Monday Finish: Xander Schauffele is the Comeback Kid

Xander Schauffele bogeys his first hole but makes two eagles and eight birdies after that to fuel a final-round 62, tie the course record, and win the Sentry Tournament of Champions by one over 54-hole leader Gary Woodland at the Plantation Course at Kapalua. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Schauffele picked up his fourth TOUR win in Maui to take pole position in the FedExCup. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Xander is the comeback kid. Schauffele, who won for the second time this season and first since he beat Tony Finau in a playoff at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions last fall, has come from behind to win all four of his TOUR titles. What’s more, Schauffele has birdied the final hole to either win by one or force a playoff each time. He has a 66.5 scoring average and is 30-under in his last six final rounds on TOUR, dating back to the 2018 BMW Championship. Clutch. “It’s by far the best final round I ever played,â€� Schauffele said at the Sentry. Amazing to think it could have been even better had he not missed an 11-foot eagle putt on 18, a putt that, had it dropped, would have earned him the course record alone. “I was very nervous, strangely,â€� he said. “We’re in Hawaii here; I figured I would have the aloha vibes and be chill but my hands were quite shaky and probably had the worst stroke of the day, unfortunately. But Gary was kind enough to let me off easy.â€� 2. Class of 2011 won, too. Again. A few years ago, we thought Jordan Spieth (11 TOUR wins, three of them majors) was clearly the most talented player of the vaunted high school Class of 2011. Then came Justin Thomas (nine wins, one major), and now we must consider the upside for Schauffele (four wins, including a TOUR Championship and a WGC). Parlor game: Who will boast the best career when the Class of ’11 has its 30-year reunion? Spieth? Thomas? Schauffele? Someone else? It’s harder to predict today than it was a few years ago. Schauffele says he still feels at least a step or two behind not just Spieth and Thomas, but also Brooks Koepka and even Bryson DeChambeau. “I just still feel like an underdog,â€� he said. “I feel like until you’re No. 1, you’re chasing.â€� 3. Woodland crushed par-5s, until the last. It’s hard to fault three-time TOUR winner Woodland’s play on the par-5s, where in 16 chances the long-hitting Kansan made an eagle, 13 birdies, and two pars. Oddly enough, though, the reigning Waste Management Phoenix Open champion pinned the loss partly on his inability to birdie the par-5 18th hole Sunday, when he split the fairway but flared his 4-iron from 267 yards well right. Woodland recovered nicely, but faced with a do-or-die 10-foot birdie putt to force a playoff, he missed. “I had killed the par-5s all week,â€� said Woodland, who was playing with a heavy heart after learning of the passing of his grandmother Friday night. “…This one will hurt tonight.â€� How hard is it to win on TOUR? Woodland took a three-shot lead (over McIlroy) into the final round, shot 5-under, didn’t make a bogey, and still lost. 4. McIlroy’s Sunday woes continued. Rory McIlroy made the Sentry field with his win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, one of the most thrilling moments of 2018. At Kapalua, the Golf Channel’s Justin Ray pointed out, McIlroy was trying to join Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players since World War II with 15 or more wins, including four majors, before the age of 30. Instead, McIlroy, a newcomer to Kapalua, faded with a final-round 72. That was better than only five players in the 33-man field, and continued a troubling trend. He played in the final group, final day, six times around the world last year, and didn’t win any of them. “I don’t think anyone could have beaten Xander today,â€� McIlroy said, while also admitting to frustration on the greens. He was 27th of 33 players in Strokes Gained: Putting in the final round, making a paltry 31 feet of putts. “Just couldn’t get the ball to drop,â€� he said. 5. Call of the day belonged to Oberholser. With Schauffele swinging a lob wedge for his second shot from 107 yards at the par-4 12th hole, Golf Channel’s roving reporter Arron Oberholser said, “Xander’s gotta make things happen and stop trying to let them happen, three shots back.â€� Well, okay. As if it had ears, the ball hit the flagstick and dropped. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. The winner was 5th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, 4th in SG: Approach-the-Green, 5th in SG: Around-the-Green, 3rd in SG: Putting, and 1st in SG: Overall. He was the first TOUR winner to make two final-round eagles since Jon Rahm at the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open. 2. Schauffele (11-under 62) tied Stuart Appleby for the second lowest final round in relation to par by a winner on TOUR since 1980. Francesco Molinari also shot a final-round 62 to win last season at the Quicken Loans National, but on a par-70. David Duval’s unforgettable 13-under 59 to win the 1999 Desert Classic remains the gold standard in this category. 3. Woodland was the only player to shoot all four rounds in the 60s. He fell to 0-7 at closing out a victory when holding the 54-hole lead/co-lead in stroke-play events on TOUR, but did convert a 54-hole lead in winning the Modified Stableford format Reno-Tahoe Tournament in 2013. 4. Webb Simpson (65, T8), who will defend his title at THE PLAYERS Championship in March, has broken par 19 times in his last 20 rounds on TOUR. His last over-par round: a 74 on the last day of the Dell Technologies Championship in week two of the FedExCup Playoffs last season. Like Schauffele, Simpson made two eagles in the final round at Kapalua. 5. Dustin Johnson, who was the defending champion, didn’t get his 20th TOUR win, but his T4 (final-round 67) marked his seventh straight top-10 at the Sentry. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is in its first season and adds another layer of excitement to the FedExCup Regular Season. The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will earn bonus payouts from the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. Xander Schauffele grabs the top spot with his second win of the young season, while Gary Woodland goes from 9th to 2nd after his second runner-up finish.

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