Xander Schauffele, at just age 27, has already won $23 million on the golf course and even has an Olympic gold medal. Weekend hackers can’t relate to that — even though they’d love to — but in the first round of the BMW Championship on Thursday, Schauffele was finally relatable. He did something normal golfers do far too often.
Schauffele hit his approach to the par-4 11th hole at Caves Valley and then went to grab his putter, but Schauffele and caddie Austin Kaiser realized it wasn’t in the bag. Then it clicked.
“Yeah, that’s my fault,” Schauffele told reporters afterward. “I went to go use the restroom [after 10] and left my putter up against the Port-a-John. I thought he grabbed it, which is my fault, and then I didn’t look, which is my fault again, so I had like a triple whammy there. And then he had to run back.”
This common golf error happens often at your typical muni, either with putters resting against portable restrooms or wedges sprawled out on or around greens, but it’s not a common misstep for pro golfers. But they are human, too.
With no cart to jump into or golf course marshal to wave down, Kaiser had to sprint back and secure the trusty putter. When he got back to the 11th green he played to the crowd, flinging his arms out like he was crossing a finish line.
“It was nice that the crowd got him going coming in because he was huffing and puffing,” Schauffele said.
Schauffele had just 5 feet, 11 inches for birdie, but he missed the putt, “so it was really not a good hole for me,” he said.
Schauffele opened the second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs with a five-under 67 and starts the second round three shots off the lead.