Ryder Cup stock watch: Who’s in, who’s out and whose status is unclear after The Open?

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The 43rd Ryder Cup seemed to be securely in the grasp of the U.S. team as the Sunday Singles session began less than two weeks ago at Whistling Straits. The U.S. led by six points, 11-5, and in the storied history of the matches, no team ever had closed a gap that wide. But hey, it’s the Ryder Cup, and crazy things can happen. Twelve points were at stake. You never know. There was one match of the 12 that stirred particular interest among the U.S. Team early on. Ryder Cup rookie Scottie Scheffler had drawn Europe’s standout player, World No. 1 Jon Rahm, in the third match of the day. Scheffler promptly birdied his first four holes, gave away a hole at the fifth, then made another birdie at 6. Scheffler was 3 up, and he never let up, eventually closing out Rahm on the 15th green, a resounding 4-and-3 victor. How Scheffler, ranked 22nd in the world, would view his performance speaks as much about this 25-year-old’s inner confidence as did his emphatic victory. Did taking down the World No. 1 on one of golf’s biggest stages elevate him as a player? He pretty much shrugs at such a notion. “I’ve always perceived that if I was put into a position at a Ryder Cup or a major championship that I would perform well,” said Scheffler, the confident Texan who tees it up Thursday at the Shriners Children’s Open. “I’ve always kind of had that faith and confidence in myself as a player. So it may have changed y’all’s perception of me, but for me, it doesn’t change too much.” Scheffler is coming off a solid sophomore season on the PGA TOUR. He played in 29 events, advancing to the TOUR Championship for the second consecutive season. He finished in the top 10 in three majors. He was a runner-up to Billy Horschel at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin (where he once again defeated Rahm) and finished third at The Memorial. Steve Stricker added Scheffler as a captain’s pick on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, and Scheffler paid off that decision with a record of 2-0-1. He went 1-0-1 alongside Bryson DeChambeau in a pair of Four-ball matches before topping Rahm in singles. Now that he has ticked off one bucket-list item, he looks ahead to his next: Becoming a winner on the PGA TOUR. “I don’t feel a huge rush that I have to win a golf tournament out here,” Scheffler said Wednesday from TPC Summerlin. (He posted eight top-10 finishes a year ago.) “I feel like I’m going to play out here for a long period of time, and I enjoy the way my life is now for me. I just want to continue to put myself in position to win tournaments.” Randy Smith, the highly respected instructor from Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas, where he has taught for 41 years, knew there was something different and distinct about Scheffler the first time he ever watched him swing a golf club. Mind you, through the years, Smith, instructor to Open champion Justin Leonard among many other TOUR pros, has received a tap on the shoulder many times to come and view golf’s next big thing. Scheffler, who was moving to Texas from New Jersey, was only 6 or 7 at the time. “Little Scottie was tiny,” Smith said, recalling their first visit on the practice tee at Royal Oaks. “He could walk under a card table. He started to hit some balls. All I saw was right to left, up in the air, very low, left to right … out of a 6 1/2-, 7 year-old kid? He had total awareness of where his clubface was. I said, ‘Hmmm. This is a special talent.’” Smith was walking along inside the ropes at Whistling Straits as Scheffler kept pouring birdies on top of Rahm, and he noticed an innate calmness and comfort level about him, despite the huge stage. A multi-sport athlete in his youth, Scheffler thrives on the energy of a big crowd. Smith laughs and said this was Scheffler’s time to show off a little. He did. Surely winning a TOUR event is something bound to follow relatively soon. “The thing about it is, he has not been at this very long,” Smith said. “He has accomplished a lot of things, and he’s been one, two, three shots away from winning several big events. A little more marination, a little more dealing with things …. his Ryder Cup performance can do nothing but help his patience level on the golf course. “That was the best I’ve ever seen him physically swing the golf club, up in Kohler. He was balanced, he was calm in his approach, he was calm swinging the golf club. Everything technically was so good, and I think that was powered by the brain being so good.” Brooks Koepka was one of Scheffler’s teammates at Whistling Straits, where the U.S. romped to a record 19-9 triumph, and took extra measure of what Scheffler did in the third slot on Sunday. He and Scheffler share the same agent (Blake Smith, Randy’s son) and Koepka has been witnessing Scheffler’s talent for years. Koepka said his first Ryder Cup appearance in 2016 did great things for his confidence, and expects Scheffler to ride a wave of momentum after such a big week in Wisconsin. “He hasn’t won yet, but he will, and it’s going to be very quickly,” Koepka said. “… I felt like I had the most confidence after 2016 (at Hazeltine). It really kind of propelled me. I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens to him. “If you look at all these big events, the majors, the WGCs over the last few years, that’s where he plays his best, it seems, the bigger tournaments. He’s a big-game hunter. I wouldn’t be surprised if he pops off a major win very shortly. That win will come.” Scheffler concurs that the bigger the stage, the better he performs. He is working on trying to be more focused at “regular” TOUR events on Thursdays and Fridays, positioning himself better for the weekends. Smith notes that Scheffler has a great awareness when it comes to scoring. He has that extra tangible gift of knowing how to grind out a 68 on a day when his ballstriking or putting might send others to a 70. One shot means something. “As far as not winning on TOUR,” Scheffler said, “I think if I wanted to do something to where I could win a random event out here, I would go play a weaker schedule than I do. For me, I like playing tournaments against the best players in the world, and that’s what the PGA TOUR is all about. I’m just going to keep trying to put myself in a position to win tournaments.” Stay patient, follow the plan, and the wins will arrive. Throughout his path, starting with a U.S. Junior Amateur, they always have. There could be some big ones in store. After taking on the World No. 1 on a huge stage, Scheffler is idling along nicely, and seems in no great rush to get to where is trying to go.

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LOS ANGELES – The fans laughed and pointed as they walked past Viktor Hovland in the early hours of Friday’s second round of The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club. The Norwegian superstar was sizing up his approach shot at the notoriously difficult par-4 15th, but doing so from the 17th fairway, which to the untrained eye appeared to be significantly off target. But Hovland was over there for the second consecutive round having devised a strategy to play down the wrong fairway to minimize the danger of the tough dogleg right hole. It was a strategy years in the making having first attempted it as an amateur. And with some lost trees in recent times thanks to a few big storms, the method became even more tempting for Hovland. In the lead up to the tournament he and caddie Shay Knight talked about the strategy but didn’t unveil it until Thursday. “We were obviously talking about it in the practice rounds and trying to be as stealthy as we could,” Hovland laughed during his explanation after making a stress-free par for the second day running. The 14th traditionally demands an extremely accurate tee shot down a narrow shoot with tall trees down the right and a significant bunker complex protecting the same side. The dogleg shortens the space on the left side with rough ready to catch errant shots. Even an accurate drive creates a demanding and long second shot to a V-shaped green of significant slope. Over the past five editions of The Genesis Invitational, it has averaged well over par at 4.247, 4.306, 4.272, 4.257 and 4.177 and in Thursday’s opening round the field averaged 4.378 with just eight birdies. But with the space to aim through Hovland punished his drives backwards down the par-5 17th – careful to be aware of fellow competitors and fans of course – and attacked the green from there. “I did that at the U.S. Amateur here in 2017. Actually, got to give my buddy Zach Bauchou some credit. He was the guy that first mentioned it,” Hovland continued. “I did it there and I did it once last year, I believe it was the third day and it was humming downwind. I think I hit a driver and a sand wedge in there. And there’s not too much trouble there I thought. “Obviously that bunker on the left side (of 17) is no good, but at the same time the bunker down 15 on the right is no good either. (This way) just fits my eye.” With rounds of 71-64 Hovland sits 7-under heading to the weekend and inside the top-10, albeit well back of leader Joaquin Niemann (16-under). The strategy will continue as he looks to reel in the Chilean over the weekend. “Regardless of how the other guys play, I know my game plan and I’ve just got to go and execute,” he said. “If I play more like I did today the next couple of days, it could be interesting.”

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