LOUISVILLE, Ky. — X marks the spot.
Never again will Xander Schauffele have to answer questions about whether he has it in him to win a major championship.
He’s done it now.
Schauffele had been so close so many times. He’d done everything in the game — even winning an Olympic gold medal. The only thing missing was winning a major championship.
Until Sunday.
The right player won the PGA Championship this week at Valhalla, and that player was Schauffele. From start to finish, he was the class of the 156-man field that began the week.
No one in the game has been playing better than he has other than world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. The difference is Scheffler has the trophies to show for it.
No one played better from start to finish this week, not even Scheffler. That’s why it was no accident that Schauffele went wire-to-wire and was the man hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy in the end.
Schauffele came into the week still salty about losing to Rory McIlroy at the Wells Fargo Championship last Sunday after he held the lead for the first three rounds and got boat-raced by McIlroy in the final round.
That loss, coupled with his 2-of-8 career record converting 54-hole lead into wins, had become an annoying narrative for him.
Schauffele admitted that the questions about his ability to close out wins left “definitely a chip on the shoulder’’ for him.
“You guys (reporters) are asking the questions, probing, and I have to sit here and answer it,’’ he said. “It’s a lot easier to answer it with this thing (the Wanamaker Trophy) sitting next to me now.’’
The tournament was in doubt until the 72nd hole as a scintillating three-horse race broke out between Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland.
Schauffele came to the 18th tee tied at 20-under par with DeChambeau, who had just finished his round with a birdie on 18 and was on the practice range preparing for a playoff.
But there would be no playoff, because Schauffele birdied 18, shaking off a terrible stance after his tee shot came to rest near the lip of a fairway bunker, hit a marvelous second shot to the front of the green.
“If you want to be a major champion, this is the kind of stuff you have to deal with,’’ Schauffele told himself of the bad break. “So, I dealt with it.’’
That shot was followed by a world-class bump-and-run to six feet and, from there, he rolled in the birdie putt for the win.
“This is my opportunity; just capture it,’’ Schauffele said to himself as he stood over the putt.
He conceded that he “was pretty nervous’’ as he surveyed the putt.
“I walked up, I saw a little left to right,’’ he said. “I kept reading it, kept kind of panning, started to look right-to-left to me and I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is not what I want for a winning putt.’
“I ended up playing it straight. It did go left, caught the left side. I don’t really remember it lipping in … I just heard everyone roaring and I just looked up to the sky in relief. It’s been a while since I’ve won (nearly two years).
“I kept saying this week that I need to stay in my own lane and, man, it hard to stay in my lane. I really didn’t want to go into a playoff against Bryson.’’
DeChambeau was brilliant on Sunday. As good as Schauffele was, shooting a 6-under-par 65 in the final round to set the PGA Championship scoring record of 21-under, DeChambeau shot a final-round 7-under-par 64.
“I seriously thought 18 (under) was going to do it,’’ DeChambeau said. “Then when I saw what Xander was doing, it’s like, ‘Man, he’s playing some unbelievable golf.’ ’’
After he signed his scorecard, Schauffele called his father, Stefan, who was his original swing coach and was in Hawaii, and the two shared some tears over the phone.
He had made a difficult decision to switch from his father to Chris Como with hopes it might elevate him to the place he arrived at Sunday.
“I don’t think I’d ever looked at it as lacking,’’ Schauffele said of his major-less career to date. “I looked at it as someone that is trying really hard and needs more experience. All those close calls for me, even last week, that sort of feeling, it gets to you at some point. It just makes this even sweeter.
“All of us are climbing this massive mountain,’’ Schauffele continued. “At the top of the mountain is Scottie Scheffler. I won this today, but I’m still not that close to Scottie Scheffler in the big scheme of things. I got one good hook up there in the mountain up on that cliff, and I’m still climbing.
“I might have a beer up there on that side of the hill there and enjoy this.’’
Drink up, Xander. No one deserves it more. The right player won Sunday.
