American golf fans have won a reputation for robbery in the last team events, and an incident in a President Cup Sunday’s singles match will only further fuel the narrative. When the session of David vs Goliath showdown – the world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler vs. the world No. 61 Nico Echavarria, statistically the weakest player on the International side – arriving on the tee at the 490-yard par-4 14th, Echavarria was in a terrible place: 3 down with just 5 holes to play.
Then his situation became more dire.
As Echavarria settled on his tee shot and pulled his driver, a bone-headed fan yelled, “Go Scottie!”
Echavarria was caught, and it showed. As his ball rolled to his right, he released his club and, behind dark sunglasses, glared at the offending barker. Scheffler still hadn’t had it. He walked across the tee box in the direction of the break and yelled, “There’s no place for that!”
Class move by the best golfer in the world, and he had more chivalry in him.
From the rough right, Echavarria left his second shot about 60 yards short and short of the green. From there, he hit his third shot past the pin and over the back of the green, where it came to rest 32 feet from the hole. Meanwhile, Scheffler was well positioned after two shots: 17 feet to the right of the hole. He missed his birdie attempt, but had a gimme 4 – and, as it turned out. . . so, too, Echavarria.
That’s why Scheffler, in a supreme sports gift for the distraction Echavarria had faced on the tee, awarded Echavarria a matching 4 – yes, from more than 30 meters.
“It shows the character of the No. 1 in the world,” Echavarria said after the match. “He’s just different. He’s a good person in general. Even as good as he is, he’s a really amazing man.”
Having a 3-up pad might have made Scheffler’s move an easier decision for him, but it didn’t soften his opponent. After Scheffler and Echavarria tied the par-4 15th, Echavarria made a 60-foot chip on the par-16th to cut his deficit to 2-down with 2 holes to play and raise questions about whether Scheffler’s grace could also be a fatal tactical error.
It wouldn’t be. When Echavarria’s approach on the par-4 17th went over the green and Scheffler hit his own approach 40 feet, that game ended. Scheffler def. Echavarria, 2 and 1.
The match will not be remembered for that sequence. He will be remembered for one of the great acts of sportsmanship in the game of high-level team golf. Ask Scheffler’s wife, Meredith, who according to Golf Channel’s Brentley Rominewas informed of her husband’s concession by NBC reporter John Wood. “This makes me want to cry,” Meredith said.
Scottie was less emotional.
When Golf Channel’s Cara Banks asked Scheffler about his decision at 14, he said, “I don’t really want to talk about it. There’s no real place for it in our game, and I think we’ll just leave it at that.”
Banks also asked Scheffler about U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker’s decision to bench Scheffler in Saturday afternoon’s foursomes session, another topic Scheffler was not interested in discussing.
“I mean, you want to talk about today’s game?” he said. “I just played some golf out there. You want to talk about it?”
Later, when speaking to a gaggle of reporters, Scheffler offered a little more color about the incident at 14 years old.
“It’s just ridiculous, somebody screaming in their swing off the tee,” he said. “There’s absolutely no place for that. You have to get 30 seconds to a minute when you’re on the ball or you’re getting ready to hit your shot where there’s a little bit of silence, and it’s just frustrating.”
