Wells Fargo: Xander Schauffele close to albatross, drop soars him to high

Xander Schauffele had doses of talent and luck down the stretch on Thursday on the Wells Fargo Championship.

Having began the day on the tenth gap, Schauffele ended his opening spherical on the entrance 9. As such, on his sixteenth gap of the day—the par-5 seventh—Schauffele hit considered one of his finest photographs of the yr.

From 219 yards out, Schauffele laced a 6-iron that painted the flag stick. His ball landed a number of toes earlier than the cup, teased it, after which lipped out. Had his shot landed an inch to the proper, he seemingly would have made the uncommon albatross: a two on a par-5.

As a substitute, he settled for an eagle, which put him within the solo lead at 6-under par.

Issues bought very fascinating on the subsequent gap, the quick par-4 eighth.

Schauffele rifled his drive solution to the proper and into the timber, simply his worst swing of the day. His ball got here to relaxation someplace within the woods, so Schauffele hit a provisional, pondering he had misplaced his ball.

However his enjoying associate, Wyndham Clark, discovered it amongst the timber.

“Obtained actually fortunate a number of occasions,” Schauffele mentioned after.

Certainly, he did.

“The volunteer was by the Shotlink tower, and he mentioned he heard it land within the hazard, so everybody was wanting within the hazard,” Schauffele additional defined.

Picture by Andrew Redington/Getty Pictures

“Then Wyndham went additional up and located the ball. Wyndham mentioned, ‘I feel that’s your ball,’ so I walked up, recognized it, and went from there.”

Not solely did Clark discover it, however Schauffele had considerably of an opportunity. However to play his second shot, he and his caddy—Austin Kaiser—needed to transfer huge rocks in the best way of his stance. He additionally had a fence straight adjoining to his ball, making issues tougher.

As such, Schauffele solely had one shot obtainable: to attempt to play it in direction of the inexperienced, parallel to the fence.

However in his approach sat a Shotlink Tower, so Schauffele acquired free reduction.

“My ball was in all probability like a foot, two toes from the fence,” Schauffele defined.

“If I went in direction of the inexperienced, the fence labored the identical approach, so I had what I might hit, a 4-iron or one thing low, and simply sort of run it via. If it will get caught, I’ll simply sort of hit my subsequent one out.

“However I introduced the foundations official in there with me as a result of I used to be like, ‘You’ve bought to be okay with this as a result of that is actually the one shot I can hit.’ So Austin and I moved two huge rocks that weren’t embedded after which I bought reduction out of the junk [from the Shotlink Tower] after which hit a fairly good shot on the inexperienced from there. What was a really annoying second become a fairly stressless par.”

Someway, someway, Schauffele walked away from the eighth with a two-putt par unscathed.

He went on to make birdie on the par-4 ninth, his sixth of the day to card a 7-under 64 to take a seat atop the leaderboard. He leads by three.

“Clear for many of the day,” Schauffele assessed.

“The eighth was—it bought just a little gritty there attempting to swing arduous. It’s the alternative of what I’ve been attempting to do all week.”

Schauffele went on to elucidate how, within the age of pace and energy, he’s working to dial it again to search out extra fairways. He truly employed this tactic on the par-5 seventh gap, hitting a child minimize to search out the green. That, after all, led to his close to albatross.

“It’s enjoyable to form of attempt to hit it far, however on programs like this, hitting it far is useful so long as it’s straight,” Schauffele added.

“If I can sacrifice just a little little bit of distance simply to hit the green, I’m undoubtedly going to do it.”

He ought to have performed that on the eighth gap, however fortunately prevented catastrophe due to a set of fortuitous breaks.

Accuracy supersedes distance on this main championship structure, which is able to host the PGA Championship subsequent yr. Schauffele is aware of that and can depend on that technique over the subsequent 54 holes—or not less than attempt to.

Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying Via. You should definitely take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.