"It bit me in the ass"- How Xander Schauffele's overconfidence and stubbornness cost him at the Zozo Championship

Xander Schauffele's prospects of being a favorite to win the 2024 Zozo Championship have slipped away after just the first round. Despite getting off to a strong start, Schauffele encountered a disaster on a shot, which later became a quadruple bogey.

Xander Schauffele started off the tournament well and was on par halfway through. However, on the ninth hole, he hit his shot into the trees. Unfortunately for him, the ball got stuck near the base of the tree, making it impossible for him to play.

Instead of calling an unplayable shot, Schauffele made the mistake of attempting to get the shot out of the sticky situation. However, it cost him dearly, as he took a swing at it not once but twice. Eventually he did have to call the shot unplayable, but it led him to finish the hole with a quadruple bogey.

Speaking about it after the round, Schauffele said via Sports Illustrated:

“I thought at worst I would hit the ball, hit the tree and go somewhere. The worst thing happened, the worst thing that could have happened happened twice. Just a combination of being overconfident and being really stubborn and it sometimes pays off for me in tournaments and today it bit me in the ass."

Schauffele himself was left speechless after taking the shot, saying that he would have taken a photo of how poorly the ball landed.

“Yeah, overall, it was pretty low stress for the most part of the day. Like 85 percent of the day was not very stressful. No. 9 just, it was an incredible spot. I wanted to take a photo of it almost, how bad it was."

Schauffele finished his day with a score of +3, which is 10 shots behind the leader, Taylor Moore.

2024 Zozo Championship leaderboard ft. Xander Schauffele

Following is the leaderboard for the 2024 Zozo Championship, with Xander Schauffele finishing T70 alongside the likes of Max Homa.

1. Taylor Moore: -7
T2. Michael Greyserman: -6
T2. Nicolás Echavarría: -6
T2. Eric Cole: -6
T5. C.T. Pan: -5
T5. Kevin Yu: -5
T7. Rikuya Kinoshita: -4
T7. K.H. Lee: -4
T7. Justin Thomas: -4
T7. Taiga Shimizu: -4
T7. Takumi Kanaya: -4
T7. Beau Hossler: -4
T7. Jhonattan Vegas: -4
T7. Shugo Imahira: -4
T7. Zac Blair: -4
T16. Chad Ramey: -3
T16. Andrew Putnam: -3
T16. Mark Hubbard: -3
T16. Roger Hoey: -3
T16. S.H. Kim: -3
T16. Sam Stevens: -3
T22. Lee Hodges: -2
T22. Nick Taylor: -2
T22. S.W. Kim: -2
T22. Gary Woodland: -2
T22. Matt Kuchar: -2
T22. Naoto Kataoka: -2
T22. Ryo Ishikawa: -2
T22. Patrick Rodgers: -2
T22. J.J. Spaun: -2
T22. Rickie Fowler: -2
T22. Harry Hall: -2
T22. Andrew Novak: -2
T22. Yosuke Sugiura: -2
T35. Mac Meissner: -1
T35. Ryo Hisatsune: -1
T35. Victor Perez: -1
T35. Luke List: -1
T35. Kaito Hirata: -1
T35. Ben Silverman: -1
T35. Cameron Young: -1
T35. Yuki Katsuragawa: -1
T35. Min Woo Lee: -1
T35. Collin Morikawa: -1
T35. Seamus Power: -1
T35. Adam Schenk: -1
T35. Kurt Kitayama: -1
T48. Nate Lashley: E
T48. Sungjae Im: E
T48. Charley Hoffman: E
T48. Cole Phillips: E
T48. Chan Kim: E
T53. Joel Dahmen: +1
T53. Ben Griffin: +1
T53. Hideki Matsuyama: +1
T53. Maverick McNealy: +1
T53. Hiroshi Iwata: +1
T53. Doug Ghim: +1
T53. Ryosuke Yonezawa: +1
T53. Tom Hoge: +1
T53. Will Zalatoris: +1
T53. Ben Kohles: +1
T53. Patrick Fishburn: +1
T64. Taisei Hataji: +2
T64. Adam Svensson: +2
T64. Ryan Fox: +2
T64. Sami Välimäki: +2
T64. Sahith Theegala: +2
T64. Chris Gotterup: +2
T70. Satoshi Kodaira: +3
T70. Max Homa: +3
T70. Xander Schauffele: +3
T73. Takumi Ogiso: +4
T73. Davis Riley: +4
T73. Justin Lower: +4
T76. Brendon Todd: +5
T76. Kaito Onishi: +5
78. David Skinns: +6