Xander Schauffele’s 6-word massage sums up Players heartbreak

Wyndham Clark’s Players Championship ended violently. His birdie try on 18 — a putt to force a playoff with Scottie Scheffler at 20-under par — fell into the left side of the cup and then horseshoed viciously before it lurched back out the front side, the best place for a cruel staredown with the man who’d struck it. Clark’s chance at the win was suddenly, definitively snuffed out.

As for Clark’s playing partner Xander Schauffele? Whose day looked, midway through, like it could be the biggest of his PGA Tour career? His tournament ended with a whimper. With a missed putt at 17 and an imprecise tee shot at 18 and a lengthy two-putt that cemented his loss by a single shot. The tournament that had felt like his suddenly wasn’t.

“A steady drip caves a stone,” he said, asked about his efforts to get better.

A steady drip caves a stone. I’d never heard it. I liked the way he said it. I wondered where it came from. A Google search revealed zero exact matches, but there were cousins.

There was this, from Margaret Atwood: “Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water.”