Xander Schauffele has 2 majors and still a long way from No. 1 in the world

KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — Winning two majors only made Xander Schauffele that much more eager for the next one. The only downer about winning the claret jug at Royal Troon was knowing it would be more than eight months until the next one.

Also on his agenda is reaching No. 1 in the world.

That might take a little longer.

The PGA Tour embarks on a new season without Scottie Scheffler, who cut open his right hand on broken glass preparing Christmas dinner. Even without the No. 1 player at The Sentry, Schauffele eels a lot further away than his No. 2 ranking might suggest.

“It's a wild time,” Schauffele said. “Winning two majors and being closer to the 30th-ranked player than the first ... hat's off to Scottie. He's a beast.”

Schauffele, of course, is no slouch. Both put together a season of remarkable consistency. Schauffele had 15 finishes in the top 10 out of his 21 starts in individual play on the PGA Tour. From May until the end of the season, he went 11 straight events no worse than 15th.

That included a birdie on the last hole to win the PGA Championship at Valhalla, and a command performance in the rain and wind of Royal Troon to win the British Open.

It was the latter that got the attention of Chris Kirk, the defending champion at Kapalua.

“You cannot accurately describe how horrible it is to play golf in that conditions,” Kirk said. “That was one where — obviously, I have a lot of confidence in myself, I believe in my game, I'm a top-50 player — I watched that and was like, ‘There’s no way in hell I could do that.'”

The difference in seasons was Scheffler converted more of those top 10s into titles — seven on the PGA Tour, Olympic gold, and the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, all of them boosting his lead at No. 1 to the largest gap since Tiger Woods in his peak years.

“It's one of my goals that will just have to stay on the calendar for a few more years,” Schauffele said with an easy smile. “If I get there I'll be very happy. But just based on looking at the numbers, yeah, it's going to take some time and patience.”

Now he's on island time, where no one is in a rush.

The 60-man field gets started on the mountainous Plantation Course at Kapalua, which is playing longer than ever with a steady dose of overnight rain.

The Sentry also starts a new structure on the PGA Tour in which only the top 100 players in the FedEx Cup keep their full cards, and the size of fields is shrinking to make sure those who have cards get into more tournaments.

This is the second year that a tournament once limited to only winners has been expanded to include anyone who finished in the top 50 in the FedEx Cup. Of the 60 players, 29 of them failed to win a tournament last year.

That includes Justin Thomas, who at least would appear to be on the upward trend. He missed out on the postseason in 2023 and made it back to the Tour Championship. It was a better year, but not enough for him to be picked for the Presidents Cup.

Consider that to be a big motivator this year with a Ryder Cup on the horizon. The first step is winning, which Thomas hasn't done since the PGA Championship in 2022. Before that, he piled up 15 wins on the PGA Tour in a seven-year stretch.

“I truly felt like I was going to win multiple times every season pretty much, until I lost it a little bit,” Thomas said. "It's just so hard to win out here. Naturally, the better player that you are, you can get away with more mistakes, but come the end of the week on Sunday, you have to win the golf tournament.

“I was fortunate where I was doing it quite often and I still feel like I’m fully capable and expect to do that more,” he said. “But I definitely felt like it should have happened regularly.”

Schauffele can appreciate the feeling. He also had gone two years without winning until he ended that drought in the best way possible — not one major, but two.

It starts with chances, and that has become his hallmark, much like it is for Scheffler. Schauffele comes into Kapalua with the longest active cut streak on the PGA Tour at 56 in a row, which will increase because there is no cut this week.

The record is 142 in a row by Woods. That might be even further away than his goal of replacing Scheffler at No. 1 in the world.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Hideki Matsuyama, of Japan, hits from the 10th tee during the pro-am round of The Sentry golf event, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Max Homa reads the 12th green during the pro-am round of The Sentry golf event, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Sam Burns hits from the 12th fairway during the pro-am round of The Sentry golf event, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Hideki Matsuyama, of Japan, watches his shot from the 13th tee during the pro-am round of The Sentry golf event, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Xander Schauffele walks off the 11th green during the pro-am round of The Sentry golf event, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Xander Schauffele lines up his shot on the 11th green during the pro-am round of The Sentry golf event, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Xander Schauffele follows his shot on the 11th green during the pro-am round of The Sentry golf event, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Xander Schauffele hits from the 10th tee during the pro-am round of The Sentry golf event, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's supreme leader insisted Saturday that “rioters must be put in their place” after a week of protests that have shaken the Islamic Republic, likely giving security forces a green light to aggressively put down the demonstrations.

The first comments by 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei come as violence surrounding the demonstrations sparked by Iran's ailing economy has killed at least 10 people. The protests show no sign of stopping and follow U.S. President Donald Trump warning Iran on Friday that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.”

While it remains unclear how and if Trump will intervene, his comments sparked an immediate, angry response, with officials within the theocracy threatening to target American troops in the Mideast. They also take on new importance after Trump said Saturday that the U.S. military captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran.

The protests, have become the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations. However, the protests have yet to be as widespread and intense as those surrounding the death of Amini, who was detained over not wearing her hijab, or headscarf, to the liking of authorities.

Speaking to an audience in Tehran, state television aired remarks by Khamenei that sought to separate the concerns of protesting Iranians upset about the rial's collapse to “rioters.”

“We talk to protesters, the officials must talk to them,” Khamenei said. “But there is no benefit to talking to rioters. Rioters must be put in their place.”

He also reiterated a claim constantly made by officials in Iran, that foreign powers like Israel or the United States were pushing the protests, without offering any evidence. He also blamed “the enemy” for Iran's collapsing rial.

“A bunch of people incited or hired by the enemy are getting behind the tradesmen and shopkeepers and chanting slogans against Islam, Iran and the Islamic Republic," he said. "This is what matters most.”

Two deaths overnight into Saturday involved a new level of violence. In Qom, home to the country's major Shiite seminaries, a grenade exploded, killing a man there, the state-owned IRAN newspaper reported. It quoted security officials alleging the man was carrying the grenade to attack people in the city, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of the capital, Tehran.

Online videos from Qom purportedly showed fires in the street overnight.

The second death happened in the town of Harsin, some 370 kilometers (230 miles) southwest of Tehran. There, the newspaper said, a member of the Basij, the all-volunteer arm of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, died in a gun and knife attack in the town in Kermanshah province.

Demonstrations have reached over 100 locations in 22 of Iran’s 31 provinces, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported.

Iran’s civilian government under reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has been trying to signal it wants to negotiate with protesters. However, Pezeshkian has acknowledged there is not much he can do as Iran’s rial has rapidly depreciated. That sparked the initial protests.

The protests, taking root in economic issues, have heard demonstrators chant against Iran’s theocracy as well. Tehran has had little luck in propping up its economy in the months since its June war with Israel in which the U.S. also bombed Iranian nuclear sites in Iran.

Iran recently said it was no longer enriching uranium at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic program to ease sanctions. However, those talks have yet to happen as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have warned Tehran against reconstituting its atomic program.

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attends a meeting, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

FILE - In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a ceremony to mark the Shiite holiday of Eid al-Ghadir, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP, File)