PGA Tour star Xander Schauffele came into the 2024 PGA Championship off the back of a disappointing ending in his last event. But that didn’t stop him from getting out to an unbelievable start to the major championship in his opening round on Thursday.
Last week, Schauffele gave away a three-stroke lead to Rory McIlroy in the back-nine of his final round at the Wells Fargo Championship.
On one hand, he did play very well for much of the tournament last week, which is of course promising for his chances at the PGA Championship. But on the other hand, choking away that kind of a lead down the stretch can certainly mess with his mindset heading into this week’s major tournament.
This led to some questions as to how Schauffele may perform in his opening round on Thursday. However, those questions were met with an unbelievable, record-breaking performance in Round One.
Scoring conditions were about as good as they possibly could have been in Schauffele’s opening round at Valhalla Golf Club. And the former Olympics gold medal winner took advantage in a big way.
Schauffele shot a 62 in his opening round, nine stroked fewer than par at the course for a total score of -9. This was three strokes better than any player in the field in Round One.
He has never won a major championship thus far in his career. But he has been on the verge of doing so quite a few times. This marks the second time that Schauffele has finished a round in 62 strokes in his career. He is the only golfer to ever do so twice in a major.
Could this finally be the major where Schauffele breaks through and is able to win? Only time will tell. But it was certainly one heck of a start for the seven-time PGA Tour winner.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.