Xander Schauffele wins Open Championship at Royal Troon for ...

TROON, Scotland — Xander Schauffele was for so long the best golfer without a major. Now, in two months, Schauffele has instead put forth one of the great major campaigns and cemented his place as one of his era’s great players.

The ever-steady 30-year-old star never topped the Open leaderboard Thursday to Saturday, always quietly lurking in the top 10 before shooting a Sunday 65 to win the 152nd Open Championship for his second major title in three starts. He finished at 9-under-par with six birdies and 12 pars in his final round at Royal Troon. Justin Rose and Billy Horschel finished two shots behind and tied for second.

Schauffele’s winning kick began on the 11th hole, where Schauffele had to play his approach shot from tramped-down fescue. He swiped an iron right through it, landing the ball 2 feet, 8 inches away from the pin for a tap-in birdie to get to 6-under. On the par-4 13th he poured in a 16-foot birdie putt to jump into a tie for the lead at 7-under. At the same time, Thriston Lawrence bogeyed No. 12, giving Schauffele the lead. That was all he needed — Schauffele birdied the par-3 14th and par-5 16th to turn what was a thrilling, jam-packed leaderboard of a Sunday at the Open into a coronation.

For the first time since 1982, Americans — Schauffele (Open Championship, PGA Championship), Scottie Scheffler (Masters) and Bryson DeChambeau (U.S. Open) — have claimed all four major championships.

Schauffele, the No. 2 player in the world, has spent the better part of six years as golf’s great, but largely unrewarded, model of consistency. In that time, he racked up more than 100 top-20 finishes, always ranked in the world top 10, and finished top 10 at 12 of 27 major starts. But no major wins. Only seven career wins total. Many wondered if he had the killer instinct to ever win a major trophy.

It wasn’t until Schauffele made a birdie on the 18th hole at May’s PGA Championship that he finally changed the narrative around him — going wire-to-wire for the win at Valhalla. A month later, he finished seventh at Pinehurst. Now, in daunting conditions on the Scottish west coast, Schauffele joins the hallowed list of 15 golfers to ever win the Open and a second major in the same year.

In a year in which Scottie Scheffler has won at a rate only matched by Arnold Palmer, it is Schauffele who won multiple majors and made his own case for player of the year.

Sunday began with Horschel, a 37-year-old seeking his first major championship, in the lead by one stroke, playing in the final group of a major’s final round for the first time. A single stroke behind him were six men. Two shocking upstarts, Lawrence and Dan Brown. A 43-year-old former major champ seeking one last trophy list, Rose. Two PGA Tour standouts also in the hunt for a first major, Sam Burns and Russell Henley. And Schauffele. Scheffler was solo eighth on the leaderboard, but only two strokes behind. A bunched leaderboard primed for chaos, which came early even if the leaderboard stayed close — 90 minutes after Horschel teed off there were still seven men in contention.

Then, one by one, they dropped. Brown faded early, as did Burns. Shane Lowry made a run on the front nine but did not have enough. Scheffler three-putted from less than seven feet on No. 8 for double bogey. Horschel traded birdies and bogeys, unable to keep up. Rose found himself sharing the lead at 6-under for several holes, but bogeyed No. 12.

It appeared to be Lawrence’s major to win, a 27-year-old South African ranked No. 98 in the world but known only to DP World Tour denizens. He was in the solo lead at 7-under making the turn at Royal Troon. A par on 10. Another on 11. Then the bogey on No. 12, a poor drive leaving him in the tall grass leading to a wide right approach shot and a 13-foot par putt he couldn’t get to fall. Lawrence settled for a fourth-place finish.

That was all the opening Schauffele needed.

Now Schauffele enters the Olympics and the rest of the season no longer an admirable player who can’t win. He is now firmly in the discussion as the best player in the world, leaping contemporaries like Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland and Rory McIlroy, and entering a race with Scheffler for the top spot in the game.

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(Top photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)