Wild Finish Propels Schauffele To Victory In Travelers Championship

CROMWELL, CT — For more than 40 years, the late Jim McKay told "Wide World of Sports" viewers about "the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat." Young golf pro Sahith Theegala nearly experienced the former Sunday during the final round of the Travelers Championship, but to his dismay, instead went through the latter.

Leading by one stroke and playing his final hole, Theegala hit his tee shot into a fairway bunker, barely made contact with the ball on his second shot, and left his third shot 86 yards from the pin. He lofted an approach shot which stopped 12 feet from the cup, but missed the putt for a double bogey 6.

Xander Schauffele, the 2020 Olympic gold medalist with five PGA Tour victories to his credit, suddenly found himself no longer trailing by a stroke, but leading by one. He boomed a 339-yard tee shot into the fairway, then stuck his approach shot three feet from the hole. A short putt later, he had upped his career win total to a half-dozen, and pocketed $1.494 million in the process.

"To sit there and watch sort of what happened was a bit of a shock obviously," Schauffele said. "I really had to try and focus on the task at hand. And sitting there waiting, sort of watching, not really knowing what's going on, but kind of having an idea is a strange thing. So was happy to just hit that tee shot straight down the fairway."

Theegala said, "I just straight bladed it. I had room there. I don't know how it looked, but I had room there. Just didn't think I would let myself blade it. But I guess the moment was - and then from there it's like, got to try and make 5 now. Had a little more room. And I did the same thought process. I nearly bladed it again."

Schauffele, who led by five strokes after opening with consecutive 63s, entered the final round with a 1-shot lead over playing partner Patrick Cantlay. After opening with four bogeys, two birdies and a par on the first seven holes, Cantlay pretty much fell out of contention when he shanked his tee shot on the par-3 8th hole into a pond in front of the tee box, though he did drain a 46-foot putt to salvage bogey.

Seegala began the day three strokes behind Schauffele, but birdied holes 1 and 9 to move to 16-under par. After another birdie at 13, he tied for the lead with a 2-putt birdie on the short par-4 15th, then claimed the outright lead with a birdie putt of just under 11 feet on 17.

The disastrous final hole dropped Seegala into a tie for second with first-round co-leader J.T. Poston.

"I putted well, drove it well, hit my irons good," Poston said. "But I would say the iron game was kind of similar to the first day, where I really hit a lot of good iron shots. For the most part I was pin high. Gave myself a lot of pretty good looks."

Amateur Michael Thorbjornsen of Wellesley, Mass. thrilled the crowd by placing fourth at 15-under, while Chesson Hadley fired a final-round 64 to wind up alone in fifth.

Thorbjornsen, who will be a junior at Stanford University this fall, said, "It got a little difficult there, two holes straight into the wind, mishit two drives there. But overall it was a lot of fun."

The complete scoreboard may be viewed here.