{"id":395444,"date":"2024-05-20T00:07:46","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T00:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=395444"},"modified":"2024-05-20T03:06:38","modified_gmt":"2024-05-20T03:06:38","slug":"final-hole-birdie-seals-schauffele-first-major","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=395444","title":{"rendered":"Final-hole birdie seals Schauffele first major"},"content":{"rendered":"

Xander Schauffele had a nervy six-foot putt for birdie to claim his first major at the PGA Championship<\/a> at Valhalla.<\/p>\n

It caught the lip of the hole, rolled around the edge and somehow dropped. He finished at 21-under par \u2013 the lowest score in major championship history \u2013 a shot clear of LIV<\/a> star Bryson DeChambeau<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DeChambeau had earlier sunk a birdie putt on 18 to move into a share of the lead, at which time Schauffele still had two holes to play.<\/p>\n

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Schauffele made par on 17, but making birdie on the par-five 18th looked like a tough ask when his tee shot found the left rough, right next to a bunker.<\/p>\n

\"Xander<\/p>\n

With two feet in the sand and the ball well above his feet, Schauffele played a lovely iron shot to the fairway short of the green, followed by an equally as impressive pitch, and then held his nerve to drain the putt.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I was actually kind of emotional after the putt lipped in \u2013 it's been a while since I've won," Schauffele said.<\/p>\n

Already an Olympic gold medallist from Tokyo, Schauffele had 12 top-fives and two second places at majors.<\/p>\n

The 2022 Scottish Open \u2013 two years ago next month \u2013 was Schauffele's last triumph.<\/p>\n

\"Xander<\/p>\n

"I kept saying it all week, I just need to stay in my lane. And man, was it hard to stay in my lane today," he said.<\/p>\n

"I tried all day to just keep focused on what I'm trying to do and keep every hole ahead of me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I had some weird breaks coming into the house, but it's all good now."<\/p>\n

Schauffele is the first player since Phil Mickelson in 2005 at Baltusrol to win the PGA Championship with a birdie on the last hole to win by one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After he sunk the putt, DeChambeau walked all the way back to the 18th to join in with so many other players wanting to congratulate the 30-year-old.<\/p>\n

\"DeChambeau<\/p>\n

Schauffele started the week with a 62 to tie the major championship record. His 21-under 263 knocked a shot off the previous low-score at a major. It was shared by Brooks Koepka in the 2018 PGA Championship at Bellerive and Henrik Stenson in the 2016 British Open at Royal Troon.<\/p>\n

After making his birdie putt earlier, DeChambeau went straight to the range to keep warm in case of a playoff. Had Schauffele missed his putt, the pair would have gone back down the 18th. He watched Schauffele finish his round on a big screen.<\/p>\n

A playoff against one of the biggest hitters in golf was a prospect Schauffele had no desire to entertain.<\/p>\n

"I think I'd probably be a little bit less of a patient person if that putt didn't lip in," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Bryson<\/p>\n

"I really didn't want to go into a playoff against Bryson. I'm assuming we probably would have played 18 \u2013 it would have been a lot of work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"So I just told myself this is my opportunity, and just capture it."<\/p>\n

Schauffele's wife and family, as well as his brother and several close friends were all in attendance. He called his dad in Hawaii immediately after coming off the course.<\/p>\n

"I had to hang up pretty quickly because he started to make me cry, he was sitting on the phone balling. It means so much."<\/p>\n

– With AP<\/strong><\/em>\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Xander Schauffele had a nervy six-foot putt for birdie to claim his first major at the PGA Championship at Valhalla. It caught the lip of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":395446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395444"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=395444"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395451,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395444\/revisions\/395451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/395446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=395444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=395444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=395444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}