Xander Schauffele records a score of 62 in flawless opener at PGA ...
Xander Schauffele is happy to be called Mr. 62. He’d prefer to be known by the end of the week as major champion.
For the second consecutive year, the American Schauffele opened a major championship with a record score of 62 after a flawless 9-under-par start in the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club on Thursday. Last year at Los Angeles Country Club, Schauffele and Rickie Fowler fired matching 62s in the opening round of the U.S. Open, joining Branden Grace (2017 Open third round at Royal Birkdale) for the lowest scores in major history.
Schauffele owns half of those four low marks, but each of those others came on par-70 courses. His nine-mark ties the lowest in relationship to par shared with eight others including Rory McIlroy’s opening 63 in the 2015 Open at St. Andrews.
“I can’t nit-pick. I’ll take a 62 in any major any day,” said Schauffele, who had a chance from 32 feet for a 61 on the ninth, but missed the long putt wide right.
“Wanted to shoot 61, but if someone said I’d shoot 9-under today I’d take it. … Misread that one terribly (on 9); never gave it a chance.”
On a morning ideal for scoring on a soft course, Schauffele opened a little space with a three-shot lead over fellow Americans Tony Finau and Sahith Theegala, who both shot 65.
“Bogey-free is the way to be,” said Finau. “The golf course was, I think, there for the taking if you hit it in the fairway. With my length, I thought I was just able to take advantage of the golf course on a day where it was soft and scorable-type conditions.”
McIlroy and Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre sat tied fourth after the morning wave with 5-under 66s while defending champion Brooks Koepka closed strong to shoot 67 and finish the morning tied for sixth with PGA rookie Ben Kohles.
“Just felt lucky to finish the way I did,” said Koepka, who made eagle on 7 and birdie on 8 to vault into the mix late.
Among the early top 10 with 3-under 68s are major winners Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Martin Kaymer as well as top OWGR top-10 golfers Viktor Hovland and Max Homa.
Schauffele has a great reputation as a starter but not a closer – a narrative that was reinforced last week when he charged to the front in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow only to be run down on Sunday by a charging Rory McIlroy. It was the fourth time this season that Schauffele has played in the final group on Sunday to only walk away without a win.
His incomplete major career tells a similar story. In his 28th career major, Schauffele improved his record for the lowest first-round scoring average in majors among players with at least 25 starts, dropping his standard from 69.81 to 69.54. Ironically, Schauffele is being chased on the Valhalla leaderboard by the three guys ranked second, third and fourth on the career first-round scoring average leaderboard: Koepka (70.65); Finau (70.72) and McIlroy (70.85).
Schauffele – with 12 top-10 finishes including two runner-ups and a third in 24 career major cuts made – knows the drill all too well.
“Yeah, it’s a great start to a big tournament; one I'm obviously always going to take,” he said. “It’s just Thursday. That’s about it.
“I’ve been playing some good golf and had a number of close calls. Me man my team said why not keep on chugging along. … “I think not winning makes you want to win more, as weird as that is. For me, at least, I react to it, and I want it more and more and more, and it makes me want to work harder and harder and harder. The top feels far away, and I feel like I have a lot of work to do. But just slowly chipping away at it.”
Jordan Spieth, trying to win the missing major championship piece to complete his career slam, shot a 69 to join a crowd tied for 16th with past PGA champions Justin Thomas and Keegan Bradley.
Tiger Woods put himself in trouble off the tee most of the opening round and scuffled to a 1-over 72 after a bogey-bogey finish with three-putts on 8 and 9, leaving himself with a lot of work to make it to the weekend.
“Well, you can't win a tournament unless you make the cut,” he said. “That’s the whole idea is get to the weekend so that you can participate and have a chance to win. I'’e been on the cut number and have won tournaments, or I’ve been ahead and leading tournaments and I’ve won tournaments. But you have to get to the weekend in order to win a golf tournament.”
Meanwhile, Scottie Scheffler returned from his three-week paternity leave and picked up right where he left off by holing out on his first hole from 165 yards for an opening eagle to send a quick signal to the field who finished in the morning that he is still No. 1 as he tries to add a PGA title to his Masters and Players wins already this season.
