Xander Schauffele calls himself an 'idiot' after tree stump shocker leads to quad-bogey
Xander Schauffele all-but played himself out of the ZOZO Championship after making a disastrous quadruple-bogey eight on the 9th hole in round one.
Xander Schauffele called himself an 'idiot' after not immediately taking a drop when his ball came to rest against a tree stump on the 9th hole in the first round of the ZOZO Championship at ACCORDIA Golf Narashino CC in Japan.
Schauffele struck an errant tee shot way left into the trees on the par-4 9th.
As he trudged down the left flank he soon discovered his ball had lodged itself up against a tree root.
Most players would have instantly taken a penalty drop, if anything to completly avoid a wrist injury, but not World No.2 Schauffele who thought better of the situation.
The PGA Tour superstar got in there and hacked away not once, but twice.
Only unfortunately for this season's two-time major champion, Schauffele still could not advance his ball away from the tree root.
He eventually took a penalty drop and then hacked his ball into the rough some 100 yards short of the green.
Schauffele then played his sixth shot onto the green before two-putting for a quadruple-bogey eight.
Scroll below to watch what happened...
The American went on to make his sole birdie of the round at the par-3 13th to card a dismal round of 3-over 73.
Schauffele labelled himself an 'idiot' when talking through the 9th hole to reporters after the round.
"No. 9 just, it was an incredible spot," said a frustrated Schauffele.
"I wanted to take a photo of it almost, how bad it was.
"For me to think I can do anything definitely got me in a hole there. I should have just taken an unplayable, but I was an idiot and tried to hit it.
"Then I was stubborn and then tried to hit it again, then finally took an unplayable.
"I was going to hit it a third time too just because, but yeah, it was a bad spot."
The opening round of 73 leaves Schauffele T70 in a 78-man field.
From starting the week as a hot favourite at odds of 9/2, Schauffele now looks down and out at 80/1.
Schauffele is 10 shots off the early pace, currently set by his compatriot Taylor Moore.
But he's not yet giving up hope of a first ZOZO Championship title, especially with 54 holes left to play.
"I'm just trying to brush it off," added Schauffele.
"I've got three more days in front of me.
"Depending on what the leaders do tomorrow, it might be hard to get back into it. I'm going out in the morning, the greens should be a little less bumpy.
"If I can shoot 7, 8, something even lower, that would be incredible, or string together a bunch of 3 to 5 under par rounds and I could be right there."
Elsewhere, Justin Thomas got off to a solid start with a round of 4-under 66.
