SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — You know all the sayings. Patience is a virtue. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Good things happen to those who wait. But how is patience practiced in golf? And how do you embody patience in a week where impatience is the featured dish on the menu?
As the cliché goes, this is easier said than done.
Through just about two rounds of the 2026 US Open, Windham Clark took the lead. The remaining fields of Shinnecock Hills. The 2023 champion set a new 36-hole scoring record at Sinek Hills, making a putt worth 215 feet and leading the championship in the process.
But waiting patiently behind him is a man who knows how to wait and take a load off his shoulders.
Xander Schauffele is back on page one of the leaderboard at the US Open. Schauffele, who admitted he was a little jittery after Thursday afternoon’s easy waves, surged to the top with a 4-under 66 on Friday morning, putting him in position at 3 under for the tournament.
The two-time major champion arrived at Shannecock Hills having never finished outside the top 15 at this championship, including his debut at Erin Hills, where he had to pass the final qualifying round to earn a spot.
A lot has happened since then, and still is. He has won two major championships, an Olympic gold medal and numerous awards to his name. The yellow boxes on his Wikipedia page marking his major top-10 finishes seem to increase over the years. By 2026, the proportion achieving such results will exceed the 50% mark for the second year in a row.
But over time, Schauffele continued to march to the beat of the same drum. Just keep chipping away and the results will come.
“The last few years I’ve become very patient with not being able to win,” Schauffele said at his 2024 PGA Championship victory press conference. “Those closest to me know how stubborn I am. As I said earlier, winning is an outcome, which is great, very nice. But when you analyze it, I’m really proud of how I handled certain moments on the track today differently than in the past.”
From a broader perspective, Schauffele has always been patient. His father has a maxim that Schauffele lives by. “A steady drip turns a stone into a cave.”
This mantra was echoed at the 2024 Genesis Invitational, especially when the pressure mounted after falling just short to Scottie Scheffler at The Players Championship. That Sunday at TPC Sawgrass, Schauffele happened to share a tea time with Clark.
Schauffele continued to do so even though he knew there was “disgust” from some outside critics of The Players. Two months later, his wait was over as the full weight of the Wanamaker Trophy was lifted over his head at Valhalla. A few months later, this time it was a claret jug.
In 2025, the game of patience has changed. A rib injury sidelined Schauffele for several months. He didn’t feel 100% himself on the golf course for about a year and missed out on the Tour Championship for the first time in his career.
“It was a first for me,” Schauffele said. “Certainly, that match made me realize how much I appreciate this match, and what kind of effect it has on me mentally, and how happy it makes me feel. Of course, I was often angry, but at the same time, I really missed not being able to go on tour. I missed practice.”
“Now that I have kids, I’m more easily distracted and have more things to do, but at that time it was just me, the dog, and my wife. She was tired of me being home so long. She definitely missed golf and was grateful to be able to play for so many hours.”
Schauffele’s extensive patience has been on full display throughout his U.S. Open career. Every year, this tournament feels like a window into his intuition. Friday was another classic example as fairways and greens were his favorite.
Schauffele achieved an amazing result of hitting 16 of the 18 greens in regulation.
He was on cruise control for most of the course, but suffered his only bogey on a speed bump on the par-5 fifth. The unlikely birdies continued and he had a lot of patience. Birdie after birdie followed, and although not all of them fell, Schauffele steadily racked up birdies.
“Most of the time it’s just a lot of patience and a good golf shot,” Schauffele said. “I feel like it’s like the U.S. Open. Winning in itself is exhausting. It’s a long journey and you really feel it after it’s over. If you can do some work in between, you get paid for it. So that’s how I work.”
Thanks to his efforts, he found himself nearing the top of the leaderboard. He’s not yet in the position he needs to be to hoist this U.S. Open trophy, but he knows he’s on his way, and with two days left for Schauffele to reach that goal, perhaps his perseverance will be worth as much as the golf shots he hits.
“No matter what mountain I climb,” Schauffele said. “I’m just trying to climb it and chip away at it every day.”
