Renaissance Club provides perfect venue

The Renaissance Club at North Berwick in Scotland provided a splendid venue for the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open.  With glistening water as a backdrop, a mass of players from around the world congregated here for this tournament before the all-so-important 150th Open Championship at St Andrews later this week.  And for a 28-year old golfer from San Diego, USA his dream came true.  Xander Schauffele, who turned professional in 2015, scooped the victory from fellow American Kurt Kitayama by one tiny shot.  Schauffele shot an aggregate of 7-under par, 273 with rounds of 72, 65, 66 and 70.

 

 

 

Kurt Kitayama scored an impressive round of 4-under par 66 on Sunday at the Renaissance Club to soar up the leaderboard.  The 29-year old from Chico led the tournament at this point.  He was in a share of the lead with Schauffele who still had seven holes to play.  Behind them were Englishman Tommy Fleetwood together with Patrick Cantlay (USA) who had both scored 67s on the final day to get to 4-under for the tournament.  Americans Jordan Spieth, Max Homa and Brandon Wu were also in the limelight with an expected top-10 finish.  Jamie Donaldson from Wales was pretty proud of his position too.  With a little bit of luck he would finish 8th, or better.

 

 

Patience is a virtue

 

Schauffele began his final round with two birdies but then somehow seemed to lose sight of victory.  Bogeys followed at the 6th, 7th and 9th holes which looked to have cost him the Scottish Open.  However, he settled down with four straight pars from the 10th to then make birdies at the 14th and 16th holes.  Just two good closing holes and the Scottish Open trophy would be his.  He made a par at the 204 yard, par-3 17th which then left him with a relatively straight-forward 483-yard par-4 18th to consider.  He finally had two putts to secure the win – one of which narrowly-shaved the hole.  In the end, victory was Xander Schauffele’s by one stroke with a level par 70.  One small stroke for victory in the Genesis Scottish Open is all that it takes sometimes.

 

For the American player, this is his 7th victory on Tour in an event which is co-sanctioned by the European Tour and the PGA Tour.  Xander Schauffele is the 5th American winner of the Genesis Scottish Open in its lengthy history since it was first played in 1935. It was then that Percy Alliss, the father of the late golf commentator and professional golfer Peter Alliss, won the tournament with a score of 273.

 

The best Europeans

 

With so many Americans on this side of the pond for the Open Championship, it is interesting to note who the best Europeans were at North Berwick.  England’s Tommy Fleetwood claimed a share of 4th spot with American Patrick Cantlay on 4-under par.  Jamie Donaldson (Wales) snatched 6th place along with US Open Champion from England Matt Fitzpatrick, and Americans Brandon Wu and Cameron Tringale on 3-under.  So where did the best Scottish player finish?  In fact, there were two of them.  Connor Syme and Russel Knox finished in a tie for 42nd with three other players on 3-over.

 

For the winner of the Olympic Golf Event in 2020, Xander Schauffele is in an awesome mood to take this triumphant feeling of victory to St Andrews this week.  Just across the water, the last Major of the season, the 150th Open Championship, takes place in Scotland The Home of Golf on Thursday until Sunday, 17th July.  The 28-year old golfer from San Diego must be licking his lips with utter glee!

 

Wendy Hoad

Editor

 

 

CHECK OUT your favourite players in the Genesis Scottish Open leaderboard HERE.

 

MAIN PHOTOGRAPH:  Xander Schauffele delights in his Scottish Open victory. MINIS (l-r): Kurt Kitayama and Xander Schauffele. BELOW: Jordan Spieth.