Xander Schauffele laughs off 'meltdown' quadruple-bogey 8 at ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP
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“The damage is already done,” Austin Kaiser said. "You can’t keep hitting it right there.”
Xander Schauffele laughed at what his long-time caddie said. He took an unplayable. And his day went on.
It was an odd thing to see from the world No. 2 – a pair of swipes at a ball against a tree root, moving a grand total of 1 inch – but Schauffele shrugged it off. He had to. A quadruple-bogey 8 on the par-4 ninth in the opening round of the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP means he’s got a hole to climb out of over the next three days.
But he at least was able to find some humor in the situation of his making.
“I wanted to take a photo of it almost, how bad it was,” Schauffele said.
Xander Schauffele’s interview after Round 1 of ZOZO
After making par on the first eight holes of the day, Schauffele hit his drive 288 yards on No. 9 – ranked the hardest hole on the course – and found himself in a particularly poor location.
Schauffele said he thought he had a chance to bunt something along and back towards the fairway, but it was not to be.
“I should have just taken an unplayable, but I was an idiot and tried to hit it,” Schauffele said with a smile. “Then I was stubborn and then tried to hit it again, then finally took an unplayable. I was going to hit it a third time too just because, but yeah, it was a bad spot.”
After Schauffele finally did drop, he laid up to 103 yards and then knocked a wedge to about 13 feet. He two-putted from there for an 8.
Xander Schauffele cards quadruple bogey from tree root at ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP
Schauffele led the TOUR in Bogey Avoidance and said Thursday in Japan it had been “like a year” since he had “a meltdown” like that.
“All you can do is laugh at it at that point because it's just terrible,” Schauffele said. “I thought at worst I would hit the ball, hit the tree and go somewhere.
“The worst thing that could have happened, happened twice. Just a combination of being overconfident and being really stubborn and it sometimes pays off for me in tournaments and today it bit me in the ass.”
Schauffele went on to make one birdie on the back nine, on the par-3 12th, to come in with a 3-over 73.
“If this was Sunday and I was in a really good spot and hit my ball — I don't know how it ended up there," he reflected. "I don't even know if it hit someone. It was really in a crevasse — (but) if it was Sunday I would be pissed. Today I'm just trying to brush it off. I've got three more days in front of me.”
Taylor Moore leads at 7-under after Thursday’s opener at ACCORDIA GOLF Narashino Country Club.