For Xander Schauffele, winning the Baycurrent Championship Sunday in Japan came with a special sort of satisfaction.
Edging Max Greyersman by one stroke on the strength of a final-round 64, Schauffele notched his 10th PGA Tour victory, his first as a father and put a late exclamation point on a challenging season.
“I think every player in any sport at some point in time you feel like you're on top of the world and then you feel like, not that you’ve lost it but you feel less confident,” said Schauffele, who missed two months early in the year due to a rib injury.
“I have a really good team around me, they pick me up when I’m down. This is really special for me. Sooner than I thought, to be fair. I was running out of events in 2025 to sort of put my mark on it. I’m sure when I look back on 2025 at the end of my career I’ll smile and think it was a great year.”
Schauffele had not won since the 2024 Open Championship and he had just three top-10 finishes in 15 starts before winning in Japan. The victory pushed him back to third in the world ranking behind Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. Schauffele finished at 19-under-par 265.
Greyserman battled Schauffle throughout the final round at Yokohama Country Club and had a handful of chances to pull even over the closing holes but couldn’t do it. It was the fifth career runner-up finish for the 30-year-old who also lost a sudden-death playoff to Aldrich Potgieter at the Rocket Classic in July.
“I think whether it’s positive or negative I feel like just continuing to experience the Sundays near the lead, those are invaluable rounds, really important I feel like because what you feel Thursday, Friday and then what you feel Saturday, Sunday but not near the lead is very different than how your body feels near the lead, and I think everyone could agree to that,” Greyserman said.
“So the more times I experience that, just getting more comfortable and then so the next time I have that opportunity I’m even more comfortable. But I felt good today, felt calm. Obviously you have nerves, I’m sure Xander had some nerves at times, highs, lows, but felt good to experience that. Just continuing to put myself in those situations will pay off in the end at some point.”
Schauffele became a father for the first time six weeks ago and three weeks ago was part of the American Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black. Schauffele won his Sunday singles match against Jon Rahm as the U.S. side made a late rally before losing.
“I thought at the Ryder Cup I played pretty solid, I let Pat [Cantlay] hang in our second alternate match or foursomes match, I played really poor there and let him down, but the other rounds I felt like I was starting to kind of play some good golf,” Schauffle said.
“It’s very high stakes, high-pressure golf and I started to hit some shots that I wasn’t really hitting throughout the year. I think the whole tournament, even though we lost, for me personally I was able to hit a few shots in high-stakes moments that sort of gave me a little bit of confidence for sure.”
Ron Green Jr.