Xander Schauffele near albatross, Drop Gate situation vaults him to Wells Fargo lead
Xander Schauffele acknowledges the crowd during the first round of the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.
Xander Schauffele had doses of skill and luck down the stretch on Thursday at the Wells Fargo Championship.
Having started the day on the 10th hole, Schauffele ended his opening round on the front nine. As such, on his 16th hole of the day—the par-5 7th—Schauffele hit one of his best shots of the year.
From 219 yards out, Schauffele laced a 6-iron that painted the flag stick. His ball landed a few feet before the cup, teased it, and then lipped out. Had his shot landed an inch to the right, he likely would have made the rare albatross: a two on a par-5.
Instead, he settled for an eagle, which put him in the solo lead at 6-under par.
Things got very interesting on the next hole, the short par-4 8th.
Schauffele rifled his drive way to the right and into the trees, easily his worst swing of the day. His ball came to rest somewhere in the woods, so Schauffele hit a provisional, thinking he had lost his ball.
But his playing partner, Wyndham Clark, found it amongst the trees.
“Got really lucky multiple times,” Schauffele said after.
Indeed, he did.
“The volunteer was by the Shotlink tower, and he said he heard it land in the hazard, so everyone was looking in the hazard,” Schauffele further explained.
Xander Schauffele watches a tee shot closely during the first round of the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.
“Then Wyndham went further up and found the ball. Wyndham said, ‘I think that’s your ball,’ so I walked up, identified it, and went from there.”
Not only did Clark find it, but Schauffele had somewhat of a chance. But to play his second shot, he and his caddy—Austin Kaiser—had to move massive rocks in the way of his stance. He also had a fence directly adjacent to his ball, making matters more difficult.
As such, Schauffele only had one shot available: to try to play it towards the green, parallel to the fence.
But in his way sat a Shotlink Tower, so Schauffele received free relief.
“My ball was probably like a foot, two feet from the fence,” Schauffele explained.
“If I went towards the green, the fence worked the same way, so I had what I could hit, a 4-iron or something low, and just kind of run it through. If it gets stuck, I’ll just kind of hit my next one out.
“But I brought the rules official in there with me because I was like, ‘You’ve got to be okay with this because this is literally the only shot I can hit.’ So Austin and I moved two massive rocks that weren’t embedded and then I got relief out of the junk [from the Shotlink Tower] and then hit a pretty good shot on the green from there. What was a very stressful moment turned into a pretty stressless par.”
Somehow, someway, Schauffele walked away from the 8th with a two-putt par unscathed.
He went on to make birdie on the par-4 9th, his sixth of the day to card a 7-under 64 to sit atop the leaderboard.
“Clean for most of the day,” Schauffele assessed.
“The 8th was—it got a little gritty there trying to swing hard. It’s the opposite of what I’ve been trying to do all week.”
Schauffele went on to explain how, in the age of speed and power, he is working to dial it back to find more fairways. He actually employed this tactic on the par-5 7th hole, hitting a baby cut to find the fairway. That, of course, led to his near albatross.
“It’s fun to sort of try and hit it far, but on courses like this, hitting it far is helpful as long as it’s straight,” Schauffele added.
“If I can sacrifice a little bit of distance just to hit the fairway, I’m definitely going to do it.”
He should have done that on the 8th hole, but luckily avoided disaster thanks to a set of fortuitous breaks.
Accuracy supersedes distance on this major championship layout, which will host the PGA Championship next year. Schauffele knows that and will rely on that strategy over the next 54 holes—or at least try to.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.