'Most Fun I Had Losing In Quite Some Time' - Schauffele After FedEx Cup Runner-Up
Schauffele was encouraged by his performance in the Tour Championship, even though he couldn’t catch in-form Viktor Hovland
Xander Schauffele carded a final round 62 in the Tour Championship, but it still wasn’t enough to catch a dominant Viktor Hovland, who claimed the title and, with it, his first FedEx Cup.
Hovland went into the final round six ahead of Schauffele. However, the American couldn’t have done much more to make the Norwegian worry, with a bogey-free final round that included eight birdies as he finished the tournament 22 under.
Despite those heroics, though, Schauffele still couldn’t narrow the gap further than three shots at any point, as Hovland produced a bogey-free round of his own to finish on 27 under and claim the $18m first prize.
Even with the disappointment of missing out on a second Tour Championship title, though, Schauffele admitted that, as defeats go, it was among the best. Following his final round at East Lake, Schauffele said: ”Yeah, I'll hold my head up high. It was the most fun I had losing in quite some time.
“It's such a weird feeling. I shot 62. I lost by five. Just kudos to Havi. He played unbelievably well the last few weeks to get himself into this position and to really just put a cherry on top for himself and his team.”
Schauffele hasn't won on the PGA Tour since the 2022 Travelers Championship, but he can look back on another solid season, with 11 top-10 finishes, while he has been in the world’s top 10 throughout.
Looking ahead, next month sees a second outing in the Ryder Cup for Schauffele, where he hopes to help Team USA defend the title it won at Whistling Straits two years ago.
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Schauffele revealed he’s confident he’ll be ready for the challenge. He said: "It's five weeks away, so I'm going to take some time off and I'm going to have to rebuild that confidence come Italy and the Ryder Cup.
“But, yeah, I think it's definitely - I think we're working on - my team and I, we're working on the right stuff to get these results. Kind of playing sort of whatever coming into the playoffs to sort of peak and play really well at the right time is important, and so I think we're working on the right things.”
With Hovland confirmed as one of the Team Europe players, Schauffele will hope revenge comes soon enough.
Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories.
He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game.
Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course.
Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.
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