Xander Schauffele makes history with sizzling Open Championship win at Royal Troon

Schauffele put that notion to rest when he got over the hump and won the PGA Championship in May. Then, during the final round of this British Open, he completely vaporized it.

It’s now impossible to enter a major without considering Schauffele one of the premier threats to take home a trophy.

With a brilliant Sunday run at Royal Troon Golf Club on the Scottish coast, Schauffele emerged from a packed leaderboard to win his second major of the year at 9-under par, two strokes ahead of Justin Rose and Billy Horschel. The win made world No. 3 the first player since Brooks Koepka in 2018 to win multiple majors in the same year, making it a season for the ages for the 30-year-old American. Heading into the Olympics, where Schauffele is the reigning champion, the victory also marked the first time since 1982 that all four majors were won by golfers from the U.S.

This season had mostly been defined by the dominance of a different American. In fact, when Scottie Scheffler chased down Schauffele at the Players Championship in March, it seemed like another instance of Schauffele wilting in a high-profile tournament. Scheffler went on to win the Masters for the second time, part of a run that has included six wins on the PGA Tour.

But while this year’s PGA Championship will be best remembered for the surreal scene in which Scheffler was arrested on since-dropped charges outside Valhalla Golf Club, it was also where Schauffele finally got over the hump and won his first major. By the time Schauffele arrived at this Open, he had finished in the top-10 of all three majors this season. He left as the only player around to do that in all four.

Over the first two days, Schauffele was only a fringe contender at Troon, entering the weekend at 1-under and six shots behind 36-hole leader Shane Lowry, the Irishman who won this major in 2019. But as nasty weather tortured the top of the leaderboard on Saturday, Schauffele was one of the rare players to survive. His 2-under on the day looked even better considering how the conditions battered other players—Lowry played his third round in 6-over.

“There’s times you have to have brute force and feel like you’re forcing a situation,” Schauffele explained. “A day like today, you kind of had to tap into a little bit of that.”

That left Schauffele one shot behind Horschel going into the final round and as part of a six-way tie for second. On the front nine Sunday, the leaderboard hardly decluttered. After Scheffler birdied the eighth, he and Schauffele were part of a four-way tie behind three players knotted up atop the leaderboard.

At that point, the Open could have gone any which way. There was Rose, an Englishman vying to set a record for the longest span between major wins following his triumph at the U.S. Open in 2013. Thriston Lawrence, a South African ranked No. 98, held the lead at one point and was in the mix to become one of the most improbable major champions in recent history. Scheffler, the world No. 1, also lurked.

But none of them could keep up with Schauffele.

Over an 11-hole stretch starting at No. 6, Schauffele carded six birdies to go from two back to three ahead. Over that stretch, he conquered holes that drove his peers absolutely crazy, including the difficult 11th, where he recorded the first birdie of the day. That placed him one back of Lawrence, and another on the 13th tied them up at 7-under. Lawrence shortly followed that with a bogey—and it was Schauffele’s lead the rest of the way.

By the time Schauffele parred the 18th, all he had to do was wait for the final group to finish. His final round of 65 was the best in the field by two shots. Winning was a mere formality.

The victory was a statement from a player who has long been considered one of the world’s best but didn’t reach the winner’s circle terribly often. Even this season, his only two wins were his two majors.

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Yet while he struggled to come out on top—he didn’t win at all in 2023—he had been the model of consistency. The last time he missed a cut on the PGA Tour was the 2022 Masters.

Then this year he took his game to another level. He now has the Claret Jug to prove it.

- The Wall Street Journal