{"id":64131,"date":"2025-08-12T14:09:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T14:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/64131\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T14:09:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T14:09:16","slug":"pga-tour-star-scottie-scheffler-heaps-praise-on-latest-golfer-to-qualify-for-us-ryder-cup-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/64131\/","title":{"rendered":"PGA Tour star Scottie Scheffler heaps praise on latest golfer to qualify for US Ryder Cup team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scottie Scheffler heaped praise on JJ Spaun after the reigning US Open<\/a> champion sealed his spot on the US Ryder Cup team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spaun emerged as the unlikely winner of the third men’s major of the year with an electric birdie on the 72nd hole at Oakmont to deny Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His win came months after a heart-breaking play-off defeat to Rory McIlroy<\/a> at the flagship Players Championship on the PGA Tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old will now make his first appearance for Team USA at this year’s Ryder Cup<\/a> at Bethpage Black in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite losing in a play-off to England’s Justin Rose at the FedEx St. Jude Championship<\/a>, the result earned Spaun enough points to ensure he doesn’t have to worry about relying on a captain’s pick from Keegan Bradley.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Xander Schauffele<\/a> has also secured automatic qualification.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scheffler told reporters after finishing in a tie for third in the first leg of the PGA Tour<\/a>‘s playoffs in Memphis that he is very happy to see Spaun’s success.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He’s a great player,” Scheffler<\/a> said. “He’s got a ton of talent. He hits it really, really solid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“To win a US Open you’ve got to grind really hard, and he’s a guy that he gets the ball in play, hits it really solid and he holes a lot of putts. He’s a tough guy to beat.”<\/p>\n

\"JJ <\/p>\n

JJ Spaun<\/p>\n

He added: “You love seeing guys like that have success, guys that work hard and get the most out of their games, and JJ is definitely one of those guys that’s a grinder out here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You always see him practicing, see him in the gym. Definitely happy to see him having the success that he has.”<\/p>\n

For his part, Spaun said he did not know what has gotten in to him in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Never in his wildest dreams did he believe he would be a major champion when, last season, he was contemplating giving up the game altogether as he was in danger of losing his card.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what’s gotten into me, honestly,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

US Ryder Cup standings<\/p>\n

Rank<\/p>\n

Player<\/p>\n

Country<\/p>\n

Points<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

Scottie Scheffler (Q)<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

33,580.33<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

J.J. Spaun (Q)<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

14,638.91<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Xander Schauffele (Q)<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

13,570.02<\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Russell Henley<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

11,904.82<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Bryson DeChambeau<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

10,774.98<\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

Harris English<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

10,439.55<\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

Justin Thomas<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

10,347.59<\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

Collin Morikawa<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

9,929.77<\/p>\n

9<\/p>\n

Ben Griffin<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

9,304.76<\/p>\n

10<\/p>\n

Keegan Bradley<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

8,103.00<\/p>\n

11<\/p>\n

Maverick McNealy<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

7,553.65<\/p>\n

12<\/p>\n

Andrew Novak<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

7,230.48<\/p>\n

13<\/p>\n

Brian Harman<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

7,194.16<\/p>\n

14<\/p>\n

Cameron Young<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

6,689.64<\/p>\n

15<\/p>\n

Patrick Cantlay<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

6,570.39<\/p>\n

16<\/p>\n

Sam Burns<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

5,778.29<\/p>\n

17<\/p>\n

Wyndham Clark<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

5,216.87<\/p>\n

18<\/p>\n

Lucas Glover<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

4,705.44<\/p>\n

19<\/p>\n

Daniel Berger<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

4,533.21<\/p>\n

20<\/p>\n

Akshay Bhatia<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

4,469.63<\/p>\n

21<\/p>\n

Chris Gotterup<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

4,450.44<\/p>\n

22<\/p>\n

Tom Hoge<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

4,434.69<\/p>\n

23<\/p>\n

Denny McCarthy<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

4,300.28<\/p>\n

24<\/p>\n

Tony Finau<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

4,290.56<\/p>\n

25<\/p>\n

Sam Stevens<\/p>\n

USA<\/p>\n

4,191.54<\/p>\n

“I think I’m just content with what I’ve done in this game and now it’s just kind of free rolling. Just trying to win, and I think that’s a freeing mentality to have.”<\/p>\n

Spaun was denied a second victory of the season by Rose in an electric three-hole playoff at TPC Southwind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both players made par on the first extra hole.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spaun looked as though he had done enough by draining a long-range birdie putt at the second, only for the 45-year-old Englishman to answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"JJ <\/p>\n

JJ Spaun<\/p>\n

He had the opportunity to extend the contest further, but jammed his birdie putt through the break after Rose<\/a> found the centre of the cup from seven feet.<\/p>\n

“It sucks to miss a seven-footer, but tricky read and pulled it a little bit,” Spaun said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“But yeah, I hung in there the best I could, and he beat me to the hole first. Just wasn’t meant to be.”<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scottie Scheffler heaped praise on JJ Spaun after the reigning US Open champion sealed his spot on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-64131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}