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PGA Championship 2019: Five players who could win their first major

By Brandon Raper

FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK - MAY 15: EDITORS NOTE: A POLARIZING FILTER WAS USED TO CAPTURE THIS IMAGE. Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks on the 16th green during a practice round prior to the 2019 PGA Championship at the Bethpage Black course on May 15, 2019 in Farmingdale, New York. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK - MAY 15: EDITORS NOTE: A POLARIZING FILTER WAS USED TO CAPTURE THIS IMAGE. Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks on the 16th green during a practice round prior to the 2019 PGA Championship at the Bethpage Black course on May 15, 2019 in Farmingdale, New York. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images) /
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Xander Schauffele PGA Championship
FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK – MAY 15: Xander Schauffele of the United States warms up during a practice round prior to the 2019 PGA Championship at the Bethpage Black course on May 15, 2019 in Farmingdale, New York. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /

First things first: I have no idea if Xander Schauffele actually enjoys the nickname “X Man”, but it was either that or a DMX reference. Since he used the latter on his website, I went the other way.

Names aside, it’s a safe bet that people don’t have many issues pronouncing Schauffele’s real name anymore. The 25-year-old is already a four-time PGA TOUR winner, including two high-profile events this year in the WGC-HSBC Champions and the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

Schauffele has missed just one cut in 12 starts this season, with four top-tens and nine top-25 finishes overall. As great as those two victories were earlier this year, the biggest moment of his career to date may have been at the Masters, where he was within one shot of Tiger Woods with two to play. Destiny can be a funny thing, though as Woods made birdie on 16 to stretch the lead to two, and Schauffele was unable to find birdies on either of the last two holes.

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Still, if that doesn’t give him the biggest confidence boost ever, I don’t know what will.

The stats line up well for Schauffele, which isn’t surprising when you look at his results so far this year. He’s a long enough hitter, and while he misses probably more greens than he should, it’s balanced with strong iron play. Xander is 28th in greens in regulation, 39th in scrambling and 49th in strokes gained putting. He’s not blowing people away, but he’s not giving it back, either.

Here’s the part I like though: Xander Schauffele is a closer. He averages roughly 70.40 in the first two rounds of a tournament (89th in Round 1 average, 68th in Round 2). But he’s almost two full shots better on the weekend, averaging 68.60 in third rounds (11th) and 68.20 in the final round (fifth).

He’s also the owner of the fourth-best score to par of all players to play the last four majors. His 16-under mark trails only Brooks Koepka (-25), Tiger Woods (-22), and Francesco Molinari (-17). Considering those are the winners of the last four majors played, I’d say that’s pretty good standing. And it’s why I like Xander Schauffele the best of the potential first-time major winners this week at the PGA Championship.

Next. 2019 PGA Championship dark horse contenders. dark

It’s going to be a great week at Bethpage Black. Maybe an even better week for one of these five players!

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