Smylie Kaufman gives honest verdict on Xander Schauffele after hearing what he’s been doing to help Justin Thomas

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The best golfers in the world are the ones who are willing to learn from their fellow professionals and it looks like Justin Thomas has done just that with Xander Schauffele in recent times.

Thomas won the RBC Heritage to end his three-year drought on the PGA Tour as he held off Andrew Novak in a playoff.

The two-time major winner has been threatening to win for a while and to finally get over the line will have been a big relief.

Of course, Thomas won by holing a monster 25 foot putt in the playoff and his putting was a theme of the whole week at Harbour Town.

• READ MORE: Todd Lewis explains what he didn’t see at all at the RBC Heritage with rangefinders permitted to help with pace of play

Indeed, Thomas revealed he’d been speaking to Xander Schauffele about his putting, admitting the world number two had been helping him out.

“I called Xander [Schauffele] at the end of last year because I think he’s one of the best putters in fundamentals – and not just putting, but everything,” Thomas explained. “I was just like, ‘can I just pick your brain for like two or three hours, just talk to you about putting?’.

He came out with me and he just was asking me a bunch of different questions. You guys obviously know Xander – he doesn’t leave any box unchecked. He said that day, he’s like, ‘if it has anything to do with you potentially improving in golf, I’ve probably done it or tried it. I just was talking to him about this process and how he reads greens and how he sees things and his practice and everything. Honestly was just being with him and he would kind of ask something and I was like ‘yeah, I used to do that’.

Now, Smylie Kaufman has given his verdict on the comments from Thomas.

Smylie Kaufman praises Xander Schauffele for helping Justin Thomas

Kaufman was speaking on the latest episode of The Smylie Show and got onto the subject of Schauffele helping Thomas with his putting.

And for Kaufman, it was an example of just how good a pro Schauffele is as he praised the world number three for his efforts.

“You know good for Xander as well. Those are things that aren’t really reported on the PGA Tour,” Kaufman said.

“I think JT even said it best, he said Xander is so good about making sure that he checks every box off so he can play to the best of his ability. If you ever listen to our Chris Como interview, you would understand that about Xander.

“I think the outside world probably doesn’t get that quite as much. I definitely feel that way. I feel like I am connected but still, watching and observing Xander, what he does and all the boxes he checks, there’s a reason why he’s a top five player in the world.”

• READ MORE: What Rory McIlroy said about Tiger Woods immediately after winning his first major championship back in 2011 at the US Open

Justin Thomas’ putting stats for 2025

If you’re going to win on the PGA Tour, then you need to putt well, it’s as simple as that.

We all saw when Scottie Scheffler started holing putts how his performance sky-rocketed and the wins flowed.

Now, it seems Justin Thomas is following suit and there has been a marked improvement in his putting.

As the stats show, Thomas’ work on the greens has made a huge difference and if he can maintain that sort of level all season, he won’t be waiting long for win number 17, or even major number three.