Shane Lowry’s noble effort not enough against Schauffle’s four-day sprint at Valhalla
THIS WAS A Kentucky derby where the going was soft and Xander Schauffele made the right running.
Schauffele flew out of the gate on Thursday and he kept the pace, leading from post-to-post by nudging his nose ahead on the 72nd hole.
And what a pace. Schauffele opened by tying the lowest-ever one-day score at a major and finished with the lowest aggregate score in major history. Nearly men normally stumble or step across the threshold. Very few leap across it, as Schauffele did at Valhalla.
Only Lee Westwood, Colin Montgomerie, and Steve Stricker had spent longer in the world’s top 10 without winning a major than Schauffele, and last week’s blow-up at Quail Hollow encapsulated many of his problems closing out tournaments. Typically, when the finishing line hovers into view, Xander seizes up and gets tentative. Chips become clips; putts die too soon.
But not this week, as he led the spiked stampede across Valhalla. The world’s best players only gather four times a year and this week they got anarchic, ripping the place apart. No course is too long for these guys nowadays, and with soggy turf, hardly a puff of wind and nowhere for the pins to hide, the scoring was absurdly low.
Per stats wizard Justin Ray, the combined score to par came to minus-214: the next lowest in this tournament’s history was the 1995 edition at Riveria, which added up to plus-40. Just the 254 shot-swing.
Against the best golfers in the world, Valhalla was an utterly defenceless course: it needed its greens to be as firm as its local police.
But that didn’t mean we didn’t get any drama. Perhaps the acknowledged need for acceleration suited Schauffele, as getting tentative was never going to be an option. He went out in four-under to make the turn with a two-shot lead. His playing partner had withered at that point, as Collin Morikawa endured an absolute Rory-at-St-Andrews in hitting the middle of greens and leaving himself too much work to make any putts. His first birdie of the day came on the final hole.
Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland instead brought the challenge to Schauffele. Bryson, who is in turn a golfer, a content creator, and a lab technician in need of a hobby, thrilled the crowd in trying to chase down Schauffele, making the most of a huge stroke of luck on the 16th – his tee shot was heading miles left before clanking back off the trees and into the fairway – to make birdie before then making another on the final hole, seeing his ball drop with its very final revolution.
Maybe Bryson has made his final revolution to the game of golf. Yes, he is playing with a set of 3D-printed irons, but he has dialled back his protein-shake-and-bash game and has even started to yell fore at patrons. He is slimmed down and putting renewed emphasis on the game’s defter aspects, and he scrambled better than anyone else in the field this week.
Viktor Hovland, meanwhile, marked an abrupt return to form this week. He flirted with withdrawing given how low his confidence was after a wretched start to what was supposed to be the year he started minting the progress he showed last year. But he got lost over the off-season while chasing the false horizon of a perfect swing. His perplexed wanderings have happily come to an end this week, and he has re-connected with his former coach Joe Mayo.
Schauffele’s aggression got the better of him on 10, curiously trying to muscle a three-wood to the green from a bunker rather than laying up to the forgiving fairways. He found the rough and made a bogey five, while Hovland made birdie ahead to suddenly share the lead.
The response, however, was outstanding as Schauffele pinned his ears back and made back-to-back birdies on 11 and 12. It was at this point he began managing his pace, playing conservatively to the heart of the green on 13 and 14 amid a run of pars, holding his nerve to get up and down on 17 as Bryson laid down the gauntlet on 18.
After his snorting final birdie, DeChambeau went to the practice range, stealing glances at the scoreboard between shots. First he saw Schauffele’s drive on 18 leak left and onto the bunker’s fringe.
Schauffele needed a birdie to avoid a play-off with Bryson, who by now was furiously windmilling irons down the range in desperate need to focus on something – anything – to slow down his manic breathing.
Schauffele gulped down some fresh air and, despite a wretched stance, whipped his second shot to the front of the green, from where his chip gave him six feet for a first major title.
From there: Lip in and then arms raised on the green; shoulders slumped on the range.
Schauffele raises his arms in celebration. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Shane Lowry was among those to congratulate Schauffele on his way to the scoring tent, his challenge having faded away before the turn.
Lowry has been a warmer putter away at contending a several recent majors, most obviously at Augusta in April, where he ranked first in strokes gained approach and dead last in putting.
The putting Gods of Valhalla decided to pay Lowry back in a lump sum, and so he roared into contention with yesterday’s 62, in which he made 161 feet – or one Arc de Triomphe – worth of putts.
That splurge left no rainy day money for today, and it was no surprise that he struggled on today’s greens. His birdies on three and four were his last until the 14th. Lowry made par at the three par-fives which was never going to be enough to get it done on a day when Valhalla was handing out shots like a nightclub rep in Ibiza. A three-putt bogey on eight was the official end of Lowry’s noble challenge.
Elsewhere, Alas Kentucky. Rory McIlroy’s major drought goes on, finishing at 12-under par. His challenge stalled irredeemably on Friday, shooting an anemic even-par round of 71 as all around him posted 60s.
In the maddening chronicles of McIlroy at the Majors, that Friday will go down as one of bigger disappointments, given he shot an opening-day 66 and woke up to a soft and gettable course at which he won his previous major, along with the news that his biggest rival was in prison.
Note are we still using the word ‘previous’ to describe most recent major win…though this zestless, hangdog effort is more evidence in favour of those of you telling us to use the word ‘last’ instead.
Sunday proved to be a resumption of normal business for Scottie Scheffler, who shot a closing 65 to finish in a tie for eighth.
Scheffler lost this tournament on Saturday, shooting his first round over-par since last August. Amid this historic run, it felt like Scheffler going over would be a kind of black swan event, and that proved to be a good forecast. Let the record show that it took the delayed trauma of an early-morning arrest and the one-day disappearance of his caddy for Scottie to fail to break par.
So that’s why everyone will feel this was a missed opportunity.
Nobody could forsee Scheffler’s stumble on Saturday, so Schauffele managed the race correctly. Get out in front and stay there.
