Xander Schauffele can delight his grandparents in Japan according to Matt Cooper, who previews the final round of the Baycurrent Classic.
If nothing else, this week’s Baycurrent Classic has already been a fine advertisement for the host nation’s love of keeping fit and agile.
After he carded an excellent 4-under-par 67 to tie the 54-hole lead with Max Greyserman on 12-under 201, Xander Schauffele talked about his Japanese family that have been out supporting him this week. “My grandpa’s 91,” he said. “He’s here, gave him a big hug on Friday. My grandma’s 81. You know how the Japanese culture is, they’re very mobile for being old. My grandpa walked 18 holes no problem.”
Wonderful stuff and it’s been somewhat inspirational for Schauffele who wants to give his family something to cheer about and also (very) belatedly bump-start his 2025 form.
Of the former, he’s being understandably cautious. “It would be special obviously, my grandparents being here and my mom growing up here, but that’s far away in the future.” It’s only 24 hours but we know what he means. He’s also being cagey about the form: “It’s a tricky thing. It takes a while to grow and it goes away quickly. I’m just trying to put one block after the other and slowly gain confidence. This is the first time I’ve been in contention all year I believe, so it’s nice.”
He’s bang on there and the numbers are quite astounding. In 2024 he was top six with 18 holes to play in 12 of 23 starts. In seven of those he was top three and, of course, he converted wins in the PGA Championship and the Open. In 15 appearances this year he’s not been top six heading into a final round once – his best effort was eighth when defending his Open title at Royal Portrush.
Being back in Japan, where he won the Olympics in 2021, has provided a boost but he’s dug impressively deep in difficult conditions. “Round one felt like survival,” he said. “Round two felt like the course was pretty gettable, and today was survival again. The weather’s been tricky, so proud of the fight today and playing some good golf.”
If, until last year, Schauffele was a long-standing bridesmaid in the majors, the man he shares the lead with going into the final round is a long-term bridesmaid on the second and first tier. Greyserman has two seconds on the Korn Ferry Tour and four on the PGA Tour; the win has stubbornly refused to come.
He lost a play-off in the Rocket Classic in June and was runner-up in his event last year so there’s not a lot of dodging that pot-free background. “Am I going to think about last year during the round?” he asked himself after the third round. “No. Have I thought about it this week? Yeah, but I haven’t thought about it until you just brought it up.”
Understandably he’s trying to stay positive. “Anytime you don’t win or you fall short of your goal, I don’t think that’s a failure. Last year, I was in the final group on Sunday playing with a premier player and how did I handle that? I played a good round and I got beat. I thought I handled everything well, competed well and executed well, so that’s the plan for tomorrow.” He did, however, admit that he was “tired” after a grinding third round that saw a four shot halfway lead disappear.
The lead pair are three strokes clear of Michael Thorbjornsen, Byeong Hun An, Garrick Higgo, Si Woo Kim and the defending champion Nico Echavarria with Min Woo Lee and Sahith Theegala four back on 8-under.
The final round forecast does not include the rain which made Saturday so difficult, but the blustery winds that have made the long game tricky should remain a constant. It’s been tough at times this week and Greyserman says that the 7,315-yard course has played long. XANDER SCHAUFFELE is just a very good grinder and we’ll take him at odds against (Greyserman is a best price 14/5).
We’ll add NICO ECHAVARRIA and on the one hand it’s just about price: he’s the outsider of the five players sharing third. Thorbjornsen has undoubted potential but is yet to win, An has been looking for the first PGA Tour win for a very long time, Kim has oddly only ever won on Bermuda greens, and, at least on what they’ve achieved so far, Higgo is not a fundamentally a better player.
The Chilean’s four wins (two on the second tier, two on the first) have all come when he led at this stage which is a problem as is a somewhat wild record in final rounds (he tends to fly or fall flat on his face). But that capacity to go low is tempting. He talked at the start of the week of assuming a mentality of ruining the party last year when beating the crowd favourite Justin Thomas and he talked again after his third round of adopting an underdog mode. Revive that and he could give an even bigger fan favourite Schauffele a run for his money.
Posted at 1040 BST on 11/10/25
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