Olympic champion Schauffele enters 150th Open Championship among the favorites

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland - Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele begins his quest for a first major tournament victory at the 150th Open Championship playing in one Thursday’s featured groups, alongside Rory McIlroy and defending champion Collin Morikawa.

The accomplished threesome is off on the venerable Old Course at 9:58 am local time.

McIlroy may have four major tournament victories to his credit and Morikawa two, including last year at Sandwich, but Schauffele arrives at St. Andrews as the hottest pro golfer on the planet, riding an impressive string of three consecutive victories.

Schauffele won the Genesis Scottish Open in nearby North Berwick by one stroke just three days ago, following a victory at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut on June 26. Sandwiched in between the two triumphs, was yet another win at the 36-hole J.P. McManus Pro-Am in Ireland.

The Olympic champion’s toughest test this week is discovering and figuring out as many of the countless tricky and problematic nuances of the legendary Old Course as feasible. Schauffele is competing at St. Andrews for the very first time on a links course that three-time Open champion Jack Nicklaus called “the hardest course to learn in all of golf.”

Schauffele played his final practice round heading out late Wednesday morning, joining fellow American Patrick Cantlay and Dutchman Lars van Meijel. The trio battled fiercely breezy conditions whipping off Scotland’s North Sea, as wind gusts blew in excess of 35 km/hr. The trio called it a day after nine holes.

“I’ve never played the Old Course, so I have a lot of homework to do,” Schauffele said, earlier this week prior to teeing it up on Monday. “Assuming I ever could completely ‘learn’ the Old Course, it would take me a lot of rounds to do so

“I’m not really one to get too excited to go to a new golf course, but I’m pretty excited for this one,” he said, after the Scottish Open triumph in North Berwick, which is located due south of St. Andrews, but separated by the Firth of Fore waterway.

At the Scottish Open, Schauffele defeated a stellar field that featured 14 of the world’s top 15 players. Just as impressive, Schauffele righted the ship after he dropped 11 shots off the lead, after posting an opening round 72, having taken on the harshest conditions of the week at the Renaissance Club. He held off tour rookie Kurt Kitayama, a practice partner of his back home in Las Vegas, in Sunday’s final round for his seventh PGA Tour victory.

“I’ve played a bit and I need a rest, and I need to get ready for the week,” Schauffele admitted after the win. “I’m not even thinking about Sunday quite yet. I need to prepare,” he said, regarding The Open on the hallowed links course. “Going to rely a lot on my caddie to do that – I’m tired.”

Although Schauffele had never set foot on the Old Course until Monday, he first visited St. Andrews four years ago, one day after finishing runner-up at The Open in Carnoustie, around the Firth of Fore and up the coast. He started the final round with a share of the lead, but made a costly bogey on 17, shooting a disappointing 74 and losing by two strokes to Italian Francesco Molinari.

Schauffele may have been too dismayed over the heartbreaking loss to play the Old Course immediately thereafter, but just the allure of seeing the home of golf for the first time was inspiring. He caught a glimpse of St. Andrews famed 18th hole that finishes in town, the setting where legends like Bobby Jones, Seve Ballesteros, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods all have hoisted the Claret Jug.

“You just want to become part of that history,” Schauffele said.

Perhaps also in Schauffele’s favor this week is his impressive track record in major tournament play. And while he is still seeking major victory number one, the 28-year-old former PGA Tour rookie of the year can fall back on the experience of four top-three finishes and nine finishes among the top-ten. In addition to his tied-for-second place showing at Carnoustie in 2018, Schauffele also finished tied for second at the Masters in 2018.

And after Schauffele’s win at the Travelers Championship last month, he admitted the Olympic title last summer in Tokyo was a huge catalyst. “It feels really good - I only had the Olympics to fall back on, having a lead and closing it,” he said about the victory. “I’ve never done it on the PGA Tour. “To have that experience from Japan, I really tapped into that.”

Can Schauffele be stopped this week? Considering his current form, rising confidence levels becoming a true closer, previous results and near misses in professional golf’s four most cherished events, it appears that the timing is right for Schauffele to finally add a major tournament victory to Olympic gold.

Follow Brian Pinelli on Twitter - @Brian_Pinelli