Xander Schauffele gave himself a nice 25th birthday present by winning the WGC-HSBC Champions in China on Sunday.
Schauffele’s third PGA Tour victory came at the end of a three-week stretch that included starts in Malaysia and South Korea before his victory in Shanghai. The win also gave him a jump start in the new Tour season after he failed to win in 2017-18.
“People can say whatever they want, but my team and I, we know that we're doing the right things, and it feels good to know that. It just feels good to win again,” said Schauffele, who celebrated his birthday last Thursday.
“Those two wins (the 2017 Greenbrier Classic and Tour Championship) were pretty close in my rookie year and I didn't really know what I was doing. Not that I had a clue of what I was doing today, but it's a lot of fun. You practice, you play hard, and you do everything that you can to get in this position and it honestly is a great feeling to pull it off.”
Schauffele was able to celebrate the win with his parents, who were in Asia with him. His mother, Ping Yi, was born in Taiwan and raised his China while his father, Stefan, has been Schauffele’s lifelong swing coach.
“It's the first time we've been together in a pretty long time. That was pretty special and I'm happy to share this with them,” Schauffele said.
Nearing the end of a whirlwind year that took him to No. 1 in the world for a time, Justin Rose arrived in China knowing the momentum he carried through 2018 began at the WGC-HSBC Champions, where he came from eight strokes behind in the final round to win last October.
Asked to name the most satisfying achievement in a season that included two victories on the PGA Tour, capturing the FedEx Cup and winning the Ryder Cup, Rose (above) settled on something else.
“I think getting to world No. 1 obviously, that's a milestone moment,” Rose said. “Clearly winning the FedEx Cup is right up there, as well, but that's a year's work. I feel like getting to world No. 1 is a career's amount of work and that milestone, hitting that was probably pretty special.”
Rose ended 2017 with three victories in his final six starts, beginning with his triumph in China. He remembered walking nine holes with his manager, Mark Steinberg, during the pro-am at the WGC-HSBC Champions last year and laying out his intentions.
“I said, listen, I think it's really time to go on a bit of a run here and let's put (in) some great golf here. I felt very hungry and motivated to just try and find another level, really,” Rose said.
“We kind of look back now and that nine holes was kind of poignant, just the discussions that we had out there, and the fun that we had out there, and the intention that I had, really, to go and try and start to play at another level.”
On Sunday, Rose finished third in Shanghai after rounds of 69-67-70-72.
If Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman will always have Paris, so will Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood, the stars of the Ryder Cup matches.
Two became one at Le Golf National, Molinari and Fleetwood morphing into "Moliwood."
Naturally, the two are now linked and when the subject of Fleetwood was raised to Molinari during a pre-tournament press conference in Shanghai, here is how he responded:
Q. Could you please give three words to describe Tommy Fleetwood?
Molinari: “Love.”
Q. Love?
Molinari: “Yeah.”
Q. Okay.
Molinari: “Hair. And humor. But love first.”
And how did Fleetwood answer the same question about Molinari?
“Beautiful Italian man.”
The No. 1 spot in the world ranking has bounced around this year with Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Rose and Brooks Koepka each sitting atop the list at various times this year.
Rory McIlroy entered the WGC-HSBC Champions ranked fifth, behind those four players with a bit of a points gap separating him from that group. A former No. 1 himself, McIlroy isn’t dwelling on his place on the rankings list.
“My thoughts on the world ranking have been the same forever. Playing good golf and winning golf tournaments takes care of your ranking. That's all there is to it. It's very simple,” McIlroy said.
“I think it's a good barometer to see where you stand in the game of golf right now, but it's obviously a great accolade and a great honor to be world No. 1 and I'd love to get back there one day.
“It's not a goal, because there's other goals that you want to attain and achieve, and if you do those then that No. 1 ranking is just a byproduct of all those other goals that you achieved.”
McIlroy had a lackluster week in China, finishing T54 after failing to break par in any of the four rounds.
Because he’s played in so many PGA Tour events already, Kiradech Aphibarnrat is already a familiar face to American golf fans.
He’s about to get more familiar now that he’s a full-time PGA Tour member for the first time.
“To be the first Thai golfer to play on the PGA Tour is such pressure,” Aphibarnrat said.
“Try to win even one event. Try to let the new generation see that we are coming from a little small country in Asia and that we can play against the top players in the world, which is the biggest tour in the world, as well. (I) just want to inspire them.”
Aphibarnrat more than held his own in Shanghai, shooting 68-71-70-71 and finishing T4.
Staff and Wire Reports