There’d already been plenty of frustration for the U.S. Ryder Cup team at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club — but then Scottie Scheffler became emotional.
A broadcast camera captured the No. 1-ranked golfer wiping his eyes and pushing his hat off his head as his wife, Meredith, sat next to him on a golf cart.
Scheffler and Brooks Koepka lost, 9&7, to Europe’s Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg on Saturday, which was the worst loss in Ryder Cup history as the United States’ deficit increased to 9 ½ -2 ½ entering the afternoon matches — with Europe just needing five more points to secure a victory.
“I don’t think we could have done a whole lot better,” Hovland said, according to Golf Digest. “It’s nice to kind of speak our own language and we understand each other. Obviously same humor, same culture. (Ludvig’s) a stud. He doesn’t miss a shot, so it’s easy when I’m playing well and he’s playing well and we are just feeding off of each other.”
The result became surprising not only because of the final numbers but also because of the individual achievements Scheffler and Koepka have made this year.
Koepka won the PGA Championship in May over Hovland and Scheffler, giving him a fifth major title and first since winning the same tournament in 2019.
Scheffler won the Waste Management Phoenix Open and the Players Championship to regain the top spot in the golf rankings, and he’d compiled another 15 top-10 finishes in 2023.
Aberg, a 23-year-old from Sweden, turned pro this year and had two top-20 finishes — at the John Deere Classic (fourth) and Wyndham Classic (14th).
But he and Hovland still took the first four holes of the foursomes match before the Scheffler-Koepka pairing managed to birdie the fifth hole, too.
The European duo only needed 12 holes to take the match, though they ended up losing to Sam Burns and Collin Morikawa in the afternoon four-ball.
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