Will the World No. 1 Please Stand Up?

In the aftermath of every Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, one facet of the action has increasingly gotten lost in the shuffle over time: how the players hit the shots. As fun as it is to discuss team chemistry and the bedding players sleep on, the disastrous 2018 performance at Le Golf National seemed to usher in an era of overattributing American underperformance to narrative-based intangibles while somehow letting the golf itself escape the equation. Details at the margins matter, but so does what happens between the ropes.

So far in his team competition career, Scottie Scheffler has disappointed between the ropes. Had Scheffler won four matches at Bethpage, as you might expect of the most dominant golfer in the world, Keegan Bradley’s captaincy would be perceived a heck of a lot differently, fair or not. Instead, Scheffler entered the singles session 0-0-4 before beating Rory McIlroy in a sloppy, fatigued Sunday match. He is now 6-11-4 across team competitions, and the blame cannot be laid at the feet of his partners. He hasn’t played to his standards.

“When you look at this format, maybe my record hasn't matched up to what I think that it should be, could it be trying too hard? I think that's definitely a factor for sure,” Scheffler said on Tuesday. “Definitely for me, I think just trying less would be really important. It's just one of those things that's a lot easier said than done.”

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Regardless of what else happens this week, the best possible outcome for the American side — outside of winning — is for Scheffler to stomp on the throats of anyone the Internationals put in his path. He is the centerpiece of every foreseeable American team and will have a much larger impact on its fortunes than whoever stocks the shampoo at the team hotel. Build some confidence for future years and dispel the notion that the best golfer in the world’s game somehow doesn’t translate to success in team competition. Beat them up. And beat them up badly.

It’s what he should do. He’s the most dominant player in the world and a significant favorite against any other golfer on the planet, much less some of the International team’s options.

In the Medinah postmortem and the lead-up to Adare Manor, every step captain Jim Furyk takes will be analyzed, scrutinized, and second-guessed to death. Because that’s what we do. But golf competitions are still won by hitting the fewest shots and holing the most putts. And the future of American success hinges far more on Scottie Scheffler than Brandt Snedeker or Jim Furyk or whomever the Americans turn to next once Adare Manor doesn’t go according to plan.