Xander Schaufelle lamented a tough break – and a couple of poor decisions – at the Zozo Championship that saw him card a quadruple bogey on the ninth hole to sit 10 shots behind the lead after the first round.
The World No. 2 was back in action at the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Inzai, Japan for the first time since the Presidents Cup last month, and suffered a brutal break on the par-4 ninth when his tee shot wedged against a tree root.
Schaufelle attempted to pitch out from the “bad spot” twice before eventually taking his medicine and declaring an unplayable, leading to an eight on No. 9 and a three-over start to his tournament.
Despite what he described as a “pretty low stress” round for “the most part of the day”, Schaufelle was left to rue his poor decisions on the ninth that stained an otherwise clean card on day one.
“Yeah, overall it was pretty low stress for the most part of the day. Like 85 percent of the day was not very stressful,” he said after carding a three-over 73 for his round. “No. 9 just, it was an incredible spot. I wanted to take a photo of it almost, how bad it was.
“For me to think I can do anything definitely got me in a hole there. I should have just taken an unplayable, but I was an idiot and tried to hit it. Then I was stubborn and then tried to hit it again, then finally took an unplayable. I was going to hit it a third time too just because, but yeah, it was a bad spot.”
After taking two swipes at his ball on his second and third shots on No. 9, which “didn’t go anywhere”, Schauffele eventually took an unplayable.
He remained in good spirits at the time, choosing to laugh off his predicament, but admitted after his round that the “meltdown” was due to being “overconfident”.
“I thought at worst I would hit the ball, hit the tree and go somewhere. The worst thing happened, the worst thing that could have happened happened twice. Just a combination of being overconfident and being really stubborn and it sometimes pays off for me in tournaments and today it bit me in the ass.
“Making an eight on a par 4, I think I led bogey avoidance this last season. It’s not something I’ve done in a really long time. It’s probably been like a year since I had a meltdown like that. All you can do is laugh at…
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