American golf fans have earned a reputation for boorishness in recent team events, and an incident in a President Cup singles match on Sunday will only further fuel the narrative. When the session’s David vs. Goliath showdown — world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler vs. world No. 61 Nico Echavarria, statistically the weakest player on the International side — arrived on the tee at the 490-yard par-4 14th, Echavarria was in a dire spot: 3 down with just 5 holes to play.
Then his predicament got more dire still.
As Echavarria settled in over his tee shot and pulled back his driver, a boneheaded fan bellowed, “Go Scottie!”
Echavarria was rattled, and it showed. As his ball drifted right, he released his club and, behind dark sunglasses, glared at the offending barker. Scheffler also wasn’t having it. He walked across the tee box in the direction of the disruption and hollered, ”There’s no place for that!”
Classy move from the world’s best golfer, and he had more chivalry in him still.
From the right rough, Echavarria left his second shot about 60 yards short and left of the green. From there, he knocked 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 right of the hole. He missed his birdie try but had a gimme 4 — and, as it turned out . . . so, too, did Echavarria.
That’s because Scheffler, in a supremely sporting make-good for the distraction Echavarria had faced on the tee, conceded Echavarria a matching 4 — yep, from more than 30 feet.
Having a 3-up cushion might have made Scheffler’s gesture an easier decision for him, but it didn’t soften his opponent. After Scheffler and Echavarria tied the par-4 15th, Echavarria chipped in from 60 feet on the par-16th to cut his deficit to 2-down with 2 holes to play and raise questions about whether Scheffler’s graciousness might also prove to be a fatal tactical error.
It wouldn’t. When Echavarria’s approach on the par-4 17th ran through the green and Scheffler coolly knocked his own approach to 40 feet, that spelled game over. Scheffler def. Echavarria, 2 and 1.
The match won’t be remembered for that sequence. It will be remembered for one of the great acts of sportsmanship in high-level team-golf play. Ask Scheffler’s wife, Meredith, who according to Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine, was notified of her husband’s concession by NBC reporter John Wood. “That makes me want to cry,” Meredith reportedly 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 that in our game, and I think we’ll just leave it at that.”
