Coming into 2024 Xander Schauffele was winless in the Majors and generally viewed as a nearly man. He was an Olympic champion but had only seven wins on the PGA Tour which never seemed to match the 30-year-old’s skills and talent.
Now he’ll head to Le Golf National in Paris to defend his Olympic title as a two-time Major winner after adding The Open to his PGA Championship victory that he won in May.
He’s up to second in the world rankings as Royal Troon, a wonderful host for the 152nd Open, got the winner it deserved.
Who knows how many Majors Schauffele will settle on, but this will be remembered for the closing 65 and, in particular, the back nine of 31.
Here are some key components to how the American became the first player since 2018 to win two Majors in a season.
Just six bogeys
Over the course of the four rounds, the third of which was played in horrific conditions, the American dropped just six shots which was the joint second best of the week – Justin Rose, very impressively, only had five bogeys over the 72 holes.
There were no doubles and Schauffele was bogey free on Sunday when he never really looked like dropping a shot.
“I felt like I limited the mistakes pretty well. We were lucky to only have one really hard round in the wind and rain and I managed that day better than I ever thought I could. I felt like I just controlled a lot of what I was trying to do, and the moments where I was losing control, I wasn’t too worried about it because it’s links golf.
“It’s how you play golf out here. You don’t have to be perfect or hit the prettiest drives, as long as you’re moving the ball forward and dodging bunkers and keeping holes in front of you and making sure your chips are into the wind, all the stuff that us pros talk about.”
He was second for Strokes Gained Approach where he picked up over 10 shots on the field.
Stamp of approval
Much of the pre-championship talk at a Troon Open centres around the Postage Stamp and the brilliance of a hole which measured just 100 yards on Sunday. Despite its length, or lack of it, you have to be pinpoint accurate and account for a wind with no flags on the grandstand to guide you.
Schauffele birdied the par 3 the first three days and narrowly missed out on a fourth in the final round. Schauffele ranked first across both the par 3s and 4s and had to wait until the 6th on Sunday for his first birdie on a par 5.
The back nine on Sunday
Schauffele’s closing 65 was the lowest round of the day and would give him a two-shot win when it looked like any one of half a dozen players might prosper going into the back nine.
The common consensus is that you have to make your score on the front nine where the holes are 300 yards shorter and the wind is more favourable – Greg Norman birdied his first six holes when he nearly won here in 1989 – and then try and hold things together coming home.
Schauffele played the back nine in 31 which included the only birdie of the day at the notorious 11th. Here we had watched players flail drives onto the railway track and hack out the rough – Schauffele nailed his tee shot and hit a wedge from 172 yards to inside three feet.
Calmness personified
If ever there was a day to lose your cool it was Saturday afternoon when the leaders faced a back nine that was absolutely brutal with drivers to par 3s and par 4s that couldn’t be located with two hits of the big chief.
While Shane Lowry was round in 77 and Justin Rose played his socks off for a 73, Schauffele recorded a very comfortable two-under 69. And that was as high as it could have been. He was asked when was the last time that he got visibly angry on a golf course?
“I’m not sure. I think a long time ago I just kept tracking my rounds where I got angry, like truly deep down angry, and my mistakes started compounding. I get angry but to me it’s all about the next shot.
“I know it’s cliche and people try to talk about it, but you really can make yourself happy if you try to hit a good shot as your next one versus just snowballing the wrong way. Easier said than done of course but I’ve never broken a club.
“I know how I need to be to perform at a high level. The same way I don’t get really angry, I also don’t let myself get too over the moon because to me it’s the same thing. If I’m sitting there snapping a club, that would be the same as me running around fist pumping.”
The Valhalla effect
Schauffele got the better of Bryson DeChambeau at the PGA Championship after leading on day one with a nine-under 62 and then making a birdie on the 72nd hole to finally notch his first Major.
All the doubts and all the questions over his finishing ability were put to one side and he was seen in something of a different light. Now, like say the likes of Padraig Harrington or Brooks Koepka before him, he’s seen as the man for the big occasion.
“I think winning the first one helped me a lot 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. It’s a dream come true to win two Majors in one year. It took me forever just to win one, and to have two now is something else.
“I felt like I really controlled a lot of it. I kind of grabbed onto it, and there was no chance I was going to let go of it. I was pretty aware of that and really wanted to make sure I did that.
“All those tough losses in the past or those moments where I let myself slip up and dream too early on that back nine, I was able to reel myself in and make sure that didn’t happen.”
Bonnie Scotland
Last week Schauffele finished in a tie for 15th at the Scottish Open, a tournament which he won in 2022. And he insisted that being in the UK the week ahead of The Open was a big factor in getting his hands on the Claret Jug.
“I think it’s essential, just the time zone itself is a big thing to overcome. Then when you move along to the fescue and the deep bunkers and the finer sand, and then you talk about the wind, and then the greens being slower, literally everything is completely different than what we do over in the States.
“If you can just give yourself an extra week to try and acclimate, I think it’s a no-brainer.”
The caddy
Schauffele and Austin Kaiser have been together since making it onto the PGA Tour having both been part of the same collegiate team in San Diego and Schauffele made a point of waiting for Kaiser to join him on the walk up Troon’s 18th to share in the moment.
“He’s one of my best friends but it’s a team thing. It’s a team environment that I like to have for my team. I was marching and I was just trying to focus, and I sort of looked up and I saw yellow leaderboards.
“In my head, I was like, you’re about to have your moment here and there’s no one better to share it than Austin because he deserves it as well.”