Despite Late Stumble on Friday, Xander Schauffele Is Quietly Rounding Into Form
DUBLIN, Ohio — Early Friday morning offered the most benign scoring conditions a player could hope to face at Muirfield Village: a gentle breeze, cool and sunny conditions, with the ground still damp from rain earlier this week. The Jack Nicklaus design was there for the taking.
Xander Schauffele, who played early on Friday, tried to take full advantage and did so for exactly three holes — a birdie run on holes 14-16 — to lift the Gold Medalist from the Tokyo Olympics to 2-under for the day and 4-under for the tournament, one shot out of the lead.
The natural aggressiveness that worked so well early in the round would cost him late, as a double-bogey 6 on his last hole, the par-4 9th, dropped him to 1 over for the round and 1 under at the halfway point of the tournament, six shots behind Denny McCarthy and K.H. Lee at 7-under.
“I was 1-under going into the last and doubled it, but for the most part I think the wind made it tricky to get aggressive,” Schauffele said. “I probably should not have been so aggressive at the final pin, but if you shoot 4-under, it’s a pretty good round and you are going to fly up this leaderboard.”
Schauffele is still building off his remarkable performance at the AT&T Bryon Nelson last month in Dallas, where he was 3-over-par for the tournament through the first 21 holes and staring at a missed cut.
But the 28-year-old rallied back and went bogey-free over the next 51 holes while shooting 26 under par, including an 11-under 61 in the final round, to finish T5.
After a T13 at the PGA Championship, Schauffele is back at a place he has had success, with a T14 in 2019, T13 in 2020 and last year a T11.
In his four previous appearances at the Memorial, Schauffele had always shot an under-par second round — until Friday.
“That's why it's so disappointing man, I feel like I am still playing really well,” Schauffele said. “I got too aggressive there. And I paid the price. And that's why this place is great.”
Schauffele points to what he calls a pattern change with his wedges as a spark for his latest hot streak. While not a swing change, the slight tweak was a more rotational and lateral move.
“It took me some time to try and get used to that sort of feeling,” Schauffele said. “And just like everything else out here, it sort of takes a few weeks and takes you know a good round to get confident and then you kind of move on.”
Schauffele is in a good position for the weekend. The leaders are within striking distance and the Friday afternoon weather should become a littler trickier. Six back seems comfortable for the San Diego State University product.
He also knows his game is in good shape, evidenced by not only his play at the Byron Nelson and the PGA Championship, but his first 36 holes here, where some better decision-making could have left him in a much better position.
“Yeah, it was stupid, you know, smack my head against the wall for a second, but then move on,” Schauffele said of his poor finish on Friday. “So, I feel like I'm kind of playing well enough. And greens are so nice and probably the fastest greens we've played on in quite some time with slope, so I've been enjoying that.”