The plan is working.
Xander Schauffele stuck to the script that won him his first major at this year’s PGA Championship, and it paid off again at Royal Troon Golf Club. Schauffele shot a final-round 65 – the low round of the day by two shots – to finish two shots ahead of Justin Rose (67) and Billy Horschel (68) on Sunday.
Schauffele employed the same caddie he’s known since college, Austin Kaiser.
Schauffele’s older brother, Nico, filled his usual role as Xander’s road chef.
Heck, your newest Champion Golfer of the Year even had the exact same Saturday dinner as at Valhalla: chicken piccata.
“Same ingredients and everything,” said Gao Ya Chen, Schauffele’s uncle and manager. “Why change?”
By staying the same, Schauffele has changed everything.
His ninth PGA TOUR title changed the narrative that surrounded him. Known for his Sunday struggles during a two-year winless drought that ended at the PGA, Schauffele is now a certified closer. He’s a multiple major champion, proving that all those close calls were building to something greater. And now the golf world has a challenger to Scottie Scheffler for the PGA TOUR’s top honors, the FedExCup and Jack Nicklaus Award given to the player of the year.
“It’s a dream come true to win two majors in one year,” Schauffele said Sunday evening. “It took me forever just to win one, and to have two now is something else.”
OK, yes, the weather was different, the conditions more suitable for a carwash than a golf tournament. Does it ever get warm in Scotland? A pop-up barista at the Troon train station considered the question.
“We had some nice days in May,” she said.
Another difference between the PGA Championship and The Open was the presence of Schauffele’s father, Stefan, who was not at Valhalla but made the trek to Troon. It would be Stefan, Xander told the assembled press, who would choose what to drink first from the claret jug. The old man, leaning against a wall wearing his trademark fedora and a pair of sunglasses, nodded and smiled, for perhaps this, too, was all part of the plan.
Perhaps it’s true what they say about success merely getting in the way of the work.
“It was very difficult,” said Schauffele, who’s still No. 2 in the FedExCup behind Scheffler (72, T7, eight back). “I think winning the first one helped me a lot today on the back nine. I had some feeling of calmness come through. It was very helpful on what has been one of the hardest back nines I’ve ever played in a tournament.
Unlike his PGA Championship victory in May, when he needed to birdie the par-5 18th hole to win, Schauffele birdied Nos. 11, 13, 14 and 16 at Troon to leave little doubt. Although playing partner Rose held at least a share of the lead for much of Sunday, he simply could not match the winner’s late burst.
Asked what he saw from the younger Schauffele, Rose was succinct.
“A guy at the top of his game,” Rose said. “A guy that has all the attributes that make him a great player and a great champion. He’s obviously now learning that the winning is easy. He has a lot of horsepower; do you know what I mean? In the sense of he’s good with a wedge, he’s great with a putter, he hits the ball a long way, obviously his iron play is strong.
“He’s got a lot of weapons out there,” Rose continued. “I think probably one of his most unappreciated ones is his mentality. He’s such a calm guy out there. I don’t know what he’s feeling, but he certainly makes it look very easy.”
Indeed, Schauffele can beat you in a lot of different ways. He’s one of the best with the driver, which showed itself at brawny Valhalla, but he it was his alacrity with the irons that set him apart at Troon. Schauffele gained 10.33 strokes on the field on approach, second in the field.
“He didn’t put a foot wrong,” Mark Fulcher, Rose’s caddie, said. “It was nice not to have to pay for a ticket to watch it, because he was fantastic.”
Schauffele and his wife, Maya, will now take a five-day vacation to Portugal before Schauffele tees it up as the defending gold medalist at the Paris Olympics at Le Golf National. After two weeks in Scotland – he finished T15 at the Genesis Scottish Open, which he won as part of a three-victory season in 2022 – he needs a break.
This Open Championship was a grueling test, hitting players with all that links golf can offer. Besides the fescue, gorse and pot bunkers, there were strong winds that came from unexpected directions, as well as cold and rain.
Even amidst it all, Schauffele was still the same laid-back San Diegan at Troon with otherworldly talent. During the day, he and Kaiser tried to keep grips and gloves dry, especially during the torrential downpour Saturday, when Schauffele shot a remarkable 69. At night, they would retire to their rental house, get warm, savor Nico’s cooking, and play H-O-R-S-E and such on an indoor basketball hoop.
And on Sunday, Schauffele all but dunked on the field, fashioning a seemingly nerveless performance that saw him shoot 4-under 31 on the back nine. He did not make a bogey.
“This is probably the best round we’ve ever played in the conditions,” Kaiser said. “I mean he played great at the PGA, but this was way more of a challenge today.”
Americans now hold all four majors in a calendar year for the first time since 1982. Schauffele’s Open victory begs the question: What’s next? After he won the PGA, it didn’t take long for him and Kaiser to start thinking ahead to majors Nos. 2, 3 and 4. He has two top-3s at Augusta National and his worst finish in eight U.S. Opens is T14, so why not aim for the career Grand Slam?
“I could definitely see him achieving that, no problem,” Kaiser said.
How quickly everything can change. Not long ago, Kaiser wondered, What can I do to get this guy over the top? It was at the Wells Fargo Championship, the week before the PGA, and Schauffele had led going into the final day but had shot 71 and his doors blown off by Rory McIlroy (65). Schauffele hadn’t won since ’22.
There were a lot of theories about why, but in the end, Kaiser said, it’s been getting one good break at the right time. At the PGA, Schauffele holed his birdie putt at the last, but barely, the ball lipping in to beat Bryson DeChambeau.
On Sunday at The Open, the turning point came at Railway, the par-4 11th hole that was the site of so many wrecks, with McIlroy and others hitting their drives on the tracks.
Schauffele steered away from them, but nearly overcorrected.
“We kind of hit a drive a little left of our target,” Kaiser said, “and it stayed in, and we ended up birdieing the hardest hole on the course. You look back at that, if that ball goes in the gorse, you probably don’t win this tournament.”
Good breaks. Good dinners. All the attributes. Just a few months from having to answer a lot of unpleasant questions at Quail Hollow, it’s all going Xander Schauffele’s way.
Source: PGATour.com
