TROON, Scotland – Maybe it was all too new – the clutchness, the relief, the trophy. But minutes after winning the PGA Championship in May, Xander Schauffele needed no help putting his achievement in the proper perspective.
“All of us are climbing this massive mountain,” he said, “and 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’ve 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 and enjoy this, but it’s not that hard to chase when someone is so far ahead of you.”
Two months later, and the vantage point has changed.
With his emphatic victory Sunday at Royal Troon, Schauffele just planted another hook and elevated even higher. Look again – to some, he’s now eye-to-eye with Scheffler.
No, the top of the world rankings still isn’t close; the gap between Scheffler and Schauffele is about 6.8 points, or the difference between Nos. 3 and 49 in the world. That math could take months, if not years, to reshape. But at the end of this major season, there’s now at least a compelling argument to be made that it’s Schauffele – not Scheffler – who is the player of the year for 2024.
That discourse would have seemed preposterous at the end of April or May or June. But not anymore.
Yes, Scheffler is the first player since Arnold Palmer in 1962 to win six times before the calendar turned to July. Yes, in the first 15 events of the year, he compared favorably to Tiger Woods’ 2000 season in terms of wins, runners-up, top-10s, rounds in the 60s – and that legendary season is supposedly the gold standard for excellence in the modern era. But now, improbably, it’s an open debate whose year has actually been better.
On Sunday, Schauffele joined Woods and Jordan Spieth as the only players since 1980 to finish in the top 8 in all four majors, including multiple wins. Schauffele posted – by 15! – the best cumulative score in the majors, which is significant because, in this fractured landscape, they’re the only four events a year when all of the best players are together.
“Obviously Scottie has six wins and a major, but what Xander has done this year, the consistency he plays with, he’s taken his game to another level,” said Billy Horschel, who tied for second at Troon. “He deserves to hold that claret jug right now.”
There’s now a logjam as these tweeners (ages 26-32) try to stake their claim as the best player of the next generation. Of this crop, Spieth is the current leader with three major titles, but he’s been stuck on that number since 2017 and hasn’t been a consistent force in the game’s biggest events for years. Schauffele’s triumphs in rapid succession at Valhalla and Troon have vaulted him into the two-major club, along with (in this age division, at least) Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Scheffler.
Now that he has caught up, Schauffele arguably boasts the most impressive and well-rounded major record of the group. Entering the year, he had 11 major top-10s; his 15 total now are as many as Thomas and DeChambeau combined.
Suddenly, for the 30-year-old, the career Grand Slam is a possibility.
“Before I had any majors, it’s something I’ve always wanted,” he said. “I’m one step closer and still have a long way to go. But if you don’t see yourself doing it, you’re never going to do it.”
For years while assuming the unwanted title of best player yet to win a major, Schauffele seemed the only one who remained patient about his major near-misses. Working in his favor was that he never truly kicked away a major down the stretch and accumulated scar tissue; he simply didn’t rise to the moment. But Schauffele preached process and now has two major titles as proof, each after a final-round 65 – a feat that only Jack Nicklaus could previously claim.
“He’s obviously now learning that the winning is easy,” said Justin Rose, who was paired with Schauffele in the final round. “He has a lot of horsepower. He’s good with a wedge, he’s great with a putter, he hits the ball a long way, obviously his iron play is strong – so he’s got a lot of weapons out there.
“One of his most unappreciated ones is his mentality. He’s such a calm guy out there. I don’t know what he’s feeling, but he certainly makes it look very easy. He plays with a freedom, which tells you as a competitor that he’s probably not feeling a ton of bad stuff. He’s got a lot of runaway ahead and a lot of exciting stuff ahead.”
It’s a quiet confidence, forged over the past few years, that now underpins the high quality of Schauffele’s game. He’s the only player on Tour who ranks in the top 40 in every major statistical category (driving, approach, around the green, putting). That completeness was on display at Royal Troon, particularly on the weekend, when he gutted out a 69 Saturday in the worst of the weather and then carded a 6-under finale that he called the best he’d ever played. For the week, he was even better than his season averages, ranking inside the top 20 in the field in every facet.
“That kind of all-around really good gets it done in the biggest events,” Adam Scott said. “The greats of the game did that, especially Tiger.”
Scheffler possesses a similar competitive makeup as Schauffele but with different physical attributes. He’s shorter but straighter off the tee. He’s peerless with his irons. He’s tidier around the greens. But he’s streakier – much streakier – on the greens. At The Open, Scheffler ranked 136th in putting, his three-putt from 8 feet on the ninth green Sunday denying him a chance to stamp this as a year for the ages. After double-bogeying his final hole to drop into a tie for seventh, Scheffler declined all post-round media, leaving everyone else to put into context his dramatic major season.
Scheffler claimed his second green jacket and, if not for an early-morning run-in with Louisville police outside the Valhalla gates, may very have gone back-to-back at the PGA. Instead, he tied for eighth, and then he was never comfortable off the tee at Pinehurst, tying for 41st.
In a vacuum, it’s another successful major campaign. And combined with his dazzling Tour record this season – a come-from-behind Players title (over Schauffele); four other signature-event wins against the best Tour fields on its most exacting courses; a litany of top-10s; and strokes-gained numbers we haven’t seen since Woods’ prime – it’s undoubtedly one of the best seasons in recent memory.
It just might not be the best this year, a scenario that seemed unimaginable just two months ago.
Of course, Player of the Year voting doesn’t begin today. It doesn’t even start after the Tour Championship. The ballots go out in December, allowing the Tour membership to consider these two stars’ entire body of work in 2024. That will include the Olympic competition, even though it’s not an official Tour event. It’ll most certainly factor in their respective playoff performance. And it may even – recency-bias alert – take into account a player’s output in a team event like the Presidents Cup in late September.
It promises to be a fascinating vote, a referendum on how today’s pros view major glory versus weekly dominance.
Following the summer of his life, Schauffele might soon sit on that mountaintop, after all.