Xander Schauffele stood in the course of the ninth fairway with large strain on his shoulders. Sitting at even par, the World No. 2 wanted to birdie his ultimate gap of the day to earn a Saturday tee time and lengthen his consecutive made cuts streak to a powerful 59 in a row.
After watching his enjoying companions Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler every misfire, with McIlroy going into the timber and Scheffler pushing his shot to the proper of the inexperienced, it was lastly Schauffele’s flip to play. He wanted to finish up across the inexperienced on this par-5, after which get up-and-down for birdie to get to 1-under.
“I used to be enthusiastic about the reduce line for certain,” Schauffele mentioned.
“Knew I wanted to make birdie.”
Schauffele then uncorked a towering high-draw, his finest shot of the day. His ball landed gap excessive, settling 50 ft away from the pin on the inexperienced. From there, he calmly two-putted for the birdie he wanted to publish 1-under and earn a Saturday tee time at The Gamers.
“[Wind] was fortunately serving to off the proper, so simply turned over a hybrid, aimed on the proper facet, and will have pulled it a hair, however figured if I can hit it someplace up there on the proper facet within the tough that’s form of the place to get up-and-down from,” Schauffele mentioned.
“Fortunately, I hit the inexperienced.”
Exterior of that clutch shot, the two-time main winner has seemed nowhere close to the participant that gained the PGA Championship and Claret Jug a 12 months in the past. He missed two months earlier this season to a rib damage and returned to competitors ultimately week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational.
He referred to as his efficiency so far “actually dangerous,” including that “the whole lot” has been poor. The stats mirror that too. Schauffele has misplaced 1.374 strokes on strategy and has made solely seven birdies by 36 holes.
“Not hitting it shut sufficient, to duffing chips, to lacking each fairway, to hitting fairways to lacking greens,” Schauffele defined.
“It’s fairly gross, to be fully trustworthy. So if I can eke out this reduce, that will be good. However the sport feels fairly dangerous.”
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By. Comply with him on X @jack_milko.
