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Though he’s accomplished plenty in the golf world throughout his career, Xander Schauffele started 2024 without a major championship win to his name.
Now, walking off the green at Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland on Sunday afternoon, Schauffele suddenly has two — and a legitimate claim to win Player of the Year honors. When it’s truly mattered, nobody’s been better than Schauffele this season.
Schauffele ran away with the British Open on Sunday to claim a two-shot win and lift the iconic Claret Jug, which came with a record $3.1 million payout. The win came just months after his victory at the PGA Championship, which marked his inaugural major win after years of coming up just shy.
“It’s a dream come true to win two majors in one year,” he said. “It took me forever just to win one, and to have two now is something else.”
Schauffele’s win on Sunday wrapped what was one of the best major championship seasons in years. He’s the first person to win both the PGA Championship and the British Open in the same year since Padraig Harrington did so in 2008. Outside of his two wins, Schauffele finished in eighth at Augusta National in April and in T7 at the U.S. Open last month. That means that only 13 golfers in the world actually beat Schauffele at a major throughout the year.
Not even top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, who stumbled at the U.S. Open with a T41 finish before finishing in the top-10 this week in Scotland, can say that.
Schauffele’s rise shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, as he’s been on the cusp of this for quite some time. The reigning gold medal winner, who will attempt to defend his title at the Paris Olympics next month, has 12 top-10 finishes on Tour this season and he’s not missed a single cut. He finished in second at both the Wells Fargo Championship and The Players Championship, too. The 30-year-old now has nine career Tour wins.
Schauffele, who will jump to No. 2 in the Official World Golf Rankings with his win, had come close to major titles before. He finished in second at the British Open in 2018, and in a tie for second at the Masters that next spring. He’s finished inside the top-20 in all but one of his last 13 major starts, too.
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Finally, with his win over Bryson DeChambeau at Valhalla, Schauffele crossed that threshold and claimed his major in his 28th start. Since then, he’s been largely unstoppable. But perhaps more importantly, it was that win in Kentucky that made Sunday much easier for Schauffele to manage. As they were walking down the final holes, Schauffele said his caddie was so nervous he was about to puke.
“I thought it would help me, and it actually did,” Schauffele said of his win at Valhalla. “I had this sense of calm, a calm I didn’t have when I played earlier at the PGA. For some reason I was calm and I felt collected [today].”
There’s no disputing that Scheffler has had a historic season in his own right. The top-ranked golfer in the world has six wins on Tour already in 2024, including one at the Masters, and he’s finished inside the top-20 in all but three of his 15 starts. He’s on a tear that the sport hasn’t seen since Tiger Woods’ prime.
But in golf, it’s the major championships that matter most. And on that front, nobody, not even Scheffler, has been better than Schauffele. As for what that means for his legacy and where he’ll land among this generation of golf greats, however, Schauffele isn’t too worried about that.
“I’m just trying to win as many of these things as I can and play the best golf as I can and be a decent guy,” Schauffele said. “So I’ll let you ponder that one.”