Pádraig Harrington says that Xander Schauffele’s PGA Championship win was coming and his steady progress in men’s professional golf could mean he sustains his level of performance for longer.
Harrington has often said that he believes players have an 18 month to two year spurt of their best golf where they can collect major championships quickly as he, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth have done to name a few.
Schauffele is on the other end of the scale, gradually improving and while he has been a mainstay in the world’s top-10 since 2018 he had come up short in major championships until last Sunday when he held off Bryson DeChambeau in Valhalla.
Harrington feels the fact that Schauffele hasn’t burst onto the scene and rocketed straight to the top might mean he has more improving to do which could see him sustain his consistency for years to come.
“It was coming obviously. He really was the man, well, not the man in form; obviously there’s others,” said Harrington ahead of the Kitchenaid Senior PGA Championship.
“But you could see he was playing great. There might have been talk about other people, but he definitely had to be one of the favorites going in. His game was in great shape. He’s a nice man, a nice young man with a fine game. Really, really strong game. Works hard.
“You know, if anything, you would say he’s had a very nice progression in his golf game. It doesn’t always work like that. He’s worked hard and has slowly got better and better and better to the stage he’s at.
“And that might mean he sustains it longer. Sometimes when you get there quickly you leave quickly; whereas he’s worked hard to get there, so you might see him be this player four five, ten years.”