KAPALUA, Hawaii — Profitable two majors solely made Xander Schauffele that rather more looking forward to the following one. The one downer about successful the claret jug at Royal Troon was realizing it will be greater than eight months till the following one.
Additionally on his agenda is reaching No. 1 on the planet.
That may take a bit longer.
The PGA Tour embarks on a brand new season with out Scottie Scheffler, who minimize open his proper hand on damaged glass getting ready Christmas dinner. Even with out the No. 1 participant at The Sentry, Schauffele eels quite a bit additional away than his No. 2 rating may recommend.
“It’s a wild time,” Schauffele mentioned. “Profitable two majors and being nearer to the Thirtieth-ranked participant than the primary … hat’s off to Scottie. He’s a beast.”
Schauffele, after all, isn’t any slouch. Each put collectively a season of exceptional consistency. Schauffele had 15 finishes within the high 10 out of his 21 begins in particular person play on the PGA Tour. From Could till the top of the season, he went 11 straight occasions no worse than fifteenth.
That included a birdie on the final gap to win the PGA Championship at Valhalla, and a command efficiency within the rain and wind of Royal Troon to win The Open.
It was the latter that bought the eye of Chris Kirk, the defending champion at Kapalua.
“You can not precisely describe how horrible it’s to play golf in these situations,” Kirk mentioned. “That was one the place — clearly, I’ve numerous confidence in myself, I imagine in my sport, I’m a top-50 participant — I watched that and was like, ‘There’s no method in hell I might try this.’”
The distinction in seasons was Scheffler transformed extra of these top-10s into titles — seven on the PGA Tour, Olympic gold, and the Hero World Problem within the Bahamas, all of them boosting his lead at No. 1 to the biggest hole since Tiger Woods in his peak years.
“It’s considered one of my objectives that may simply have to remain on the calendar for just a few extra years,” Schauffele mentioned with a straightforward smile. “If I get there I’ll be very completely happy. However simply primarily based on trying on the numbers, yeah, it’s going to take a while and endurance.”
Now he’s on island time, the place nobody is in a rush.
Tee occasions and groupings for the opening spherical of The Sentry match at Kapalua.
The 60-man discipline will get began on the mountainous Plantation Course at Kapalua, which is enjoying longer than ever with a gentle dose of in a single day rain.
The Sentry additionally begins a brand new construction on the PGA Tour wherein solely the highest 100 gamers within the FedExCup maintain their full playing cards, and the dimensions of fields is shrinking to verify those that have playing cards get into extra tournaments.
That is the second 12 months {that a} match as soon as restricted to solely winners has been expanded to incorporate anybody who completed within the high 50 within the FedExCup. Of the 60 gamers, 29 of them did not win a match final 12 months.
That features Justin Thomas, who not less than would look like on the upward development. He missed out on the postseason in 2023 and made it again to the Tour Championship. It was a greater 12 months, however not sufficient for him to be picked for the Presidents Cup.
Think about that to be an enormous motivator this 12 months with a Ryder Cup on the horizon. Step one is successful, which Thomas hasn’t finished because the PGA Championship in 2022. Earlier than that, he piled up 15 wins on the PGA Tour in a seven-year stretch.
“I really felt like I used to be going to win a number of occasions each season just about, till I misplaced it a bit bit,” Thomas mentioned. “It’s simply so exhausting to win out right here. Naturally, the higher participant that you’re, you will get away with extra errors, however come the top of the week on Sunday, it’s a must to win the golf match.
“I used to be lucky the place I used to be doing it very often and I nonetheless really feel like I’m totally succesful and count on to try this extra,” he mentioned. “However I positively felt prefer it ought to have occurred often.”
Schauffele can recognize the sensation. He additionally had gone two years with out successful till he ended that drought in one of the best ways attainable — not one main, however two.
It begins with possibilities, and that has develop into his hallmark, very similar to it’s for Scheffler. Schauffele comes into Kapalua with the longest energetic minimize streak on the PGA Tour at 56 in a row, which is able to improve as a result of there is no such thing as a minimize this week.
The file is 142 in a row by Woods. That is likely to be even additional away than his objective of changing Scheffler at No. 1 on the planet.
