The China Mail - Schauffele battles doubts to end title drought in Japan

The American won his first title of the year after finishing one stroke clear of Max Greyserman at Yokohama Country Club, following a seven-under final round of 64 containing eight birdies and one bogey.

It ended a trophy-less spell for Schauffele stretching back to his win at the British Open last year, which came two months after he claimed his first major at the PGA Championship.

The 31-year-old struggled with injuries at the start of this year and he said he was not sure he would be able to return to his best form.

"Definitely had doubts," said Schauffele, who won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021.

"I think every player in any sport, at some point in time you feel like you're on top of the world and then you feel like, not that you've lost it, but you feel less confident.

"I have a really good team around me, they pick me up when I'm down."

Schauffele said the 10th PGA Tour win of his career had come "sooner than I thought".

"I was running out of events in 2025 to sort of put my mark on it," he said.

"I'm sure when I look back on 2025 at the end of my career, I'll smile and think it was a great year."

Schauffele, who was part of the losing US Ryder Cup team two weeks ago, began the final round tied for the lead with Greyserman.

The pair were quickly joined by Michael Thorbjornsen after the 24-year-old American eagled the par-five fourth hole.

Schauffele took the sole lead after the 14th hole and he never looked back, moving two shots ahead with a nerveless birdie on the 17th.

Greyserman made a last-gasp bid to make up lost ground but his eagle attempt on the final hole pulled up agonisingly short.

- 'Plenty nervous' -

Schauffele said he was "plenty nervous" as he rolled home the winning putt.

"It's been over a year since I was even looking at winning a golf tournament," he said.

"So I was probably just as nervous or more nervous than they were just because I knew I'd done it before and I had to dig kind of deep into my memory to do it again."

Greyserman was looking for his first PGA Tour title after finishing as runner-up four times, including at last year's tournament in Japan.

The 30-year-old said he could take his latest second place "a few different ways".

"Another second would be one thought, disappointed would be another thought, but also on the flip side I could say I played really well," he said.

"I shot 65 on Sunday when I was tied for the lead and in the last group, so a lot of good."

Thorbjornsen finished third, three strokes behind Schauffele.

Schauffele's Ryder Cup teammate Collin Morikawa finished tied for 14th on 10-under par.

Japan's Hideki Matsuyama was in a share of 20th place on eight-under.

American Matt McCarty shot the round of the day, rattling in an incredible 12 birdies to card a 60.

McCarty, who birdied eight straight holes on the back nine, bogeyed the 18th to deny him the rare feat of a sub-60 round.

The Baycurrent Classic is the only US PGA Tour event currently staged in Asia.

It was previously known as the Zozo Championship and first held in 2019 when Tiger Woods was the inaugural champion. Matsuyama won it in 2021.

L.Kwan--ThChM