Xander Schauffele, an American professional golfer, shone with his second win of the current golfing season. Although this is the second major title of his career, he achieved a double major season, meaning that he won two major titles in one season. This is the first time that this has happened since Brooks Koepka did it in 2018. Schauffele struggled to wrap it up on the green with a 2-stroke lead after being a shot behind the night before. To achieve this in front of his father, who coached and mentored him throughout his career, made it a truly special weekend for Schauffele.
Schauffele shuffled his way over to the claret jug with an impressive bogey-free final day score of 7-under-par, finishing overall with 9-under-par.
Schauffele organised himself a neat front 9 holes under the calm conditions of the course, reaching halfway with a 2-under-par for the day after his birdies at holes 6 and 7. He came alive at the start of the back 9 holes as his nearest challengers – Justin Rose, Billy Horschel, and Thriston Lawrence – began to shake. Schauffele hit a smooth approach to a difficult hole 11 (from the left rough with a wedge) to set up a tap-in birdie before sinking a 16-foot birdie on hole 13 to get to 7-under-par alongside Lawrence. Sooner rather than later, Schauffele was in front on his own after Lawrence dropped his first shot of the day on hole 12.
The American then pushed forward a 12-foot putter on hole 14 and suddenly, he had a 2-shot lead. That extended to 3 after a delightful chip over a bunker at hole 16 led to another birdie. Two closing pars sealed the championship for him.
Schauffele went from the heaviest major trophy at the PGA Championship to the smallest and oldest – the infamous claret jug that he will keep for the next year. He finished at 9-under-par (275) and earned $3.1 million (R56.9 million), pushing him to winnings of over $15 million (R275.3 million) for the season.
Scottie Scheffler and John Rahm looked threatening at times on the leaderboard, but found it difficult to keep their games consistent. The pair that exchanged the Masters Tournament’s green jacket this year tied for seventh place at the end of play. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy both missed the cut during the weekend. Woods was in the mood to win, as always, but suffered his lowest ever score at the Open Championship, having organised himself a score of 14-over-par (156). McIlroy shot a combined 11-over-par, and with that, he has to wait until 2025 as he stretches his decade-long major-less run.
Is it Xander Schauffele’s time? Should Scottie Scheffler shake? With the end of the Major season for 2024, the Paris Olympic Games promise to give us some spectacular action. There is a lot of great golf to look forward to as team USA look to set the house on fire with a team of Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, and Collin Morikawa. The team started their campaign on 1 August
