When Xander Schauffele needed to make a six-footer on the 71st hole of the Players Championship last week, he faltered.
Schauffele barely scared the hole after a nearly perfect tee shot on island green par-3 17th when he was trailing Scottie Scheffler by one stroke.
Scheffler started the final day five back of Schauffele and ended up finishing nearly an hour before him while hanging on for the win.
Fast forward a week and Schauffele is in Scheffler’s position at the Valspar Championship, having gone out more than two hours before the leaders and posting eight under in the clubhouse at Innisbrook.
“Kind of an awkward holding pattern,” Schaffuele said after finishing his round. “I’m going to sit and creep the leaderboard, maybe catch some basketball as well, just to distract myself a bit, but for the most part just hang around.”
When Schauffele finished, he trailed just two golfers, overnight leader Keith Mitchell and Mackenzie Hughes, who were both at nine under on the front nine.
“I’m not expecting too much to happen,” Schauffele said. “Everyone’s pretty darn good at this game. I’ll keep an eye on it and hope for the best, but overall just happy with where I stand.”
Peter Malnati emotional after first PGA Tour win in more than 8 years
If Schauffele has anything going for him, it’s Copperhead’s difficult finishing stretch, the “Snake Pit.” Mitchell became the first player to play the “Snake Pit” in four under on Saturday when he holed his second at the 18th.
But Schaffuele is sitting back and watching the final nine with an open mind.
“You just never know,” he said. “I don’t know where the wind’s supposed to sit and how much it’s supposed to blow. 16 is a fun hole, you know, into left-to-right. Then you have 17 into, kind of into right-to-left. Then 18 was kind of straight across. So if the wind switches and, you know, all those holes can kind of play awkwardly, very across, which is not the most favorable wind.”
The difference between Schauffele holding onto his clubhouse lead or not could be hundreds of thousands of dollars, like every week on the PGA Tour.
After Peter Malnati shot a final-round 67 to win, Schauffele ended up in a tie for fifth.
With that, here is a complete list of the 2024 Valspar Championship payouts for all 77 players who made the cut. The total purse is $8.3 million.
How much every player made at the 2024 Valspar Championship
(Final payouts will be updated at the conclusion of the tournament.)
1. Peter Malnati: $1,512,000
2. Cameron Young: $915,600
T3. Chandler Phillips $495,600
Mackenzie Hughes
T5. Xander Schauffele $298,725
Carl Yuan
Ryan Moore
Adam Hadwin
T9. Christiaan Bezuidenhout $237,300
K.H. Lee
11. Lucas Glover $212,100
T12. Billy Horschel $166,740
Taylor Moore
Chez Reavie
Scott Stallings
Kevin Roy
T17. Andrew Novak $104,020
Akshay Bhatia
Aaron Baddeley
Matti Schmid
Ben Griffin
Thomas Detry
Matt Wallace
Joseph Bramlett
Keith Mitchell
T26. Mac Meissner $60,060
Dylan Wu
Fred Biondi
Kevin Streelman
Lee Hodges
Cameron Champ
Seamus Power
T33. Sam Ryder $39,410
Robert MacIntyre
Stewart Cink
Max Greyserman
Justin Suh
Ryo Hisatsune
Adam Schenk
Eric Cole
Robby Shelton
Michael Kim
Tom Whitney
Brendon Todd
T45. Maverick McNealy $25,704
Sami Valimaki
Greyson Sigg
Kevin Dougherty
T49. Matt Kuchar $21,151.20
Joel Dahmen
Roger Sloan
Jorge Campillo
Adam Svensson
T54. Ryan Palmer $19,404
Alexander Bjork
Carson Young
Webb Simpson
Vince Whaley
Norman Xiong
Rico Hoey
T61. S.H. Kim $18,564
Chris Gotterup
Hayden Buckley
T64. Nick Taylor $18,060
Justin Thomas
Sam Stevens
T67. Harry Hall $17,388
Chan Kim
Parker Coody
Ben Martin
Doug Ghim
T72. Ryan Brehm $16,716
Callum Tarren
Hayden Springer
T75. Bronson Burgoon $16,212
Alejandro Tosti
David Skinns