Surprisingly, Xander Schauffele is on the top page of the major championship leaderboard.
The 2024 PGA Championship winner shot a 2-under 69 on Thursday for a round with three birdies and just one bogey — a blemish that came on the par-3 14th hole after briefly sharing the lead with Justin Thomas and Shane Lowry. Bogeys are best avoided, but many other players have also made them, including Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau and Tiger Woods. Royal Troon’s true potential was on full display Thursday as a southerly wind wreaked havoc on players.
But Schauffele expertly navigated the Ayrshire course.
“You start out against the wind for five or six holes, so I was lucky to shoot under par there,” Schauffele said.
“When you’re over par early on you just have to hang in there. It’s hard, especially on Thursday, to feel the need to chase,” he said. [My caddie] Austin [Kaiser] And I came up with a plan. It sounds cliché, but we really planned around the land.”
In a fierce crosswind, Schauffele made a great approach on the par-3 fifth hole, landing his tee shot within 8 feet. He turned it into his first birdie of the day, then followed it up with another par-breaker on the short par-3 eighth hole, known as the “Postage Stamp,” the course’s most famous hole.
That was followed by a stunning birdie on the par-4 11th hole, “The Railway,” the most difficult hole on the PGA Tour in 2015-16 (the last year Royal Troon hosted the British Open). Schauffele rolled the ball 36 feet. He hit a shot from the right side of the green to improve his score to three under par for the day.
He is currently fourth behind Englishman Daniel Brown, who shot a 6-under 65 on the first day to jump to the top of the leaderboard.
But Schauffele wouldn’t have been in contention to win if he hadn’t observed the driving range before his round.
“Luckily, the driving range was similar to the first tee, so you try to imagine that shot on the driving range, putting the machine down and saying, OK, this hurts, it’s a 40-yard high ball, then moving through the bag, finding the center of the face, seeing how the ball is moving, hitting it straight, drawing it, cutting it, all of those things,” Schauffele said, explaining how the players were playing in wind they had never experienced before.
“if [wind on the range] “If the wind had been blowing left to right for any reason, it would have been really hard to get super comfortable on the first tee. Luckily, I was able to get comfortable early on.”
When does Schauffele get restless?
He’s looked comfortable in each of the majors this year, as evidenced by his performance at Valhalla in May, and the same could be said during Thursday’s first round, as he watched his partner Woods hit the ball all over the place in tough conditions.
Schauffele will stay cool this week, as he always has, but if he avoids big mistakes, hits the ball in the right spots and plays well at Troon like he did Thursday, he could have a shot at winning another major championship on Sunday. He’s too good to not do it.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow For more golf articles, follow us on Twitter Jack Mirko In the same way.
