LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After getting lapped by the Rory McIlroy buzzsaw during the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship one week ago, Xander Schauffele shook hands on the 18th green with his longtime caddie Austin Kaiser and told him, “We’ll get one soon, kid.”
“It was like the most clarity I’ve ever had,” Kaiser said. “I’m like, yeah, he truly believes it.”
Soon arrived just seven days later as Schauffele shattered the narrative that he couldn’t close by sinking a 5-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole on Sunday to end a nearly two-year winless spell and claim the 106th PGA Championship and his first major championship.
“I just heard everyone roaring and I just looked up to the sky in relief,” Schauffele said.
He closed with an impressive 6-under 65 at Valhalla Golf Club to edge Bryson DeChambeau by one stroke, shooting a 72-hole total of 21-under 263, the lowest score in relation to par at a major championship. It’s his eighth career PGA Tour title and this one took patience, perseverance and showed that he had true grit.
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Schauffele entered the week as the only player in the top five of the Official World Golf Ranking without a major championship. He’s had several close calls this season, blowing leads at the Players Championship among others.
“I’ll lick my wounds and right back to it next week,” he said after that disappointment in March, and that the next win would be sweeter after McIlroy fired a Sunday 65 to beat him by five strokes. But Schauffele didn’t let the noise that he couldn’t close or that he was the best active player never to win a major bother him.
“People begin to talk and the narrative…it’s so easy to listen to that,” said Chris Como, who became his swing instructor this year.
Schauffele had been coached by his father, Stefan, since he was a kid, but he recently relocated from the West Coast to Florida and began working with Como, who has taught the likes of Tiger Woods and DeChambeau in the past and whose current stable includes Jason Day. They didn’t make household changes to his swing, just getting the club a little bit more on plane and his shoulders a little bit steeper.
“This year he’s hitting it even further,” Justin Thomas said on Thursday. “As good as he drove it, now he’s doing the same, just 15 yards further.”
Como’s involvement allowed Schauffele’s father to take a backseat. “He trusts him a lot,…
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