2), Justin Rose (14-9-3) and Luke Donald (10-4-1) are the gold standard for the continued Ryder Cup excellence of this century, but Europe has found a seamless alternative every time they leave their team. Rory McIlroy (16-13-4) has taken over the position of Europe’s best player and has fully emerged in a leadership role with his impressive performance in Rome. Tommy Fleetwood (7-3-2) and John Larm (6-3-3) quickly thorn on the side of the Americans after joining the team.
Meanwhile, the US struggles to reach their team every two years to find a reliable stubborn person. The strength of Europe was its continuity – reviving 11 of the 12 players from Rome, and from all the points of easy choice – the US has seen a major turnover after many players were long expected to be part of the team.
Liv Golf boasts three best records of this current era, with Dustin Johnson (12-9-0), Brooks Koepka (7-6-2) and Patrick Reed (7-3-2), but it’s not clear whether any of them will return to the conversation again for a selection. Jordan Spieth (8-9-5) was once considered the future of the US team, but Butto struggled as a captain’s pick in Rome and was not even on Bethpage’s radar.
The team’s best records this year were Justin Thomas (7-4-2) and Patrick Cantrey (5-2-1), but each needed a captain’s pick to join the Americans.
Scheffler, Bryson Dechambeau and Xander Schauffele are three US automatic qualifiers with two or more rider cups.
That termination and uncertainty makes it even more important that those top players perform well. They must act as buoys to keep Americans floating when other works are off and transforming outside, and Schaeffler is the most important of them.
With the exception of early retirement, he will take part in the next five Ryder Cups, appearing most often as the most ranked, if not all, American. Team Golf is not as easy as putting together talent, so the title has quite a lot of weight. No one knows that when Woods and Phil Mickelson partnered as the two best players in the world, they’re better than the US who saw them lose both games.
There is a reason to believe Schaeffler is something Woods couldn’t do. For all the comparisons made about their game, Schaeffler differs greatly in personality. He is more approachable and intimate with more players both in the PGA Tour and the US team room, making it easier to pair with his partner and find success.
More friendly and engaged top stars may benefit the US side and help develop a better culture in a team room that feels more like a personal collection than a cohesive unit.
Americans need Schaeffler to be the dominant force in Ryder Cup play for two important reasons. (1) The overall goal of the competition is to put your points on the board. The US side needs someone they can rely on to do that consistently, and it seems no one is more capable than Schaeffler. (2) There is psychological despair for someone on the team to have mystique and gravitas. European players are really worried about their play. That’s important. In particular, the men dominate each week on the PGA Tour.
Flipside? There is nothing better than beating the world number one in terms of cultivating European beliefs.
Woods is a mediocre Ryder Cup player, which not only earned fewer points for the Americans, but also made the Europeans more confident. Every point scored against Tiger is because it feels like Europe is taking something out of the US and their pride is that they not only win the Ryder Cup, but they do so against a team featuring the best players in the world.
Schaeffler is now that player, and his 2-2-3 record is solid, but the US needs more from him. Winning the Bethpage Black is a must for Americans, and Schaeffler needs to be a guy to set the tone.
Otherwise, Europeans will come to believe that from 2012 onwards they can pull away the first road upset with the Ryder Cup in Medina. (Europe comes in as a small +150 underdog, considering that the US hosts each draft king.)
But if Schaeffler can put the point on the board earlier, the New York crowd will only grow bigger as the foundation is laid to make him a long-standing Ryder Cup legend for the United States.
