Xander Schauffele had a rollercoaster of a final round at the Masters on Sunday, and the mistake he made on the 16th hole will likely haunt him for a very long time.
Hideki Matsuyama looked like he was going to cruise to a relaxing victory before he put his second shot into the water on the 15th hole. He made bogey, and Schauffele took advantage with a birdie on the par-5 to cut Matsuyama’s lead to just two strokes with three holes remaining. The pressure suddenly looked like it was on Matsuyama, but Schauffele was the one who felt it on the 16th tee.
Schauffele put his tee shot in the water on 16, which is always a fairly easy par-3 hole on Sunday at the Masters.
To make matters worse, Schauffele then re-teed and hit his third shot way over the back of the green. He ended up with a triple-bogey, which was his first in a major. Schauffele had previously gone 1,041 holes in majors without a triple-bogey.
Matsuyama bogeyed to go to 11-under, but Schauffele still fell two shots further off the lead with the disaster.
Water always seems to come into play on the final nine holes at the Masters. We even saw that with Tiger Woods last year ( video here) as he was trying to win back-to-back green jackets. It’s going to take Schauffele a while to get over that.
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