Xander Schauffele was blessed with skill and luck at Thursday’s Wells Fargo Championship.
Schauffele, who started the day on the 10th hole, finished the opening round on the front nine. So on his 16th hole of the day, the par-5 seventh hole, Schauffele hit one of his best shots of the year.
Schauffele hit the flagpole with a 6-iron from 219 yards remaining. His ball dropped a few feet in front of the cup, teased it, and exited his lips. If his shot had gone an inch further to the right, he probably would have achieved the rare albatross of two on the par-5.
Instead, he I settled down to be an eagle.He took the sole lead with a score of 6 under.
Things got really interesting on the next hole, the short par-4 8th.
Schauffele swerved off the road to the right and into trees, making his worst swing of the day. As his ball came to rest somewhere in the woods, Schauffele thought he had lost the ball and hit a provisional hit.
However, his play partner Windham Clark spotted it in the trees.
“I got really lucky a lot of times,” Schauffele said.
Indeed, he did.
“Volunteers were near the Shotlink tower and said they heard it land in the hazard, so they were all looking into the hazard,” Schauffele further explained.
“And Windham went further up and found the ball. Windham said, ‘I think that’s your ball,’ so I walked over, identified it, and went from there. ”
Not only did Clark find it, but Schauffele also had some chances. But to play the second shot, he and caddy Austin Kaiser had to move a huge rock that was in the way of his stance. Also, there was a fence right next to the ball, which made things even more difficult.
That left Schauffele with only one shot: play parallel to the fence and toward the green.
However, there was a shot link tower in his way, so Mr. Schauffele received free relief..
“My ball was probably a foot, two feet from the fence,” Schauffele explained.
“As I was heading towards the green, the fence moved the same way, so I was able to hit it with a 4-iron or something low, and I managed to get it through. If I get stuck with that, I’m going to hit the next one.
“But I brought in the rules guy because I thought, ‘This is literally the only shot I can hit, so this is going to be okay.'” So Austin and I We moved two huge stones that weren’t there and rescued them from the junk. [from the Shotlink Tower] And from there I hit a pretty good shot on the green. What was a very stressful moment turned into a completely stress-free and peaceful time. ”
Somehow, Schauffele escaped unscathed with a two-putt par from the eighth.
He then birdied the par-4 9th hole and shot a 7-under 64 for the sixth time that day, putting him at the top of the leaderboard. He has a three point lead.
Schauffele said, “I spent most of the day cleaning.”
“The No. 8 got a little gritty trying to swing hard. That’s the opposite of what I’ve been trying to do all week.”
Schauffele went on to explain that in an age of speed and power, he is trying to get back up to speed to find more fairways. In fact, he used this tactic on the par-5 seventh hole, hitting a baby cut that hit the fairway. Of course, that led to his almost albatross.
“It’s fun to try to hit it far, but on a course like this, it helps to hit it farther as long as it’s straight,” Schauffele added.
“If I can sacrifice a little distance to hit the fairway, I’m definitely going to do it.”
He should have done so on the eighth hole, but fortunately a series of fortuitous breaks averted disaster.
This major championship layout, which will host the PGA Championship next year, prioritizes accuracy over distance. Schauffele knows that and will rely on that strategy, or at least try to, for the next 54 holes.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
