There are no questions left to be answered. Valhalla answered them all once again, for a fourth time at the PGA Championship, and Xander Schauffele did everything he needed to do to capture his first major title, right down to the bitter end when his 6-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole trickled into the bottom of the cup.
The putt that made Xander Schauffele a PGA Champion! 🏆#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/SjBehodFWu
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 19, 2024
Schauffele, the World No. 3, arrived in Louisville after not closing the deal the previous week on the PGA Tour. He politely answered questions early, then went out on Thursday and shot 9-under 62 to set a PGA Championship scoring record and vault on top of the strongest field in golf. He continued to answer questions, and each day, put it all into perspective, knowing that the job was nowhere near finished.
Finally, on Sunday, Schauffele went out and collected seven birdies against one lone bogey to shoot 6-under 65 and hold off hard-charging Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland, who shot 64 and 66 respectively. Schauffele finally has his major, shooting 62-68-68-65 for a 21-under-par 263 total.
“I was actually kind of emotional after the putt lipped in,” Schauffele said. “It's been a while since I've won, and I really just – I kept saying it all week, I just need to stay in my lane. Man, was it hard to stay in my lane today, but I tried all day to just keep focus on what I'm trying to do and keep every hole ahead of me. Had some weird kind of breaks coming into the house, but it's all good now.”
The final round started with Schauffele and Collin Morikawa in the final group, but with a host of the best players in the world in hot pursuit.
Morikawa’s putter was ice cold from the start, and he never mounted a charge. But it became clear on the first few holes that DeChambeau and Hovland were going to be the two who were going to make Schauffele the most uncomfortable.
Hovland, the Norwegian who had a chance to win the PGA Championship last year until a double bogey on the 70th hole, made six birdies in a nine-hole stretch and actually held the lead for a moment. DeChambeau, with the Kentucky crowds cheering his every move, birdied the second and fifth holes, then putted the ball from well off the green on the par-4 sixth hole and made birdie from 40 feet. He then moved within a shot of Schauffele.
Schauffele, however, made four birdies of his own on the first nine holes to turn in 31, but bogeyed the 10th hole when he opted to hit a fairway wood out of a fairway bunker. That hiccup brought more players back into the mix. But he bounced back with birdies on the next two holes to regain control.
As always at Valhalla, the Championship was decided on the 72nd hole. Like Mark Brooks, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy before him, Schauffele was going to have to find a way on the par-5 18th hole.
DeChambeau made four more birdies on the final nine holes, including a 10-footer for birdie up ahead to tie Schauffele on the last. Hovland had a putt from a similar distance to tie but missed, booting him from the mix.
Schauffele’s drive on 18 was left and into the first cut of rough, next to a fairway bunker, giving him an awkward stance. He advanced an iron up the fairway, short of the green, then chipped it to 6 feet from 34 yards and made the putt to become golf’s newest major champion.
"I knew I had to birdie the last hole, looking up at the board," Schauffele said. "I was trying to squeak a birdie in there somehow just to have some kind of cushion. It was a hectic birdie, as well, but it was awesome. I kept telling myself, I need to earn this, I need to prove this to myself, and this is my time."
Morikawa (71) and Thomas Detry (66) tied for fourth place. Justin Rose (69) and Shane Lowry (70) tied for sixth place. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler shot 6-under 65 to move up the leaderboard 16 positions and into a tie for eighth place with Justin Thomas, Billy Horschel and Robert MacIntyre.
