Scottie Scheffler: Ryder Cup backing helped elevate my career

Scottie Scheffler has credited his Ryder Cup team-mates for helping to turn him from a player without a PGA Tour victory into the game's dominant force.

The world number one won the Masters for the second time in three years in April and heads into the 124th US Open at Pinehurst on the back of his fifth win of the year at the Memorial Tournament.

It took being arrested following an incident with a police officer on his way into the course before the second round to derail his bid to win the US PGA Championship last month, and Rory McIlroy freely admits Scheffler is "undoubtedly the best player in the world at the minute by a long way".

McIlroy was not alone in lavishing praise on Scheffler when asked about him in pre-tournament press conferences, but the man himself reminded onlookers it was less than three years ago that he needed a wild card to make his Ryder Cup debut at Whistling Straits.

United States captain Steve Stricker sought the opinion of the six automatic qualifiers when picking his wild cards and Scheffler said: "I always look back on being selected for my first Ryder Cup team, of kind of having the vote of some of the guys.

"I wasn't really a proven player out here yet. I hadn't won on Tour. I got the vote of some of my peers to be on that team and was able to perform well. So that's something that I always look back on and am very grateful for.

"I'm very grateful those guys wanted me on that team and I felt like it was a big moment in my career.

"So I'm very thankful to have a lot of the friendships that I have out here and it's a joy to be out here playing with these guys and competing with them. It's a lot of fun."

Whether his rivals are having as much fun as Scheffler right now would be highly questionable,