World Champion team

BEACH AT PONTE VEDRA — The ball missed by three feet, and Xander Schauffele couldn’t hold a smile on his face. For 45 feet, the putt looked great, but then it didn’t. It wasn’t clear if the smirk was because he thought he had made it and the ball still didn’t reach the cup, or if it was just the way pros react at the end of a long day of doing everything they can to hold on for dear life against a course that’s starting to wake up. What counts is that Schauffele was smiling as he tapped in his last three feet on the 18th hole, which is something we haven’t seen him do much lately in golf.

• John Madden
• 2024-03-16