You might recall that a guy name Xander seemingly came out of nowhere last month and finished fifth at the U.S. Open.
Xander Schauffele was thrashing around in the deep end of the world’s golf talent pool. Although he came up short, he got more than his feet wet and let the world know there was a guy named Xander out there.
On Sunday at the Greenbrier Classic, Xander was thrashing around in the shallow end of the talent pool and this time he out-splashed the rest.
Sebastian Munoz, the flawless 54-hole leader was there, so was Robert Streb, so was Jamie Lovemark. And there was also the “X-Man” — Xander.
At times the final round looked like a litany of mistakes. Munoz, who was infallible with the putter for three days, was introduced to Sunday pressure on the PGA Tour. The man who made everything he looked at for three days, missed from four feet, just outside two feet, five feet and four feet. And that was just on the front nine! Four bogeys seemingly wiped out his hopes, but he managed to hang around. After all, this was the shallow end of the talent pool. No Jon Rahm around to blow these guys away.
Robert Streb wasn’t up to the task. He took the lead then immediately hooked his tee shot at 13 into a hazard. He’d take double-bogey and that would be fatal to his hopes.
Lovemark, who was supposed to have won by now, had every chance to win but his putter held him back. Winners make putts. Lovemark didn’t.
Then there was the X-Man. Unlike the rest, he didn’t make many mistakes. His only bogey of the day came courtesy of a bunkered drive at the 11th. Other than that, he played the best.
At the 16th, Xander holed a 12-footer to get to 13-under and took a piece of the lead.
At the 161-yard 18th, a rare par-three closing hole, he’d hit the shot of his season. He planted one within three feet of the hole, calmly holed the birdie putt, posted 14-under then waited while the wanna-bees tried and failed to catch him.
“Very shaky, extremely nervous,” was how Schauffele described the final putt for 67 and victory. “My first victory, I’m lost for words. It changed my life.”
He then thought of his father, who got him playing, coached him and nurtured his game. “Thank you (dad), can’t wait to see you, love you!”
