Xander Schauffele looks to finish strong at Farmers Insurance
Xander Schauffele continues his good PGA Tour play in the 2020-21 season, and looks to card another top-five finish, this time at the Farmers Insurance.
He has only played five events so far on the PGA Tour this year, but he has played well at all of them. T-5, 2nd, T-17, T-17, and T-5. Through two rounds it looked as if he was going to break the streak. That’s why we play the weekend though.
Xander Schauffele shot the second-best round of the day Saturday and jumped from 40th to a T-12th.
The good round came at the perfect time, as there weren’t that many people at the Farmers Insurance that played great on Saturday. Carlos Ortiz was the only one that shot better with his score of 66. Xander and Henrik Norlander tied for the next best at 68, and everyone else was at 69 or higher.
Norlanders was a pretty standard good round and was spread out nicely. He didn’t do anything in bunches. He started on the 10th hole, spaced his birdies around, and by the end of the day had climbed, exactly as Schauffele did, from 40th to T-12th.
They sit there tied with Finau, Shelton, and Malnati, all of them chasing the two atop the leaderboard in Patrick Reed and Carlos Ortiz.
Like Norlander, Xander Schauffele started off on the 10th as well, but his round took a while for the scoring to start. Seven straight pars would go down on the card before any action would be found. He would knock his approach from 173 yards out to just three feet, and drain his first birdie of the day, before going quiet again for three more holes.
Then, Xander would turn it on.
A great tee shot on the par-3 3rd hole would land just inside nine feet, and he would knock it home. The irons stayed strong, and from 167 yards out on the next hole, he would get it to just inside six feet, rolling home back-to-back birdies.
He did have a look for the eagle at the par 5 6th hole, but it was pretty unobtainable at 65 feet. He pulled it a bit and had some work left to do from eight feet, but would make the putt for his third birdie in four holes, and the fourth one of the day.
Next. Farmers Insurance Open: Incredible group chasing at -8. dark
Watch for Xander to try and make some more noise during the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open Sunday. Making it all the way to the top of the leaderboard might be too much to ask, but don’t be surprised to see him card another top-five finish.