DUBLIN, Ohio – A moment that has caught Xander Schauffele’s attention in the two weeks since he won the PGA championship it was the morning he woke up and realized nothing had changed.
Yes, he sank a 6-foot birdie putt on the final hole at Valhalla to become a grand champion. He no longer has to face doubts about passing two years since his last victory and sealing the deal in a big way after some difficult situations.
But he was still the same person, with the same motivations and the same simple lifestyle.
“Maybe I didn’t give myself enough time to sit down and really absorb it,” Schauffele said. “I was at home and I woke up one morning and I looked at my wife and said, ‘You know, it’s great. Nothing seems different. Like, our life feels the same.’ And it was a very good feeling. I was really away from golf. My life at home was very good and we did everything normally.
“But in terms of golf… I was very satisfied and very happy,” he said. “But I was very motivated to get back to work.”
It may seem like nothing has changed after your return.
The first stop is the Memorial, which starts on Thursday and kicks off a massive three-week period in which each tournament features the best fields. Muirfield Village is known for generous, rugged fairways that are as severe as a major.
Well, most courses.
Next week is the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, which was restored a decade ago to feature more native dunes and grasses. Then we move on to another exclusive event, the Travelers Championship, where the situation is said to be more difficult than ever.
“It’s going to be a really interesting stretch,” Schauffele said. “In fact, the US Open might be the least difficult of all the places we play in the next three weeks, which seems wrong.”
Two changes at Memorial stand out, in addition to the rough ones that Schauffele says are denser than he can remember. Tournament founder Jack Nicklaus tweaked the par-3 16th hole again after hearing complaints — and agreeing with them — that it was unfair.
Nicklaus said that even with players not hitting more than an 8-iron, only 35% of the field hit the green in the third round, and the number dropped to 28% in the final round. He changed the tee so that the water ran more down the left side, rather than players having to step over it.
“It’s still a difficult hole, but at least now it looks like with the angle you can hit a good shot and run in or around the green,” current champion Viktor Hovland he said.
The big change has more to do with the calendar than the course.
The PGA Tour’s model of exclusive $20 million events with short fields – 72 players at Muirfield Village, but at least this tournament has a cut – required them to be grouped together to give a dozen or so players a chance to play. qualify.
Memorial got its name for a reason — it’s typically around Memorial Day — and it traditionally falls two weeks before the US Open. Now it’s the week before, with another exclusive event on the other side of a major tournament.
Nicklaus would like to see it moved back. Asked if there could be a conversation with the PGA Tour after this week, Nicklaus responded: “The discussion is ongoing.”
“We prefer another week,” he said. “We are here this week because the tour asked us to help them. But we said we would review it after this tournament and we’ll figure out how we’re going to get the schedule right after that.”
From a personal standpoint, Nicklaus said he rarely played the week before a major tournament and that it didn’t feel right to host a tournament that went against that philosophy. As for the tournament, there was some buzz about starting on Memorial Day. That was missing this year with a sparse gallery earlier in the week.
“We want to try to continue supporting what’s best for the tour,” he said. “But we also want to support what’s best for the Memorial Tournament.”
Regardless of the date, it should still bring a lot of drama. Scottie Scheffler leads a field that has 28 of the top 30 – the remaining two are at LIV Golf in Houston this week – and ends with a Nicklaus handshake on the 18th green as he finishes.
Scheffler remembers coming to watch at Muirfield Village while in college when he was in town for the US Open qualifiers.
“It would mean a lot to me to be able to shake his hand and win this golf tournament with all the history here and what Mr. Nicklaus meant to the game,” Scheffler said.
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