LOUISVILLE, Ky. — He says it so many times, you just don’t believe him anymore. First, “On Thursday.” Then there’s “only 36 holes.” Then it’s “just another outcome.” No, In fact, it’s just another result. Xander Schauffele either really cares about this or he cares so much that he has to push it deeper and deeper so that no one in the world knows how much he wants to win this thing .
He walked through each hole as if it were another hole. He plays the course like it’s just another tournament. step. Swing one arm. step. Swing the other arm. What makes Schauffele so good is that he operates in this way, like a 30-year-old golf robot with its head down and treating golf like an Excel spreadsheet, and to some, for the same reasons Reason, he couldn’t win more than he did.
Until he made the 6-foot putt, his legacy was in jeopardy. He admitted that he was nervous. He saw the break from left to right. Wait, no, right to left? He walked back and forth. “Man, this isn’t the winning putt I want,” he thought. If he succeeds, he will win the PGA Championship. If he misses, he makes a short par putt and goes into a playoff. If he loses this, he’ll solidify himself as this era’s quasi-Greg Norman, getting closer without a major and losing a two-shot lead on the back nine.
He played it straight, and he did play it to the left. So it caught the hole on the way out, and from there Schauffele nearly passed out for a moment, not even dealing with the putter drop of his life. He heard nothing but cheers from the crowd at Valhalla Golf Club and felt nothing but relief. He raised his arms in the air.
“What a relief,” he said.
Then the robot broke. He smiled. He couldn’t stop smiling. The edges of his teeth were pushing out on the side of his face and they just wouldn’t go away. He turned away, then back again, raising his fists with the crowd, his smile not fading.
This is not just another result. Xander Schauffele wants this.
Seven days ago, Schauffele shook hands with his caddy Austin Keizer in Charlotte after Rory McIlroy beat him at the Wells Fargo Championship.
“We’re going to get one soon, kid,” Schauffele said.
Putt. At this moment. victory. 🏆#PGAChampion | @XShaofele pic.twitter.com/C6aT7BMvfv
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 20, 2024
For the rest of the golf world, Sundays have become the norm for Schauffele. See, Schauffele has been arguably the most consistent golfer in the world over the past seven years. He is only 30 years old, but he has been in the top 20 more than 100 times. He seemed to be finishing somewhere between second and tenth every week. He won the Tour Championship in his rookie season and has remained among the top 5-10 best players in the world.
But he couldn’t win more. Not just professional. anything. Schauffele competed in more tournaments than almost anyone his age and topped the leaderboard, yet, for whatever reason, he would space out two or three years between wins. Entering Sunday, he had just six career PGA Tour wins. Consistency is both Schauffele’s superpower and the obstacle that keeps him disappointing. No matter how you explain it, Schauffele is the best player without a major championship. And it wasn’t taken as a compliment.
At first, he was just a guy who didn’t quite take advantage of his opportunities, rather than a choker. But recently, the narrative has changed. He has won by leading or tying twice in eight career starts. At three different times this season — at Riviera, The Players and Quail Hollow — he teed off in the final group on Sunday. In all three games, he faded into the game.
“All of this is calling me, even in the last week, and that feeling comes to you at some point,” Schauffele said Sunday night. “It just makes it all the sweeter.”
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On Saturday evening, his father Stefan sent him a text message: Steter Tropfen höhlt den Stein. This is the German translation of the old idiom “drops of water wear through stones”. Because in Schauffele’s view, every loss is more experience. This is another step toward getting better. As he always says, results are just results, and he insists that a sixth or 20th place finish is just a result. He was more focused on the golf he was actually playing.
Minutes before tipoff Sunday, Schauffele was still on the practice field, shooting the ball into the Kentucky sky. And the drive is always missing to the left. His partner Collin Morikawa, who is tied with Schauffele for the lead at 15 under, walked to the first tee a full two minutes early. Schauffele kept rocking. Miss Zuo kept coming. Time was approaching and Caesar was ready to take the bag to the tee. But Schauffele said, “One more.” So he put down another tee, put down a ball, and completed the final shot.
Just below the center.
Oh no. It’s happening. Happen in a way that you feel on site. Schauffele, who has led the PGA Championship all week except for about 20 minutes on Saturday afternoon, entered the back nine with a two-stroke lead at 19-under on Sunday. But he misplayed the par-5 10th, missing a 6-foot putt and bogeying, dropping his score to 18 under.
Schauffele walked dazedly up the hill toward the 11th tee. He stared at the ground in front of him, but there was no movement in his eyes. This is a difficult par 3 with the flagstick tucked away on the left side behind a narrow bunker. See, Schauffele is a “data golfer.” He takes a cautious approach. He won’t take unnecessary risks without a clear reward. It was just assumed he would hit the green for par.
But Schauffele went for the flagpole. He glued it.
“In those moments, you can feel it,” Schauffele said. “In the past when I didn’t do it, it wasn’t there, and today I can feel it there.”
But that’s not the story. The story is what happened when Schauffele approached the putt. There was a huge scoreboard overlooking the 11th green, and he was looking directly at it. Norwegian star Viktor Hovland was in a state of excitement, and Schauffele saw Hovland suddenly lead him by one shot. He knew he needed to putt. He needs to chase.
Schauffele made the birdie putt. One hole later, he shot directly into another tightly plugged pin and jammed it. Another easy birdie and regained the lead.
Schauffele has tried everything before. He tried not to look at the leaderboard until the back nine. He tried not to look too early. He tried not to look at all. guess what? He hasn’t won in two years. It doesn’t work.
“I looked at them today,” he said. “I look at them all day long. I really want to feel everything. I want to express how I feel at the moment.
He doesn’t want to play in the playoffs. Not against Bryson DeChambeau, who he knew had beaten him to 20 under thanks to a glance on the scoreboard. Not against one of the longest riders in the world on a long course. Schauffele knew he had to win in 72 holes. It was on the 18th hole at Valhalla that he needed a birdie.
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But when he hit what looked like a perfect shot, he could only smile. He even turned to his caddy at the end of his swing and said, “Good, huh?” But it wasn’t, and it landed right on the first rough cut to the right of the bunker. The only way to hit the ball is to stand in the bunker and take a baseball-like swing at the ball well above your feet. When he came down and saw it, he turned around, took ten steps back, stared ahead, and calmed himself down. “Man, someone made me make this money right now,” he thought with a smile.
“If you want to be a major champion, this is what you have to deal with,” Schauffele said afterward.
But what Schauffele is missing is a glimmer of hope. This is a golfer who is not known for losing, nor is he known for winning. He didn’t choke. He just didn’t hit those famous clutch shots and let others take the victory away from him. This is his chance to change the conversation on the fly.
Xander Schauffele needed a tough second shot on the 18th hole on Sunday. (Jon Doerr/USA Today)
He hit a beautiful shot in the fairway 36 yards from the green. The golf course was silent as he waited for his chip shot, quiet enough to sink into your brain, and Schauffele hit the ball to 6 feet from the hole. You know the rest. The putt went in. He won his first major championship, redefined his entire career and solidified himself as currently the second-best player in the world behind Scotty Scheffler.
But when Schauffele talks about overcoming that obstacle, he downplays it as much as possible, just as he does when victory is yet to come. “It’s just a result.” Because for Schauffele, nothing really changed on Sunday. It’s always a matter of chance. If he plays well and pushes himself to the top, he might win in the end. It’s just golf.
“You just look at the statistics, you keep hammering away, and eventually it’s going to work out,” Kaiser said after the win.
Those people who were in Louisville on Sunday, even those who were against him, they saw a difference.
But that’s not how Schauffele’s brain works. He sees this as a positive step, but he still only thinks about what he can do better. He thought of the man he was still searching for.
“I think that’s what it feels like when you’re trying to climb this mountain and let’s put Scotty Scheffler at the top and everyone else is somewhere on the hillside, hanging on for dear life,” He said Saturday.
However, can he still enjoy such a life?
“I found a good hook on the mountain on the cliff and I’m still climbing,” he said Sunday. “I’ll probably have a beer on the other side of the mountain and enjoy this.”
(Top photo: Andy Lyon/Getty Images)
