Troon (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Xander Schauffele said a “sense of calm” helped him win the British Open on Sunday as the American claimed his second major just two months after triumphing at the PGA Championship.
The 30-year-old Californian delivered a faultless, zen-like six-under-par final round at Royal Troon to emerge from a congested leaderboard and clinch the Claret Jug.
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Schauffele finished on nine-under par for the championship, two shots ahead of England’s Justin Rose and Billy Horschel of the USA.
Schauffele, who registered a major record of 21-under-par to win the PGA at Valhalla in May, is the first player to win two majors in a year since Brooks Koepka in 2018.
His victory on the west coast of Scotland completes an American clean sweep of the game’s biggest titles in 2024.
“I thought (winning the PGA) would help me and it actually did. I had this sense of calm, a calm I didn’t have when I played earlier at the PGA,” said Schauffele.
“I was telling my caddie Austin (Kaiser) that I felt pretty calm coming down the stretch and he said he was about to puke on the 18th tee.”
“I just told myself to just hit it down there and keep moving along,” added the world number three, who described clinching the Open as a “dream come true”.
Schauffele had started the last 18 tied for second with five other players, a shot behind overnight leader Horschel.
He put together a tidy front nine under benign conditions on the links course, reaching the turn at two-under par for the day after birdies at the sixth and seventh.
He then burst into life at the start of the inward half as his nearest challengers — former US Open champion Rose, world number 62 Horschel and South African Thriston Lawrence — began to falter.
Schauffele hit a sublime approach to the difficult 11th to set up a tap-in birdie before sinking a 16-foot birdie putt on the 13th to get to seven under alongside 27-year-old Lawrence.
Moments later Schauffele was in front on his own after Lawrence dropped his first shot of the day on the 12th.
The American then rolled in a 12-footer on hole 14 and suddenly he had a two-shot lead.
That extended to three after a delightful chip over a bunker at the 16th led to another birdie.
Two closing pars sealed the championship.
Lawrence, bidding to join a high-profile list of South Africans to have lifted the Claret Jug including Gary Player, Ernie Els and Bobby Locke, had held a one-shot lead at the turn.
– Mentality –
Rose, US Open champion in 2013, briefly enjoyed a share of the lead with Lawrence after hitting three birdies in his opening nine holes.
But he bogeyed twelve before too-little-too-late birdies on 16 and 18 put him on seven-under.
England’s Rose, ranked 67th, said that Schauffele’s strong mentality was under-appreciated.
“He’s such a calm guy out there. I don’t know what he’s feeling, but he certainly makes it look very easy. He plays with a freedom, which kind of tells you as a competitor that he’s probably not feeling a ton of the bad stuff.”
America’s Horschel suffered an inconsistent opening ten holes before birdieing the last three to finish tied for second with Rose.
Lawrence finished on his own in fourth at six under, while American Russell Henley was a shot further back in fifth.
Ireland’s Shane Lowry, the leader after two rounds, posted a 68 to finish four-under par and in sixth place.
World number one Scottie Scheffler and two-time major champion Jon Rahm both briefly threatened a run up the leaderboard but finished tied for seventh on one under alongside South Korea’s Im Sung-jae.
Several stars struggled this week due to the testing weather conditions, thick rough and well-placed punitive pot bunkers.
Rory McIlroy missed the cut, extending his decade-long wait for a fifth major into 2025, as did US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark and Viktor Hovland.
Three-time champion Tiger Woods also missed the weekend, recording his worst-ever performance at the Open with a 14-over score of 156.
Home favourite Robert MacIntyre finished nine over after failing to repeat the heroics that secured last week’s Scottish Open.
© 2024 AFP
