The American Xander Schauffele, with a card of 65 strokes, won the PGA Championship, the second major of the season, with a record score in the history of the majors of 21 under par. The Olympic champion, who won his first Major, achieved it with a birdie on the last hole from three meters, which ruined the chances of Bryson DeChambeau, his compatriot who plays in LIV Golf, and who after A card of 64 strokes, seven birdies without failure, reached -20.
It is the eleventh victory for Schauffele, 30 years old, in his professional career. The one from San Diego dominated the tournament on all four days from his 62 shots on Thursday and only gave up the lead on Saturday momentarily one hole after a double bogey, but he rectified it with two birdies in a row. His victory also gives him second place in the world ranking, a classification in which Jon Rahm, that didn’t make the cutfalls to seventh place.
With hardly any wind, with the greens still tender from the rain that damaged Valhalla’s defenses during the week, On Sunday of the PGA Championship, one of the daily tournaments of the PGA Tour was proposed as the outcome. It was a day to shoot very low scores. Like Schauffele on Thursday, like Lowry on Saturday, like Scottie Scheffler, the world number 1, did in the farewell, eighth at the end after 65 strokes.
Late in the day, the outcome was presented as a three-way game. With the winner as the undisputed asset. He did not give up his head throughout Sunday, despite two serious attacks from his pursuers. Especially DeChambeau who, in a fourth day without errors, was about to second Brooks Koepka, the 2023 winner and the, so far, only golfer who has won a Major as a member of the insurgent circuit.
He was also encouraged by Viktor Hovland, the golfer who had questioned not playing the second major because he was frustrated with his swing after shooting 81 on Friday at the Augusta Masters. Golf is a crazy game, but also a game of minds. And that saved the Norwegian, who only needed one pass through the pits, in Las Vegas, with Joe Mayo, his creator, to adjust it with the precision of the Weltzeituhr.
Hovland hunted down the champion on the 12th hole and kept the pulse for 20 more minutes. But then he only made pars and, on the 18th, forced to make a birdie like DeChambeau did to force Schauffele, he missed his putt and ended up with bogey.
Xander, on the other hand, was a superb competitor. His father, a former decathlete whom a hit by a drunk kept him from the Olympic Games, you will be proud of your determination. He made seven birdies on the final day, with the only mistake being the 10th hole (par 5) in which he made a bogey. But his response to that mistake was superb with two consecutive birdies. That’s what sport is about. It doesn’t matter how many times you fall, if you manage to get up.
