{"id":863481,"date":"2026-09-28T11:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/863481\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T11:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:46:18","slug":"scottie-schefflers-class-act-gesture-earned-him-new-admirer-his-opponent-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/863481\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottie Scheffler\u2019s \u2018class act\u2019 gesture earned him new admirer: his opponent | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nico Echavarria, 32-year-old Colombian golf star, has had some big moments: his two wins, both in 2018, on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica; his three-pack of PGA Tour wins (2026 Cognizant Classic, 2024 Zozo Championship, 2023 Puerto Rico Open); and his 11 majors starts (best finish: T41, 2025 PGA Championship). Lest you\u2019ve forgotten, Echavarria also won a sudden-death playoff at the 2025 Masters Par-3 Contest. In a\u00a0duel with J.J. Spaun<\/a>, Echavarria secured the coveted crystal pedestal bowl when on the second playoff hole he stuffed his tee shot to kick-in range.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It would be a while \u2014\u00a0give or take 17 months \u2014\u00a0before Echavarria would face another American star in a head-to-head clash. But it happened at the Presidents Cup<\/a> on Sunday, when Echavarria drew the International\u2019s team short straw: a date with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler<\/a> in one of the event\u2019s 12 decisive singles matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Internationals, which carried a three-point lead into singles, needed to scratch out just 5 points to upset the Americans. But no one was banking on Echavarria pitching in \u2014\u00a0not for lack of effort or desire on Echavarria\u2019s part but for the sheer difficulty of the task in front of him: the top-ranked player in Data Golf\u2019s ranking vs. the 126th-ranked player, who also happened to be, statistically speaking, the weakest player on either Presidents Cup side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was an obvious analogy \u2014\u00a0heck, Echavarria himself had cited it when speaking at the PGA Tour\u2019s Asheville, N.C., event earlier this month. \u201cA little bit of David against Goliath,\u201d he said. Echavarria was talking about the International team vs. the U.S. team at large, but the same principle (and then some) applied to Echavarria\u2019s Sunday draw.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, stuff happens in sports. Ask Mike Eruzione or Buster Douglas or Appalachian State. Match play in golf can be especially hard to predict. \u201cI don\u2019t think statistics are as important this week as people think,\u201d Echavarria said earlier this week. \u201cI think it\u2019s more of a mindset of you\u2019re playing one-on-one against a person. You don\u2019t have to shoot six under. You can shoot three over and win a match, and that\u2019s a point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe, but three over rarely gets it done against the world\u2019s best player. On Sunday, Scheffler snatched the early lead with a birdie at the par-4 2nd. Undaunted, Echavarria fired back with a birdie \u2014 and win \u2014\u00a0of his own on the ensuing par-5. But then Scheffler started to do Scheffler things: birdie on 5. Birdie on 6. Birdie on 8. Three up. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t make many mistakes,\u201d Echavarria said later. When Scheffler rolled in another bird at 10 to go 4 up, if the fat lady wasn\u2019t singing, she was certainly loosening up her larynx.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Echavarria wasn\u2019t just fighting Scheffler, he also was fighting off the fans. That\u2019s part of the deal when you\u2019re on the road in these supercharged team events, but Echavarria seemed to be getting it worse than most. \u201cIt didn\u2019t happen just once,\u201d he said after his round.<\/p>\n

The most offensive \u2014\u00a0and consequential \u2014 disruption came on the tee at the par-4 14th, where as Echavarria wound up to swing, a fan yelled, \u201cGo Scottie!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Echavarria\u2019s drive sailed toward the right rough, he let go\u00a0of his driver and looked toward the offending heckler. Scheffler also was seething. He walked across the tee box and barked, \u201dThere\u2019s no place for that!\u201d<\/p>\n

Echavarria made a mess of the hole, knocking his third shot off the back of the green, 32 feet from the pin. Scheffler, meanwhile, had a tap-in par, which\u00a0surely would have won him the hole. Only it didn\u2019t, because Scheffler, in an act of sportsmanship, conceded Echavarria his par for a push that will go down in Presidents Cup lore<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the No. 1 player in the world who\u2019s a class act,\u201d Echavarria said later. \u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting for him to give me that.\u201d <\/p>\n

No one was, not in the moment. But in retrospect, it was the only thing to do. <\/p>\n

Scheffler, as he so often does on the golf course, had seen what many of us had missed: the unjustness of an imbecile fan\u2019s actions could not simply be frowned upon and then swept under the rug. Action needed to be taken. In Scheffler\u2019s mind, with his opponent reeling, there was only one way to proceed. He wasn\u2019t being a hero or in pursuit of a congressional medal. He was merely doing what was so plainly right. That might also explain why after the match Scheffler dismissed framing the act as any kind of noble or magnanimous gesture. Mostly he was just pissed off at the offending fan.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just no place for that,\u201d Scheffler said in the U.S. team\u2019s Sunday-evening press conference. \u201cI 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\u2019s an amount of respect there. You should get about 30 seconds when you\u2019re over the ball and hitting your shot or getting ready for your shot where fans are pretty silent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just didn\u2019t really sit well with me. He would never hit a shot as poorly as he hit, I think, off the 14th if there wasn\u2019t a fan yelling in his swing. I don\u2019t really want to talk about it all that much.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that was that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Echavarria also was irritated, which is why he so relished chipping in on 16 to pull within two holes of Scheffler with two to play. In a move right out of Patrick Reed\u2019s playbook, Echavarria put his finger to his lips and shushed the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just frustrating with the amount of things that they say to you, so when you can give one back to them, it feels really good,\u201d he said. \u201cMaking that to keep the match going was very cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t go on for much longer. When Echavarria\u2019s approach on the next hole, the par-4 17th, ran past the pin and through the green, so, too, did his last best hope of taking down Scheffler.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scheffler won the match, 2 and 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also won a new fan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just different,\u201d Echavarria said. \u201cEven how good he is, he\u2019s a truly amazing guy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nico Echavarria, 32-year-old Colombian golf star, has had some big moments: his two wins, both in 2018, on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-863481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}