Schauffele started Sunday one shot behind Billy Horschel at the British Open at Royal Trune. After a bogey-free 65, Schauffele claimed the Claret Jug for the first time, with a one shot victory over Horschel and Justin Rose.
While Scheffler has six wins on the PGA Tour this season, Schauffle claimed his ninth career tour victory, but his second major championship of 2024.
Two majors (the British and the PGA Championship) are better than Scheffler’s solo major at The Masters this season.
Schauffele finished eighth at Augusta in April, and tied for seventh at the US Open last month. Scheffler finished tied for 41st at Pinehurst, but finished in the top 10 in both majors Schauffele won.
Through all four rounds, only Schauffele, Dan Brown, Shane Lowry, Justin Rose were the only four players to finish play on the first page of the leaderboard. Brown led Thursday at -6, one better than Lowry, while Rose and Schauffele were at -2. Scoring was tight, as only 17 players broke par, due to the wind and impending rain conditions.
Lowry’s 69 was not best on Friday, but Brown shot 72 to fall behind by two shots going into the weekend. Rose shot 68, which was tied with several others including Horschel for the low round of the day, shooting him into a tie with Brown, while Schauffele shot a +1 72, putting him six shots back.
As the weather worsened on Saturday, scores were either very low, or several over par among the first two pages of the leaderboard. American Sam Burns and South African Thriston Lawrence shot blistering 65’s to vault into contention, while Adam Scott and Russell Henley shot 66 themselves. Schauffele shot 69, as did Horschel. Lowry shot 77, taking him to -1, three shots behind Horshcel going into Sunday. Even after both shooting 73 on Saturday, Rose and Brown found themselves one back, and Brown would be in the final pairing on Sunday afternoon. The highlight of Saturday however had to be Si Woo Kim shooting an ace on the 238 yard par 3 17th hole, the longest in British Open history.
When you put his resume up against some of the best in the world, such as Scheffler, Xander Schauffele may stack up just as well, despite fewer victories. Schauffele was part of the United States team that won the Ryder Cup in 2021, and was a member of the 2023 squad. He was one of the key members of the 2019 and 2022 President’s Cup winning squads, and will undoubtedly be part of the 2024 squad that tees off in Montreal in late September.
Then there was the outright stroke play gold medal he won at the 2022 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, holding a one shot lead at the end of days two through four. Scheffler and Schauffele will both be in Paris starting next weekend, as the men will tee off starting August 1.
Schauffele told reporters after the trophy presentation on Sunday that his confidence from winning the PGA Championship at Valhalla (Louisville, Kentucky) in May helped him navigate towards winning at Royal Troon. At only 30 years old, Schauffele has put together a resume that some other multiple major championship winners simply do not stack up against. Justin Thomas last won a major in 2022, and has missed the cut in five of his last 10 majors since winning the PGA Championship in 2022. Jordan Spieth has three majors, but none since winning two in 2017. Spieth last finished in the top 10 in a major at the 2023 Masters (tied for fourth). Rory McIlroy has four, but nothing to show in the past decade, despite being the runner-up at the US Open. McIlroy missed the cut this weekend, and is also on his way to Paris for the Olympics.
Schauffele was the 2016-17 PGA Rookie of the Year, and has 12 professional wins after Sunday. The victory shot him past McIlroy (9.06 points) to second in the World Golf Rankings at 11.13, but still well behind Scheffler (17.99). He became the 16th player in the history of the rankings to spend multiple weeks at 2, but not yet reached the top spot. Keep in mind that Phil Mickelson, Mark O’Meara, Jim Furyk, and Jose Maria Olazabal join him on that list. Schauffele has also spent 248 weeks in the top 10 over the course of his career, and will pass the late Payne Stewart by the time the Paris games come to a close.
Even though the Paris games do not count towards the FedEx Cup, it would be difficult to think that Schauffele will not finish 2024 with a better body of work than Scheffler, as both are slated to be part of Furyk’s President’s Cup team, which will face a loaded International team.
-JC24