Xander Schauffele Reviews the Tough PGA and His Outlook for the U.S. Open
Xander Schauffele finished the PGA Championship last week with a tie for 13th, his 13th top 25 or better in only 20 major starts. It's an impressive body of work, especially when compared to his peers. Take another 28-year-old star in Bryson DeChambeau, who owns a win but only four other top 25s in majors and two top 10s in 22 major starts to date. Schauffele's teammate in international cups and the Zurich Classic in 30-year-old Patrick Cantlay has played in 21 majors and has finished in the top 25 eight times with only two top 10s.
So what did Schauffele take from his performance in the PGA that will help him in the next two majors?
"Cleaning up what I'm doing, I feel like certain things were very difficult (last) week," Schauffele said. "I think holing some putts and scrambling was difficult. I think I did a lot of the hard parts really well which was hitting a lot of fairways, so that's kind of where my frustration is coming from in terms of me scoring was not really scoring as good as I'd like to so a lot of the tough parts of the week were there for me and I didn't really finish it up on the back end."
Schauffele will it up in the U.S. Open at Brookline next month at least with some familiarity for the course.
"I played there in the U.S. Amateur (2013), I don't remember much now that there's a redesign," Schauffele said. "It's a monster golf course. I'm sure the USGA's going to have fun with it. I remember really thick rough, not really an opportunity to run it up on those greens so hitting fairways once again in major championships is seeming to be a big thing."
Is harder the setup and scoring the better for him in U.S. Opens?
"I think so. (PGA) week was sort of it. Double digits not winning. Harder the better typically," Schauffele said.
Schauffele also shares a bit about St. Andrews, where this year's British Open will be played, including one time he set foot on the Old Course in 2018 after playing in the final group of the Open at Carnoustie just the day before.
Hit the play button above to listen, and look for more new episodes of Beyond the Clubhouse coming soon to the Morning Read Podcast Network.