ATLANTA — At this stage, we start to wonder why they even make Xander Schauffele go through the bother of an entire afternoon of golf here at East Lake and the Tour Championship. The man’s in fine shape, he obviously doesn’t need the steps. The whole playing part of program is such a silly formality in his case, as frivolous as extending one’s pinkie while sipping tea.
Simpler to just ask Schauffele to stop by official scoring for a couple of minutes every day, have him sign for some random score in the low-to-mid-60s and send him on his way. Then, wherever that puts him on the leaderboard, Venmo him a bunch of money Sunday night.
He blistered East Lake his rookie year of 2017, and continues to blister it still. Why, Friday, with his 22nd lap around the place, he posted his lowest score yet, a 7-under 63. That put him a skinny two strokes back of Scottie Scheffler, which should concern the world’s No. 1 player. He’s going into the weekend basically playing a pick-up game with Steph Curry on the Warrior’s own driveway.
Though Scheffler is outwardly unaffected. “Xander obviously has a great track record around here, but paying attention to what other guys do on the golf course has never served me too well,” he said.
That track record includes a Tour Championship victory in ‘17, when the tournament and the FedEx Cup title were separate entities. Justin Thomas claimed the bigger FedEx Cup prize then.
In 22 rounds, Schauffele never has visited the shady side of par at East Lake. His stroke average is now 67.045 on the par-70 layout, and shrinking by the looks of Friday.
Some would call him an unfortunate victim of timing. When the format was split, he had to share the stage and cede the bigger prize to Thomas. When this event went to staggered scoring based on points standings and he was forced to give strokes at the beginning of the week, Schauffele twice finished with a lower gross score than the FedEx Cup champ (four shots better than Dustin Johnson in 2020 and one better than Patrick Cantlay in 2021).
No one has scored as consistently well here as Schaueffle these past five-plus years, yet the big FedEx Cup bonus eludes him. But weep not for him. How to feel any sorrow for a golfer who has turned the Tour Championship into his own Tudor-style ATM? Schauffele has withdrawn nearly $16 million in various winnings here since 2017.
Asked a thousand times why East Lake favors him so, Schauffele got it for No. 1,001 on Friday.
“Well, it fits my eye, the greens being really pure. Just kind of have to do everything pretty well, which sort of feeds into how I play. And at times it’s OK to be defensive,” he said.
Is there any course in the world upon which he has had more success or feels more comfortable, we wondered?
“Yeah, probably my home course back home. Whether it’s in San Diego or in Vegas, courses I feel very comfortable on,” he said. “I’ll just take that going into the weekend.”
Friday went about as expected. Dog bites man, Schauffele goes low at East Lake.
Welcome to the Scheffler-Schauffele Schuffle. It’s a lively little dance.
Paired together Friday, as they will be Saturday, Schauffele began the day five shots back of Scheffler. After watching Scheffler go out fast and suffering a bogey himself on the third hole, Schauffele was 8 back.
“I didn’t even know I was eight back. I just figured I was 1 over and he was 2 under, so I need to get on my horse here or it’s going to be a long weekend,” Schauffele said.
But by the time the two walked off the par-5 18th, Schauffele had whittled the lead to a very manageable two strokes. He had just gone on a birdie-birdie-eagle binge at the close to shoot 6-under 29 on the backside. His second shot to No. 18, 236 yards from the green, landed just 5 feet from the pin.
“Yeah, it was a little right of where I wanted, but it had the distance and the shape,” he said with just the slightest you-bet-I-own-this-place grin.
Earlier in the week, Schauffele had the answer for those who might think he has deserved even more than what he has gotten out of the Tour Championship and East Lake. “I’ve managed to play pretty well here. Other guys have beat me. If I can just keep knocking on the door and keep appearing here at East Lake, I would imagine I’d be in good hands for quite some time.”
In truth, this is Xander’s personal Xanadu, requiring just one finishing coat of gold.
