On Thursday at the Wells Fargo Championship, Xander Schauffele found luck three times, not once, not twice, but three times. It resulted in a (finally) stress-free par and a field-pacing opening 7-under 64 at Quail Hollow Club.
On Thursday, Schauffele mishit the short par-4 eighth hole, sending the ball into a densely forested area just across from the fairway. Wyndham Clark, his playing companion, gave him his first break when he almost discovered his ball in the three minutes that were allowed for searching. When he and his caddy Austin Kaiser managed to move a boulder in the path of his backswing, that was when he got his second break.
After removing the boulder and taking cover from the fence, he made his third break with a ShotLink tower placed in his line of play. This implied that he had a right to free relief from the tower in a radius of two club lengths; his relief point was located just beyond the tree line, at an angle that allowed him to reach the green without encountering any trees. Schauffele hit a pitch shot to the front of the green from 48 yards away, which resulted in a 34-foot “routine” two-putt par.
As the third-ranked player in the FedExCup standings, Schauffele ended the day three shots ahead of Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, and Alex Noren.
He is aware that it stems from his luck at No. 8.
“I was pretty fortunate a few occasions. Three things: (1) Wyndham spotting it; (2) being able to move the rocks; and (3) the ShotLink tower being in my only feasible shot line. I felt like I was almost out, so to walk out there with sort of a no-breeze 4 was a very pleasant occurrence.
Since this is the last shot I have left, you have to be ok with it, so I brought the official guidelines into the room with me. After Austin and I lifted two enormous rocks that weren’t lodged, I was able to extract relief from the debris and proceeded to hit a decent shot on the green. What had been a very tense situation became rather untense.”Schauffele said.
At the 7th par-5, an eagle striped a 6-iron from 221 yards to 5 feet, setting up that par. At the lengthy ninth par-4, a bonus birdie of sorts was made after a 175-yard approach to 6 feet. With a flourish, Schauffele ended at 3-under for his final three holes after starting the first eight holes at 5-under, making bogey at No. 18, and opening the second nine with six consecutive pars.
Overall, Schauffele was happy with his play, although he humbly acknowledged that he had luck on his last hole of the day, when heavy rains the night before had forced players to play in threesomes off two tees (starting at noon).
The Golf Rules grant and withhold. He was the one receiving this time.
“Xander can get to that camera tower through the woods there, according to Rules Official Dave Donnelly. That’s a fantastic break for him.” stated Mark Dusbabek, Senior Director of the PGA TOUR and Lead TV Rules & Video Analyst, during Thursday’s Golf Channel telecast.
