KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — Win two major tournaments only made Xander Schauffele even more impatient for the next one. The only downside to winning the pitcher of claret at Royal Troon was knowing it would be over eight months until the next one.
It is also on his agenda to reach world number 1.
It might take a little longer.
The PGA Tour begins a new season without Scottie Scheffler, who cut his right hand on broken glass while preparing Christmas dinner. Even without The Sentry’s No. 1 player, Schauffele feels much further behind than his No. 2 ranking suggests.
“It’s a crazy time,” Schauffele said. “Winning two majors and being closer to the 30th ranked player than the first… hats off to Scottie. It’s a beast.
Schauffele, of course, is no slouch. Both have had a season of remarkable consistency. Schauffele has 15 top-10 finishes in his 21 starts in individual play on the PGA Tour. From May until the end of the season, he participated in 11 consecutive events, no worse than 15th place.
This included a birdie on the final hole to win the PGA Championship at Valhalla and a commanding performance in the rain and wind at Royal Troon to win the British Open.
It was the latter that caught the attention of Chris Kirk, the reigning champion at Kapalua.
“You can’t accurately describe how horrible it is to play golf in those conditions,” Kirk said. “It was a moment where – obviously I have a lot of confidence in myself, I believe in my game, I’m a top 50 player – I looked at that and I was like, ‘There’s no There’s no way I can do that.’ ‘”
The difference between the seasons is that Scheffler has converted more of those top 10 finishes into titles – seven on the PGA Tour, Olympic gold and the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, all extending his lead at No. 1 to the most big gap since Tiger Woods. in his peak years.
“It’s one of my goals that will have to stay on the calendar for a few more years,” Schauffele said with an easy smile. “If I succeed, I will be very happy. But if you look at the numbers, yes, it’s going to take time and patience.
It’s now island time, where no one is in a hurry.
The 60-player field starts on the mountainous Plantation course in Kapalua, which plays longer than ever with a constant dose of overnight rain.
The Sentry is also introducing a new structure on the PGA Tour in which only the top 100 FedEx Cup players keep their full cards, and field sizes shrink to ensure those with cards compete in more tournaments.
This is the second year that a tournament once reserved for only winners has been expanded to include everyone who finished in the top 50 in the FedEx Cup. Of the 60 players, 29 failed to win a tournament last year.
That includes Justin Thomas, who at least appears to be trending upward. He missed the playoffs in 2023 and returned to the Tour Championship. It was a better year, but not enough for him to be selected for the Presidents Cup.
Consider it great motivation this year with a Ryder Cup on the horizon. The first step is winning, something Thomas hasn’t done since the PGA Championship in 2022. Before that, he racked up 15 PGA Tour victories in seven years.
“I really felt like I was going to win a few times every season, until I lost it a little bit,” Thomas said. “It’s so hard to win here. Naturally, the better player you are, you can get away with more mistakes, but on Sunday at the end of the week you have to win the golf tournament.
“I’ve been lucky to be able to do it quite often and I still feel fully capable and hope to be able to do it more,” he said. “But I really felt like it should have been a regular occurrence.”
Schauffele can appreciate that feeling. He had also gone two years without winning until he ended that drought in the best way possible – not one major tournament, but two.
It starts with opportunities, and it has become his trademark, just as it has for Scheffler. Schauffele comes to Kapalua with the longest active cut streak on the PGA Tour at 56 consecutive, which will increase as there are no cuts this week.
The record is 142 in a row by Woods. That could be even further away than his goal of replacing Scheffler at No. 1 in the world.
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