Xander Schauffele won the British Open on Sunday at Royal Troon, surging from behind with six birdies in an 11-hole span to card a 65Â and finish with a total of 9-under-par 275, two shots clear of 54-hole leader Billy Horschel and Justin Rose.
Schauffele began his run with a 6-foot birdie putt at No. 6 and came right back with an 8-footer at No. 7.
Schauffele gutted in a 3-footer at No. 11, the only birdie of the final round at that difficult par-4 hole. He stuffed a blind approach shot from the left rough from 171 yards out, with the ball bouncing onto the green.
He followed with birdie putts of 16 feet at No. 13, 12 feet at No. 14 and 4 feet at No. 16. Schauffele hit 16 greens and didn’t make a bogey.
It Schauffele’s second 65 in the final round to win a major. Schauffele had the same number at Valhalla in May to win the PGA and became the second player after Jack Nicklaus to post a 65 on Sunday in two majors in the same year.
Here’s one of the questions to ponder in the aftermath of Schauffele’s magical day at Troon: Does his second major championship of the season change the PGA Tour Player of the Year debate?
Does two majors for Xander Schauffele trump six victories?
When Scottie Scheffler won The Memorial earlier this summer, it was his sixth victory of the season. Combined with his victories in the Masters and The Players Championship, he not only had a lock on No. 1 on the World Golf Rankings and the FedEx Cup, but he seemed a shoo-in for his third Tour Player of the Year award, which is voted by the Tour’s membership.
Hold on, Xander Schauffele fans might say.
Two major championships, even if they are his only two victories so far in the season, might trump Scheffler’s six titles and one major. Certainly, Schauffele is in the conversation.
There is one key precedent. In 1998 David Duval won four times and captured the PGA Tour’s scoring and money titles. Mark O’Meara won twice but they were the Masters and the British Open, and he won the Player of the Year vote.
Despite Schauffele’s victory, Scheffler is still on top in the World Rankings and the FedEx Cup. Schauffele remained in second place on the FedEx Cup and entered the week third in the world, behind Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.
Who played the majors better? Schauffele or Scheffler?
Schauffele also can make a case that he played golf’s biggest tournaments so far better than Scheffler.
Schauffele tied for second behind Scheffler in The Players, one shot behind, and had top-10 finishes in all four majors, with a solo eighth at the Masters and a tie for seventh at the U.S. Open.
Scheffler tied for seventh at the Open, for eighth at the PGA and for 41st at the U.S. Open.
Issue likely to be decided at the Olympics, FedEx Cup
If either player wins the FedEx Cup, it likely will be the deciding factor. The Tour membership seems to have put a lot of stock in winning the season-long race that ends at East Lake in Atlanta, with three past Players of the Year, Patrick Cantlay in 2021, Dustin Johnson in 2020 and Rory McIlroy in 2019 being voted the honor without having won a major but finishing the season strong by winning the FedEx Cup.
Scheffler also was voted Player of the Year in 2023 without having won a major, largely on the strength of his Players victory.
Don’t discount the Olympics in the equation, even though a medal in Olympic golf doesn’t matter in terms of a player’s official PGA Tour record. Schauffele will be the defending gold medalist at the Golf Club of Paris. Scheffler, Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa are also in the Olympic field from the U.S.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Is Xander Schauffele now in the PGA Tour Player of the Year race?
