Xander Schauffele has moved past last week’s subpar outing and is now zeroing in on the “gnarly” rough and “diabolical” greens at Aronimink Golf Club near Philadelphia as he prepares for the PGA Championship.
The 32-year-old enters this week’s major after finishing tied for 60th at the Truist Championship in Charlotte, N.C., where he ended up 17 strokes behind the winner. Despite the poor result, he said his confidence is unexpectedly holding steady.
“It’s significantly lower, obviously,” Schauffele said Tuesday when asked to compare his confidence to where it was when he won the PGA Championship for his first of two major wins in 2024. “I finished close to last place last week. I’m actually feeling kind of good, surprisingly. It’s one of those things where I tried my absolute hardest and almost came in last place last week, and that’s just sometimes how a bad day in the office goes, but still beats being inside.”
Following his finish at Quail Hollow, Schauffele expressed optimism about the upcoming tournament.
“I don’t want to jinx it, you know what I’m saying? Yeah, confidence is a tricky thing,” he said. “I didn’t have a whole lot last week, was a little bit in my head on what I was capable of doing. I actually did a few things pretty decent last week, surprisingly. Hopefully, I can kind of drag a little bit of that into this week.”
Schauffele, ranked No. 11 in the world, is still searching for his first victory of the season. His best results so far include a third-place finish at The Players Championship, a T4 at the Valspar Championship in March, and a T9 at the Masters in April.
He knows that the key to success this week will be staying out of the thick rough and finding the most favorable positions on the demanding greens.
“This is the type of rough where you can’t get a ball to curve at all,” he said. “You just grab a high-lofted club and hit a knuckleball and have it kind of trundle somewhere.”
Schauffele also shared his putting approach.
“If you get aggressive to certain pins and short-side yourself, you’re going to hit it to 20 or 30 feet at best, just based on how the surface, how fast and firm it is and how much it runs away from you,” he said. “But at the same time, there’s certain pockets where you can little fingers on the greens where you can hit a really good shot and get rewarded for it, depending on firmness, obviously. The greens are definitely the thing to prepare for for this tournament. I think it will be fun to watch.”
