The book on Xander Schauffele heading into this year’s major season said he couldn’t close after finished in a tie for second at The Players. After his performance Sunday at Royal Troon, Schauffele clearly is in the midst of a major rewrite.


With the winds abating slightly on a cool afternoon off the Firth of Clyde, Schauffele submitted an impeccable final round in the 152nd Open Championship, pulling away from a handful of contenders with a bogey-free six-under 65 to win by two strokes for his second major title. Two months ago at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., Schauffele birdied the 72nd hole to capture the PGA Championship to win by a stroke.

He shot 65 that day, too.

Schauffele matched the low round of the championship to post nine-under 275. He relegated his playing partner and fellow gold medal winner Justin Rose of England to second place. The sentimental favorite, Rose, who had to qualify for the championship, birdied the 72nd hole for a 67 and 277 total.

Third-round leader Billy Horschel also birdied the last for 68 to gain a share of second place. Thriston Lawrence of South Africa, who held the lead with nine holes to go, finished another stroke back in fourth after a 68.

Jumping back into second place in the world, Schauffele clearly has fashioned himself into one of the most solid major players of this era. He is the only man this year to finish in the top-10 in all four. In 30 career majors, the California native has six top-five finishes, 15 top-10s and has missed the cut just three times.

Schauffele is the first player since Brooks Koepka in 2018 to win multiple majors in the same season and became the fourth man since 2000 to win the PGA Championship and Open Championship in the same year, joining Padraig Harrington (2008), Rory McIlroy (2014) and Tiger Woods, who did it twice, in 2000 and ’06.
Americans now own all four majors this year with Scottie Scheffler winning his second Masters and Bryson DeChambeau capturing his second U.S. Open. The last time U.S. players ran the tables was 1982. Additionally, Americans have won the last seven majors.


Appearing in just his sixth major, Lawrence, 27, was one of six players along with Schauffele who began the final round tied for second, but he took control with an outward four-under 32.

Trailing by two, Schauffele seized control with a birdie run on what was the most difficult stretch at Troon. He blasted a wedge out of the rough from 173 yards at the long 11th hole to set up a 2 ½ foot birdie—the lone birdie of the day and only the third of the weekend at the 493-yard par-4. Then he holed a 16-footer at the 13th to climb into a tie. When Lawrence bogeyed 12 moments later, Schauffele had a lead he wouldn’t lose.

When he birdied 14 from 12 feet, he built his lead to two strokes, and he separated himself safely from all pursuers with a three-footer for birdie at the par-five 16th.
In two weeks Schauffele will travel to Paris for the Summer Games. Three years ago in Japan, he closed with a 67 to win the gold medal.

Is it the British Open or the Open Championship? The name of the final men’s major of the golf season is a subject of continued discussion. The event’s official name, as explained in this op-ed by former R&A chairman Ian Pattinson, is the Open Championship. But since many United States golf fans continue to refer to it as the British Open, and search news around the event accordingly, Golf Digest continues to utilize both names in its coverage.

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