Xander Schauffele came close to winning The Players Championship on Sunday, but fell short again.
Schauffele closed with a 2-under 70 on Sunday, falling one stroke behind Scottie Scheffler. He and Windham Clark remained neutral as they watched the former Texas Longhorn pass them.
I didn’t play terrible golf on Sunday, but I didn’t convert when I needed it most.
Schauffele fell from the lead with back-to-back bogeys on the 14th and 15th. But it was the birdie putt on No. 17 that bothered him.
After hitting the best tee shot of the day on the island green, he just missed the bottom of the hole.
Clark felt the same pain he felt when he took a heartbreaking rip out to tie Scheffler on the 18th.
“There’s no question we’re in a similar dire situation,” Schauffele said of Clark.
The only thing standing in his way from a potential victory or a playoff was the daunting 16th, 17th, and 18th holes at TPC Sawgrass. He birdied the par-5 16th hole to bring his total to 19 under par and within one stroke of Scheffler.
But two pars weren’t enough to close out the round.
Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
“It may sound strange, but trying to win a golf tournament is not that strange,” Schauffele explained. “I always tell myself, if you want to win, you have to walk through the fire. If you can come through it unscathed, you can win the tournament.”
He had a realistic chance of winning against The Players. Instead, he’ll have to listen to haters rant about his 13th career runner-up finish.
“I’m going to lick my wounds,” he said. “At this point I’d probably be joining their hatardade, but that’s the way it is. These guys suck. This is not at all how I envisioned coming off the 18th green when I went to bed last night. It was wrong.”
It was another disappointment for Schauffele, who continues to seek his eighth PGA Tour victory.
Savannah Lee Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough On all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirls and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
