What a kerfuffle for those attending this week’s Open Championship as they try to get their heads ’round the Schauffeles and the Schefflers. Between them, the two Americans have won eight times this year, with Xander Schauffele the successful party Sunday as he added the Genesis Scottish Open to the Zurich Classic, Travelers Championship and the unofficial JP McManus Pro-Am.
Scottie Scheffler, whose fourth win of the ’22 season was the Masters before he finished second at the U.S. Open last month, missed the cut in the Scottish. He sooner would have had more competitive linksland practise before heading to St Andrews, but he was learning what to expect from the humps and hollows and the “no-grain†greens. It would not come as a surprise if either of these players were to make off with the Claret Jug.
“It was a very stressful day, but it was a big sense of relief when I managed to steady the ship.â€
Xander Schauffele
When Schauffele, who had been three ahead overnight, opened with a couple of birdies Sunday at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick to go to 9-under, he looked like a certain winner. Yet, he made bogeys at Nos. 6 and 7 to slip to 7-under and, after another bogey at the ninth, he suddenly was trailing American Kurt Kitayama by one on the shimmering, slippery links.
Schauffele, who had spent three winless years before teaming with Patrick Cantlay to claim the team event in April in New Orleans, had acknowledged at the start of the week that Sundays had tended to be his undoing, with final rounds tending to race by without his knowing quite what had hit him. Sunday, it looked as if it was happening all over again, with his would-be fades turning into larger-than-life slices and his draws heading too far left.
“It was a very stressful day, but it was a big sense of relief when I managed to steady the ship,†he said after posting an even-par 70 for a 7-under 273 total and one-stroke victory in a tournament co-sanctioned by the DP World and PGA tours.
Three players made their way into the Open Championship, led by runner-up Kitayama, the 46-year-old Scot Jamie Donaldson, who won the clinching point for Europe in the 2014 Ryder Cup, and American Brandon Wu. With Donaldson all but losing a finger in a chainsaw accident in 2016 and struggling to return to form thereafter, this was some achievement on his part.
Meantime, for another promising performance with the Open in mind, England’s Tommy Fleetwood, though he bogeyed the last hole to finish in a share of fourth place alongside Cantley, reported that he had improved every day. “Whatever happens,†he said, before the later starters returned to base, “it’s a really strong result and a thoroughly positive week. I’ll be frustrated for the next 20-25 minutes, and then I’m going to look at all the good stuff.â€
FInally, mention has to be made of South Korea’s Joohyung Kim who, in what was his first week of links golf, finished in third place on 5-under.
You would have to think that Kim, who won the Singapore International at the start of the year to qualify for the Open, cannot continue to find links golf that easy.
For the weather at St Andrews’ Old Course, we can expect more of the rare Scottish heatwave which had Schauffele cutting his practice session Sunday down to a mere 20 minutes.
Lewine Mair
