Xander Schauffele wins WGC Champions in playoff

Bruced

American Xander Schauffele birdied the first extra hole to beat countryman Tony Finau in a playoff and win the WGC-HSBC Champions at the Sheshan International course on Sunday.

The 25-year-old scored a four-under-par 68 to finish with a 14 under 274 total, tied at the top of the leaderboard with Finau (71).

The PGA Tour event then needed to be decided by a playoff.

In the playoff, Schauffele birdied a shot putt and waited as Finau missed his much longer effort to hand the American victory in Shanghai.

“It means a lot,” Schauffele said afterwards. “Last season, I really wanted to win in my rookie year and wasn’t able to do that.”

“I felt like I was playing great all day… I felt like I was in control of my ball and kept my head down,” Schauffele added.

“When I signed my card I went ‘Oh wow, I went birdie-birdie to get into this playoff’. I was in a world of my own out there.”

Defending champion Justin Rose (72) of England finished third at 10 under, two strokes ahead of fourth-placed American Andrew Putnam (72) and Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat (71).

Leading final round scores:

274 -14 Xander Schauffele (USA) 66-71-69-68

Tony Finau (USA) 66-67-70-71

278 -10 Justin Rose (ENG) 69-67-70-72

280 -8 Kiradech Aphibarnrat (THA) 68-71-70-71

Andrew Putnam (USA) 70-71-67-72

281 -7 Keegan Bradley (USA) 69-70-70-72

283 -5 Thorbjorn Olesen (DEN) 75-69-67-72

Patrick Reed (USA) 64-72-70-77

Patrick Cantlay (USA) 70-68-73-72

Tommy Fleetwood (ENG) 68-68-72-75

284 -4 Jason Day (AUS) 71-70-69-74

Li Haotong (CHN) 73-72-69-70

Billy Horschel (USA) 68-72-71-73

285 -3 Emiliano Grillo (ARG) 70-69-74-72

Rafael Cabrera (ESP) 68-73-73-71

286 -2 Brooks Koepka (USA) 72-74-71-69

Paul Casey (ENG) 73-68-74-71

287 -1 Adam Scott (AUS) 69-73-72-73 

Thomas Pieters (BEL) 75-64-74-74

Alexander Norén (SWE) 74-69-71-73