[PHOTO: David Cannon]
Xander Schauffele, in just a couple of months, has gone from the best player to not win a major to the best player on the planet this side of Scottie Scheffler, backing up his PGA Championship victory with a win at the 152nd Open Championship thanks to a bogey-free, final-round 65 at Royal Troon.
A stalwart on major-championship leaderboards, Schauffele, now in his eight season on the PGA Tour, has had at least two top-10s in majors in all but two campaigns. That experience in the big spot on the biggest stages in golf showed as he meticulously hunted down the lesser-tested Thriston Lawrence, who led early on the back nine in the final round.
A key swing came when Schauffele birdied the 13th hole with a 16-foot putt. It tied him with Lawrence at seven-under for the championship. Moments later, Lawrence bogeyed the 12th and Schauffele took the outright lead. On the 14th, Schauffele knocked a 6-iron on the 184-metre par 3 to 13 feet and holed that putt to take a two-shot lead, a margin he would not relinquish.
That stretch proved Schauffele’s game plan coming into Sunday was spot on. “[The] tournament is far from over,” he said on Saturday night. “If you can get yourself in position with a few holes to play, I think you’ve really done your job for the week.”
Schauffele certainly got the job done with his irons. He ranked second in strokes gained/approach the green, picking up more than 10 shots on the field average. He also ranked second in greens in regulation.
Schauffele uses Callaway Apex TCB irons with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue 100X shafts. The clubs have a classic look thanks to a relatively straight leading edge, thin topline and a hosel transition that looks like they were made for a tour player. But the clubs have tungsten weighting that makes them play more forgiving than they look.
“When I was 13 to 15 years old, I played blades and I quickly learned they were not good for me,” Schauffele told Golf Digest when he first put the irons in play. “No reason to make the game harder.”
With a final-round 65, the same final round score that won him the PGA Championship two months ago, Schauffele actually made things look pretty easy.
What Xander Schauffele had in the bag at the 2024 Open Championship:
Ball: Callaway Chrome Tour
Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (Mitsubishi Diamana PD 70TX), 10.5 degrees
3-wood: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond, 16.5 degrees
Irons (3): Mizuno Pro 225; (4-PW): Callaway Apex TCB
Wedges: Callaway Opus (52 degrees); Titleist Vokey SM10 (56 degrees); Titleist Vokey SM10 WedgeWorks (60 degrees)
Putter: Odyssey Toulon Las Vegas Prototype
