Hindsight is 20-20.
Hindsight now tells us that Xander Schauffele should have been on the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
He wasn’t chosen but he shook it off, then sprung a Shanghai Surprise on Sunday at Sheshan International.
The 2017 Rookie Of The Year came up with a birdie-birdie finish in the final round of the WGC-HSBC and sent the alphabet-laden event into a playoff.
Ironically, that playoff would throw Xander in the ring with Tony Finau, the man Jim Furyk took with that final captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup team.
So there they were — mano-y-mano with a big one on the line.
Schauffele’s no stranger to the big win. After taking Greenbrier his rookie season, he surprised everyone with victory in the Tour Championship to cap an amazing first year on tour.
“I wanted to justify my rookie year,” Schauffele said, talking about winning another event over the course of last season. That didn’t happen, but there he was, heading back down the par five 18th in China with Tony Mr. Top 10 Finau.
Finau started the final day with a three-shot lead over Schauffele, defending champion Justin Rose and Patrick America’s Bum Reed. With those three on his heels, most figured it would be either Rose or Reed applying the pressure on Sunday.
Instead, it was Schauffele.
Schauffele cut that lead to one at the turn. More uneventful play by Finau invited Xander to step up and that’s exactly what he did. Back-to-back birdies on the closing holes got Schauffele to 14-under and Finau was forced to make birdie at the 18th, which he did, to force the playoff.
An errant tee-ball by Finau on his second trip down 18 saw the ball finish in the wall of a fairway bunker. He was forced to lay up while Schauffle hit a driving range five-iron 30 feet from the hole. Finau left his third outside 25 feet, missed then watched Schauffele make easy birdie for the victory.
‘Definitely feel like I let one get away,” said Finau. ”Xander played incredible golf today. It was playing tough out there. He posted a number and made birdie on a playoff hole when it counted. Hats off to him. He played nicely today and deserved to win.”
Not winning, but getting all sorts of very high finishes in big events had become Finau’s calling card and that’s how things turned out for him once again.
For Schauffle, it was the culmination of a big week — he celebrated his 25th birthday with his family on hand outside Shanghai this week.
Schauffele was I the zone down the home stretch. He didn’t even know he finished birdie-birdie until he went over his scorecard before heading out to the playoff.
‘When I was signing my card, I was like, ‘Oh, wow. I actually went birdie-birdie to get in the playoff,” Schauffele said. ”I was just in my own world out there.”
And Xander’s world just keeps getting more and more impressive.
Sure, he didn’t get that victory during the 2018 regular season, but this was, after all, a 2018 calendar year win for the kid.
You scratch your head and wonder if things might have been different had he been there in France and Phil Mickelson on the sideline as a Vice Captain.
Hindsight is 20-20.
We’ll never know.
