Scottie Scheffler performed an act of incredible sportsmanship at the Presidents Cup that left his wife Meredith close to tears.
Team USA performed an incredible comeback on Sunday with President Donald Trump watching on and later presenting the trophy to the victorious team.
Scheffler beat Nico Echavarria 2&1 in their singles match, as the hosts won nine of the 12 Sunday contests to snatch a 17-13 win after the biggest final day comeback in the history of the tournament.
It marked a big turnaround from the World No.1 after he was sat out of Saturday’s afternoon foursomes after a tough start, and it came after a moment of class that drew widespread praise.
As 32-year-old Colombian star Echavarria was swinging on the par-4 14th, a rowdy fan yelled ‘Go Scottie!’ and his ball flew into the right rough.
An angry Scheffler confronted the crowd and eventually conceded Echavarria his par putt despite Scheffler being on course to win the hole.
Donald Trump watched on as Scottie Scheffler and USA pulled off a Presidents Cup comeback
Scheffler conceded a putt to Nico Echavarria after he was disrupted during his backswing
‘We have the No. 1 player in the world who’s a class act,’ Echavarria said later. ‘I wasn’t expecting for him to give me that.’
According to NBC’s on-course reporter, John Wood, when Scheffler’s wife, Meredith, heard about him conceding the hole, she replied: ‘That makes me want to cry.’
And the sporting scene all played out in front of President Trump, who helped inspire the US team to their historic comeback.
Scheffler later addressed the incident and said: ‘There’s just no place for that. I was very frustrated.
‘It was honestly a big distraction, I think for me, just because we compete and work so hard to put ourselves in these moments.
‘When you have some fan who decides to insert himself into the tournament, you can say, I think, whatever you want to players, but I think there’s an amount of respect there.
‘You should get about 30 seconds when you’re over the ball and hitting your shot or getting ready for your shot where fans are pretty silent.
‘It just didn’t really sit well with me. He would never hit a shot as poorly as he hit, I think, off the 14th if there wasn’t a fan yelling in his swing.
‘It was just very frustrating. I don’t really want to talk about it all that much. It was frustrating.’
Scheffler’s wife Meredith ‘wanted to cry’ after hearing about his act of sportsmanship
Scheffler was annoyed by the behavior of heckling fans during the final day on Sunday
Scheffler’s opponent admitted it was not an isolated incident over the course of a tense final day with a lot on the line.
‘It didn’t happen just once,’ said Echavarria. ‘It was a tough environment.
‘It’s unfortunate that in some way the crowds can affect performance like that. It was just unfortunate, a couple things here and there.’
After the win, Team USA captain Brandt Snedeker gave credit to President Donald Trump for helping them turn things around.
‘All these guys fought for each other, fought for this country, fought for this team,’ he said.
‘And one last shout out to Donald Trump, President Trump. He told me I was going to bring some energy today for you guys, you guys need it, and I told him if we did this, he gets all the credit. Thank you, President Trump.’
