2021 Players Championship: Top 10 power rankings at TPC Sawgrass
The Players Championship is a tough tournament for first-timers. Xander Schauffele didn’t get the memo in 2018.
At age 24, he finished T-2nd (68-68-71-67) thanks to an expert ball-striking week. He hit 66.07% fairways and 72.22% greens in regulation. His 274 aggregate score would have won the Players all but one time between 2011-2017.
The mercurial nature of the Players Championship reared its head for Schauffele as he posted 70-74 to miss the cut by one in 2019.
The former San Diego State Aztec hit 13 greens on the way to shooting 70 in round one last year.
If conditions are favorable for low scoring, that’s fine for Schauffele. The Californian ranks seventh on the PGA Tour in birdies per round (4.75). Not to mention, he’s fourth in par-5 scoring (4.43).
The most noteworthy current winless drought is obviously Tony Finau’s, but Schauffele’s is getting concerning.
Remarkably consistent play moved him into the top five in the world at the beginning of the year. Still, he hasn’t won since the 2019 Tournament of Champions. Schauffele’s racked up seven runner-ups in the interim. Two came in 2021 at the Farmers Insurance Open and Phoenix Open.
He’s made 15 straight cuts going back to January 2020 at the Farmers Insurance Open.
The X Man ranks 37th or better on the PGA Tour in every strokes gained category, totaling out to second overall (2.107).
Schauffele is coming off a week off after earning T-39th at the WGC-Workday Championship.