Sitting on the 245-yard par-3 8th hole, his 17th for the day in the 2026 Valspar Championship, Xander Schauffele was desperate to find the green. With an iron in his hand, he hit a desperate drive that could have gone either way. The two-time major champion pleaded with the ball to land on the shortest grass while it was still in the air. And guess what? It worked!

The PGA Tour shared a video of Schauffele’s drive. After striking the ball, he lost control of his iron, and it dropped in the tee zone. However, he was least bothered about that as he was intensely looking at the trajectory of the golf ball.

“Please work,” said Schauffele, hoping that the ball would find the green. And that’s what it did, dropping just inside the fringe. The curve of the green ensured the ball stayed on its surface rather than switching to a different cut. In fact, it slowly rolled closer to the hole before stopping 17 feet away from the cup.

As the commentators confirmed, “I think it worked.” It truly did, as the world #7 was in a great position to save a par, maybe even score a birdie. In the end, he finished the hole on par as the 17 feet and 2 inches proved too challenging for him. Still, Schauffele must have been ecstatic knowing that he still saved a par despite losing grip on his iron.

Schauffele’s desperation to find the green wasn’t just a random plea during the day. He had enjoyed a flawless round until that point. Missing the green would have made it difficult for him to maintain that. Fortunately, a par on 8th and a birdie on 9th helped him finish the round at 3-under par.

That’s not the only reason he was nervous. Another interesting stat kept Schauffele on his toes all throughout the round.

Xander Schauffele had far less control over his driver than the 8th hole iron

Within a few holes, it was evident that Xander Schauffele was in a lot of trouble on Thursday. And not because of another slow pace of play incident like the one that occurred with Ludvig Aberg last week. This time around, it was more about the performance he was delivering, particularly off the tee.

Schauffele had one of the worst driving accuracies on the golf course. He only found the fairway 6 out of the 13 times he held the driver. That’s a
46.15% accuracy from the tee zone. He was ranked the 83rd worst in the Tour in terms of accuracy. With many more in the field yet to complete their round, his position may change at the end of the day.

Despite that, Schauffele still managed a flawless round. Many could credit him for his scrambling ability. He also had a 100% accuracy for sand saves. So even if his drives weren’t accurate, he was still finding the cut quickly enough to save par at least.