Two days before the 2026 President’s Cup kicked off, Scottie Scheffler sat in front of the reporters only to learn an unusual fact. I say unusual because the Texan is by far the world’s best golfer for five years running, no doubt, but he still hasn’t solved the puzzling riddle of the team golf format. Just look at his performance at the Ryder’s Cup last year. He blames it on his competitiveness and urge to overdo everything, and that’s understandable.

When you are alone in the field, the worst you can do is disappoint yourself. But with 11 other players hoping you do the usual Scottie Scheffler things, the pressure becomes tenfold. And then comes the pressure of representing your country. As it turns out, even for the calm and collected Scheffler, that is a nerve-wracking thought, and his numbers prove that very point.

Among all players who have competed in at least 23 combined Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup matches, Scheffler’s points percentage of 39.1% ranks fourth-worst of all time, as reported by Golf statistician Rick Gehman. His overall record stands at 7-12-4 across 23 matches, which trails only Robert Allenby (33.9%), Jason Day (34.8%) and Sam Torrance (35.7%). And there’s another worse twist to it.

By percentage, his 39.1% is worse than well-known team-event strugglers like Bubba Watson, Pádraig Harrington, Justin Leonard, and Rickie Fowler. To make it simple, let’s put his numbers in the ongoing Presidents Cup against his PGA Tour stats for the season.

While this comparison isn’t fair, considering you play 72 holes in a PGA Tour match, it still shows how Scheffler’s performance changes with a team. Last year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage made things even worse.

Scheffler lost all four of his team matches and only avoided a completely winless week by beating Rory McIlroy in the Sunday singles match. That made him the first player since 1967 to lose all four team matches in one Ryder Cup. But this isn’t news to him.

Ahead of this week’s Presidents Cup at Medinah, he was already 3-5-1 in his two previous Presidents Cups and 3-6-3 across three Ryder Cups. Put it all together, and he was sitting at just 6-11-4. That is a pretty strange record for a golfer who is usually so dominant. And he already knew what the issue could be.

Scottie Scheffler explains why his team event records don’t match his world No. 1 status as his captain and father defend him

For many years, we have watched players pairing up with the likes of Tiger Woods get nervous ahead of their matchup. Their reason is that they don’t want to underperform and disappoint a player like Woods. As a result, team captains had a hard time finding a pair for him. It’s pretty similar for Scheffler, but he blames himself for the poor turnaround.

“As a hypercompetitive person, I think sometimes I can probably try too hard,” Scheffler said on Tuesday. “If you look at my putting stats over the course of my career, arguably what made me struggle the most in 2023 was probably trying too hard.

“I think when you look at this format, and like you said, 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.”

His father said as much two days ago.

“You and I were walking with Scott Scheffler, Scottie’s Dad,” Rex Hoggard said on the Rex & Lav Podcast while talking about an incident from Thursday. “He said Scottie needs to relax; he needs to go and pretend this is a normal round of golf. I think when he puts the flag on either here or at the Ryder Cup, there is so much pressure that comes with that.”

However, in most of these matches, he had his friend Sam Burns by his side. The two share more than the friendship and the starting letter of their names. Yet, they went 0-3-1 across the 2022 Presidents Cup and the 2023 Ryder Cup. The low point came in Rome.

Scheffler and Burns were crushed 9-&-7 by Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Åberg in foursomes, one of the biggest losses in Ryder Cup history. Scheffler was reportedly in tears afterward. One of the best golfers in the world went eight straight Cup matches without a win, and three of those matches were halves, but still, eight straight without a victory.

Then, finally, something changed.

At the 2024 Presidents Cup, Scheffler teamed up with Russell Henley and finally got a win in the opening match. He finished that week 3-2, which is still his best team-event showing so far. So yes, the numbers seem bad. But what makes the story so fascinating is just how different Scheffler looks in team events compared with almost everywhere else.

That sounds strange when you are talking about one of the best golfers in the world, but team events are just different. In normal tournaments, he has 72 holes to let his game take over. In the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, everything can change in just one hole, and you also have a partner beside you. U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker isn’t worried about Scheffler’s record, though.

“Scottie Scheffler is not going to be the reason we win or lose this Presidents Cup necessarily. It’s going to have to be 12 people pitching in and doing their job.”

His message is simple: the U.S. team needs all 12 players to do their part. It’s a team effort, after all. Henley made an even better point.

He basically said that if you put Scheffler on a hard course for 72 holes, you would expect him to beat almost everyone. But team events are different. You only play 18 holes, and sometimes you have a partner. One bad hole can change the whole match. There is also a pretty interesting comparison: Tiger Woods.

Scottie Scheffler is not Team USA’s problem, but this pattern isn’t new either

He was one of the best golfers ever, but even Woods had a losing Ryder Cup record. He finished his career at 13-21-3. In partner matches, he was 9-19-1. So maybe there is something bigger going on here.

One former U.S. team analytics staffer has suggested that players like Scheffler and Woods may face the other team’s best possible pairing almost every time they play. This week at Medinah has already added another twist.

Scheffler and Burns finally won together, beating Min Woo Lee and Sungjae Im 1 up in Thursday’s foursomes match. That was a big moment for a partnership that had struggled so much. But Friday brought another loss, and it affected Scheffler’s overall Cup record.

That number could still change before the Presidents Cup ends, but Scheffler isn’t focusing on the numbers as much as everyone else is. He has said he doesn’t need to go 5-0 for the week to be successful. For him, the goal is to prepare well, play hard, and give his best effort to the team.