Xander Schauffele watches a shot on the eighth hole Sunday during the final round of the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn. Schauffele shot a 2-under 68 and won by two strokes. Seth Wenig/Associated Press
CROMWELL, Conn. — Xander Schauffele celebrated his one-year wedding anniversary Sunday with a dramatic victory in the Travelers Championship.
The Olympic champion won with a three-stroke swing on the final hole, hitting to 3 feet for birdie after rookie Sahith Theegala took two shots to get out of a bunker and made a double bogey in the group ahead.
A stroke ahead entering the day, Schauffele finished with a 2-under 68 at TPC River Highlands to beat Theegala and J.T. Poston by two strokes. The Olympic champion had a 19-under 261 total.
“My mind was telling me to hit a good drive and then use your sand wedge or lob wedge in there and make birdie,” Schauffele said. “To sit there and watch what happened was a bit of a shock, obviously. I really had to try and focus on the task at hand.”
Theegala shot a 67, and Poston had a 64.
Schauffele won for the sixth time on the PGA Tour and the second this season after teaming with Patrick Cantlay to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in April. His last individual victory on tour was the Tournament of Champions in January 2019.
Theegala was lurking near the top of the leaderboard all day and grabbed a share of the lead on 15, driving the green on the par-4 hole and making a 4-foot birdie putt. He overtook Schauffele with an 11-footer for birdie on 17, pumping his fist.
But the former Pepperdine star hit his tee shot on 18 left and into the front lip of a fairway bunker. He needed two tries to get out of the bunker.
“Somehow my body just, I just straight bladed it,” he said. “I had room there. I don’t know how it looked, but I had room there. Just didn’t think I would let myself blade it. But I guess the moment was – and then from there it’s, like, got to try and make 5 now.”
His 12-foot bogey putt lipped out, and he fell to his knees in agony.
LPGA: In Gee Chun rallied after losing a once-sizeable lead, overcoming a bogey-filled front nine to win the Women’s PGA Championship in Bethesda, Maryland, when Lexi Thompson faltered with her putter.
Chun shot a 3-over 75 for the second consecutive day at Congressional, but that was enough to win her third major title by a stroke over Thompson and Minjee Lee. Chun, after leading by six at the tournament’s midway point, lost a three-shot advantage in the first three holes of the final round. Thompson was two strokes ahead after the front nine, but the 27-year-old Floridian bogeyed three of the last five holes. She botched a par putt from a couple feet on No. 14, then bogeyed the par-5 16th while Chun made birdie, leaving the two players tied with two holes remaining.
Thompson three-putted for bogey on 17, and after an impressive approach from the rough on 18, her birdie putt wasn’t hit firmly enough.
Chun’s approach on the par-4 18th bounced past the hole and just off the back of the green, but she putted to within about 5 feet and sank her par attempt to win the tournament. She finished at 5-under 283.
U.S. SENIOR OPEN: Padraig Harrington holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole just as his five-shot lead was about to vanish, and he closed with three tough pars for a 1-over 72 to hold off Steve Stricker in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Stricker, who started the final round eight shots behind, began making his run with consecutive birdies to finish the front nine, and he closed with two straight birdies for a 65.
That left him one shot behind, and Harrington held on for his first PGA Tour Champions victory.
Harrington had to two-putt from above the ridge a the 16th, and he trickled it down to a foot. He was well below a ridge from about 50 feet away on the par-3 17th and, after running his birdie try 6 feet past the hole, he calmly rolled in the par putt.
On the closing hole, he was pin-high but some 35 feet away with a spine running through the line of his putt. He cozied that to 3 feet and rapped it in for the win.
Harrington finished at 10-under 274.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Less than a year after he nearly retired from golf, Li Haotong earned his third European tour win, and first since 2018, at the BMW International Open in Munich.
Li beat Thomas Pieters with a 40-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole, after a shooting a 2-under 70 in regulation.
Pieters birdied the 18th hole to finish a 5-under 67 and match Li at 22 under.
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