When the 2024 PGA Tour season started Xander Schauffele was close to the top of the list of best golfers to never win a major championship. Seven months later he's halfway to the career grand slam.
At The Open Championship in Scotland the San Diego native and San Diego State alum fired a near-perfect final found 65, carding six birdies without a single bogey, to finish the 9-under par and two shots clear of his nearest competition. Schauffele also won the PGA Championship in May, making him the first player since Brooks Koepka in 2018 to win multiple majors in one season.
The way he won them both is incredibly impressive. Schauffele also shot a 65 in the final round of the PGA Championship, making him the second player to win multiple majors with a final-round of 65 or better in one season. The other is Jack Nicklaus, which is not a bad guy to join in a very exclusive club.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
On Sunday at Royal Troon, Xander made four of his birdies on the back-9 to come home in a blistering 31 to pull away from 54-hole leader Billy Horschel and Justin Rose, who tied for 2nd place at 7-under. Interestingly, Schauffele and Rose are the last two Olympic gold medalists in golf. Xander will be trying to repeat at the 2024 Paris Games.
It's an incredible rise to the top of the golf world for Xander, who earned All-American honors at SDSU. During his career on Montezuma Mesa, Schauffele set a school record for scoring average (71.50) and most birdies in a single season when he dropped 171 of them his senior season.
