U.S. Ryder Cup team aiming to stay sharp at Procore Championship

Scottie Scheffler was on the tee with three other Ryder Cup teammates during a practice round at the Procore Championship, a rare sight at a regular PGA Tour event in September.

His caddie, Ted Scott, was offering options on which club to hit and the best lines, along with information on the shape of the fairway and best place to miss. This happens all the time.

It can be easy to forget a tournament is at stake at Silverado Resort, now with 10 players from the U.S. Ryder Cup team, all of them within the top 25 in the world ranking, some of them having never been to the Procore Championship.

“I didn't show up to Napa to talk about the Ryder Cup for four days,” Scheffler said Wednesday after his pro-am. “I'm here to play a golf tournament.”

But there is a reason to play, and that's the Ryder Cup.

Xander Schauffele, who is home with a newborn son, suggested two months ago it was Scheffler who first began pushing for Ryder Cup players to avoid a mistake from two years ago when they went a month without competing before showing up outside Rome.

The Procore Championship fell two weeks after the Tour Championship and two weeks before the Sept. 26-28 matches at Bethpage Black. There wasn't a lot of arm-twisting.

“I think the players knew it was important. This Ryder Cup means everything to them,” said U.S. captain Keegan Bradley, who will be at Silverado into the weekend without having brought his clubs. He said he was 13 the last time he went to a PGA Tour event that he didn't play.

“We talk a lot behind the scenes of how much this means to us and they are willing to do whatever it takes to be prepared," Bradley said. "This is something that we wanted. When I was named captain, this was something that I wanted, but like they wanted it more than I did. This made it really easy.

“When the players take accountability for their team, good things happen.”

The practice round featured two big groups of Ryder Cup players — Harris English and Collin Morikawa played earlier, Ben Griffin was a late arrival from a previous commitment — while the rest of the 144-man field was scattered about Silverado.

That apparently included one interloper. Turns out a local with a staff golf bag showed up on the edge of the resort, walked on and began playing. It wasn't until he caught up with Seamus Power on the par-3 17th and shanked one toward the houses that the gig was up and he was asked to leave.

The pro-am had all 10 players — and three assistant captains — on the same side of the draw. The starting times for the opening two rounds have Ryder Cup players in the same group, which was not an accident.

It even has a Ryder Cup theme off the course, as the PGA of America has taken over an enormous house that serves as a team gathering place. They all met for dinner Tuesday night and it will serve as their haven for the week.

This is a chance to build team unity — never mind these guys hang out quite a bit already during the season — and get in the mood.

“It's great to have pretty much everyone here this week. A lot of great vibes throughout the meetings and the dinners we’ve had. That’s what you ask for,” Collin Morikawa said.

Mostly it's about staying sharp, and no one has been sharper than Scheffler. He has not finished out of the top eight since The Players Championship in March.

Scheffler often talks about staying in the present, not spending much thought about what just happened or what's on the horizon. This is a little different, to a point.

“This is the easiest way for me to explain it,” Scheffler said. "When I prepare and practice at home, I’m always focused on the next stop and the next tournament. But during the offseason and when you’re preparing and practicing, the majors are always in the back of your head.

“I think the majors are always on the back of your mind just because they’re the greatest challenges. I think the Ryder Cup is a great challenge as well just because of the pressure that you feel not only playing for yourself but playing for your country, playing for your partner,” he said. “I'm present. I'm ready to play this week.”

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