Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman share ‘bath of misery’

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The roll of a ball.

The cut of a hole.

A breath of wind.

Wyndham Clark (69), Brian Harman (68) and overnight leader Xander Schauffele (70) could point to any or all of these things. They could lose sleep, lose their minds, gnash their teeth over the margin that left them in a three-way tie for second place behind THE PLAYERS Championship repeat winner Scottie Scheffler (64).

One lousy stroke.

“My dad told me a long time ago to commit, execute and accept,” said Schauffele, who led most of Sunday but could not overcome bogeys on 14 and 15 while Scheffler surged. “I'm swallowing a heavy dose of acceptance right now, but that's kind of what I did. I tried to commit, I executed poorly on some shots, and here I am accepting it.”

If all three players had the luxury of a mulligan, Schauffele might have chosen his birdie try from 6 feet, 8 inches at the par-3 17th hole, his ball sliding by the left side.

“I started it a bit left of my line,” he said.

Clark, conversely, didn’t do much wrong in his birdie try from just over 17 feet at the last, where his ball fell into the left side of the hole, curled around the back edge, and came back out the right side. The crowd groaned as Clark put his hand over his mouth, turned his back, and removed his cap.

He was that close to going birdie, birdie, birdie to force a playoff.

“You finish second, you get a bunch of points and money and all that stuff,” Clark said, “But it just sucks."

“But yeah, I don't know, I'm still a little beside myself,” Clark added. “I'm still shocked that putt didn't go in.”

Harman could have caught Scheffler with a birdie on any of the last three holes but could only manage pars. He drove into the pine straw left on 16, hit an indifferent tee shot to just inside 30 feet for birdie on 17, and wound up in the pine straw right of the fairway on 18. Still, he managed to get his approach shot to within birdie range – 17 feet, 4 inches away, the same distance Clark would have moments later.

Alas, Harman’s birdie try wasn’t close, missing on the low side.

“I wish I could have the drive on 16 back,” Harman said. “I wish I could have the putt on 18 back.”

Really, though, he could have used a do-over on his entire first round. He shot an even-par 72 when the course was ripe for such low scoring that Rory McIlroy racked up 10 birdies.

“I kind of shot myself in the foot the first day or I could have really done something special this week,” Harman continued. “Just shot even par. My prep was more like what I've done the last three days, and the first day I just couldn't get anything going. I was tied for 75th place … so it's hard to come back from that.”

But he did, sort of, and Harman was the most sanguine of the three runner-up finishers.

Clark was the most shocked. He had shot back-to-back 65s in the first two rounds to build a four-shot lead, the second largest 36-hole lead in PLAYERS history. He’d lost his touch on the greens Sunday, losing close to two strokes to the field after making most everything he looked at over the first 36 holes. And now he’d finished second again, just as he did at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard.

“I hope that maybe these shortcomings in these last couple weeks lead to something greater,” he said, when coaxed to find a silver lining. “I'm really looking forward to what's ahead.”

Schauffele had gone 3-under through 13 holes to keep his nose out front, which perhaps explained why he was the most forthright about his disappointment. With one hand on the trophy, he went 1-over through the last five holes. It was his best PLAYERS finish since the tournament moved to March, and yet it still wasn’t how he’d imagined the day going. Would he look back and rue a lip-out, like Clark, or some other bad break?

No, he said. He vowed to take the long view – eventually.

“I'm sure we're bathing in a similar bath right now of misery,” Schauffele said.

The roll of a ball. One shot. You’ll see it in the agate type, the FedExCup points, the earnings. But everything else – the wicked physics of Clark’s second-to-last putt; Harman’s oddly listless Thursday; Schauffele’s frustrating last five holes – will be tougher to quantify and harder still to get over. In sports, it always is.