It was an oftentimes chaotic leaderboard at the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon, but when all was said and done, it was Xander Schauffele who would go on to capture the claret jug, shooting a 6 under par final round to finish at -9 for the weekend.
The victory is Schauffele’s 2nd major of the year after previously winning the PGA Championship at Valhalla back in May. With the win, he becomes the first golfer since Brooks Koepka in 2018 to capture two major championships in the same season.
After beginning the day 1 shot back of leader Billy Horschel, Schauffele caught fire in his final round, finishing two shots clear of Horschel and Justin Rose who each carded -7 totals for the event. The reigning PGA champion shot a bogey free round of 65, with 4 birdies over a 6 hole stretch on the back 9 to distance himself from the pack.
Hitting 16 of 18 greens in regulation meant that Schauffele was consistently putting for birdie, and giving little ground up to the competition to make things interesting down the stretch.
Rounding out the top 5 were Thriston Lawrence (-6) and Russell Henley (-5). Rose, who finished in a tie for 2nd, actually had to qualify for the tournament in an event earlier this month, but put together a solid round of 4 under par to climb up the leaderboard on Sunday.
But Schauffele wasn’t about to be caught over the final few holes. For his efforts, the 30 year old American will take home $3.1M from the tournament’s record $17M purse.
Up next for the PGA Tour is the TPC Twin Cities event in Blaine, Minnesota.
Photo: G Laird. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.