Xander Schauffele delivered the knockout punch when it mattered.
His lob wedge from 105 yards to 3 feet at the final hole clinched his sixth career PGA Tour title and first individual stroke-play victory since the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions.
“It feels really good,” he said of converting his first 54-hole lead into victory. “Everyone talks about how hard it is and I only had the Olympics to sort of fall back on having a lead and kind of closing it. I’ve never done it on the PGA Tour.”
Schauffele made the short birdie putt at the last to close in 2-under 68 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut for a 72-hole total of 19-under 261 and a two-stroke victory over Sahith Theegala and J.T. Poston at the Travelers Championship.
Schauffele had tasted victory just a few months ago when he partnered with Patrick Cantlay to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the Tour’s lone official team event in late April. His so-called victory drought also didn’t reflect that he won the individual men’s gold medal in golf at the Tokyo Olympics last August.
At the Travelers, Schauffele, 28, opened with a pair of 63s, went a career-best 48 holes to start the tournament without a bogey and posted a career-low 54-hole aggregate of 193. Still, he was winless the four previous times he’d held the 54-hole lead or co-lead and the finale turned into a battle to the finish.
On Sunday, Schauffele played solidly if not as spectacularly as he had the first three days. He made a bogey at the first but bounced back with three birdies in his first 11 holes to extend the lead to three and seemed well on his way to victory, even after an errant drive led to a bogey at No. 12.
First, 20-year-old amateur Michael Thorbjornsen made a run at doing something special. He carded an eagle and four birdies in a six-hole stretch beginning at the par-5 sixth hole to climb within a stroke of Schauffele. He was bidding to become the first amateur to win on the Tour since Phil Mickelson at the 1991 Northern Telecom Open. But the Stanford rising junior who grew up 90 minutes away in Wellesley, Massachusetts, ran out of steam, making bogeys at Nos. 12 and 13, to finish fourth.
After making his professional debut at the 2020 Travelers Championship, Theegala, 24, was seeking his first Tour title, too. He started with a birdie at the first and tied Schauffele for the lead with a two-putt birdie from 77 feet at the drivable 15th hole.
Theegala surged in front with a 10-foot putt at 17, his third birdie in his last five holes. But he drove into the left fairway bunker at the last and it settled up against the front lip. He failed to escape the sand with his first swing and was left with the same difficult shot.
“I knew it was going to be close to the lip, but not that close,” Theegala said of his lie in the bunker. “Never in a million years did I think I would allow myself to blade it…I just straight bladed it.”
He splashed out with his third shot and wedged to 12 feet. Theegala’s putt lipped out and he made double bogey to shoot 67 and slip into a tie with Poston with a 72-hole total of 263.
Playing one group behind, Schauffele watched Theegala’s disaster play out in front of him and knew he only needed a par to win. The return to the winner’s circle comes just days after Schauffele reconfirmed his commitment to play on the PGA Tour at a time when several players have jumped ship to join LIV Golf and the promise of extravagant guaranteed money.
“This is a big win for me mentally,” Schauffele said. “Just because I sort of had to check myself, you know what I mean? When you’ve been out here and things are going easy you just expect to play well all the time. Sometimes it’s good to take a step back. And I thought I did that this week.”
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Spanish