It took Xander Schauffele 28 begins to seize his first main championship.
Simply two majors later, he’s acquired his second.
Schauffele, who a pair months in the past broke by way of on the PGA Championship, separated from a bunched leaderboard with a scientific back-nine 31 as he closed out a two-shot Open Championship win at Royal Troon.
Schauffele’s victory accomplished an American sweep of the majors this yr, the primary time that’s occurred since 1982, a yr that included Tom Watson’s Open triumph at Troon. Schauffele can also be the primary participant to win a number of main titles in a single season since Brooks Koepka in 2018.
Maybe most impressively, Schauffele’s closing 6-under 65 was his second final-round 65 to win a serious this yr. He’s the primary participant in historical past to perform that feat; Jack Nickalus, in accordance with the Twenty First Group’s Justin Ray, is the one different participant with a couple of final-round 65 or higher to win a serious.
Schauffele started the ultimate day at 3 underneath, one shot again of chief Billy Horschel and a part of a logjam that featured six gamers tied for second and 12 guys inside 4 pictures of one another. And one after the other, in a stiff 15-20 mph crosswind from the coast, Schauffele’s challengers squandered their possibilities: Scottie Scheffler four-putted the ninth for double bogey; Horschel bogeyed the “Postage Stamp,” the par-3 eighth, and added one other dropped shot at No. 10; Justin Rose, enjoying alongside Schauffele and attempting to turn out to be the primary Open qualifier to win since Paul Lawrie in 1999, bogeyed No. 12 after which couldn’t match Schauffele’s birdie on the following gap; Thriston Lawrence was bogeying No. 12 to fall to six underneath whereas Schauffele was pushing to 7 underneath for a two-shot swing.
Beginning with the par-5 sixth, Schauffele birdied six holes in an 11-hole stretch to turn out to be the primary particular person all week to achieve 9 underneath. That run included the one birdie of the spherical – and simply the third of the weekend – at Troon’s most troublesome gap, the par-4 eleventh, which is nicknamed “The Railway.” He wasn’t finished; he drained putts of 16 ft and 12 ft at Nos. 13 and 14, respectively, and when Rose discovered the inexperienced in two on the par-5 sixteenth, Schauffele hit three sensible pictures to provide himself 4 ft for one more birdie, which he made to develop his result in three pictures over Rose and Lawrence.
Schauffele hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation on Sunday, together with each single one on the ultimate 9, the place his 5-under 31 was the most effective of the weekend (Sungae Im’s 32 was the one different back-nine rating higher than 34 on Sunday). He additionally restricted the stress, not needing to make a single par putt exterior of three ft.
Projected to maneuver again to a career-best second within the Official World Golf Rating, Schauffele now has not less than a slight case for PGA Tour Participant of the Yr, an award that previous to this week was believed to be world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler’s in a runaway. Scheffler has six wins this season, together with the Masters, however now Schauffele has two majors to go together with 10 different top-10s (Scheffler has 14 complete top-10s, together with a T-7 at Troon).
