Scottie Scheffler beaten again to add to unwanted Tiger Woods comparison

Scottie Scheffler continued to draw comparisons to Tiger Woods as his miserable record in the Ryder Cup fourballs continued.

The world number one, playing with Russell Henley, suffered a one-hole defeat to Robert MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland on Saturday morning as Europe moved closer to a historic win at Bethpage Black.

Luke Donald’s side won the morning session 3-1 as Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood and Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton also scored points to put Europe 8.5-3.5 up.

Scheffler’s defeat continued a dreadful record in the foursomes as he has now lost all four matches at the Ryder Cup going back to 2023.

Saturday morning’s loss followed a defeat to Ludvig Aberg and Matt Fitzpatrick on Friday morning.

He was famously left in tears after a record 9&7 defeat to Aberg and Hovland at Rome in 2023, when he was also beaten by Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm.

Scheffler is the standout individual player in the United States team, having won five tournaments this year including the PGA Championship and the Open.

It is a record that has put him clear of the field in a similar way to Woods during his pomp.

While Woods dominated on an individual level he could not bring that to the Ryder Cup, especially in the fourball and foursome formats where he had a poor record of nine wins, 19 losses and one half.

And it seems the 29-year-old is having a similar problem, having yet to taste victory in the foursomes which requires true collaboration with a team-mate.

Before the tournament started Scheffler was asked whether he would be a difficult partner given his individual results.

Asked if he had an aura like Woods, he said: “Not really. I don’t have much to elaborate on that.

“I’d like to think that I’m not difficult to pair with people. I’d like to think of myself as someone that’s a nice guy and easy to get along with.

“I’ve had different partners over the years and have had some success. I would definitely not put myself in that category.

“I think some of the difficulty you had with playing with Tiger…I mean, I don’t even know what it could be. It could just be the aura that was Tiger Woods.

“There was some times there when he was doing nothing but winning golf tournaments and just beating the absolute crap out of people time and time again.”