Xander Schauffele just suffered his worst result in nearly four years.
Schauffele missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open by a single stroke, breaking a streak of 72 consecutive made cuts in competitions. That’s a streak that lasted 1,391 days.
You’d think he’d be disappointed by this, especially because Torrey Pines is a local course for the two-time major winner. But he actually said it’s nice to have the weekend off to spend some time with his family.
Missing the cut might end up being a good thing for Schauffele, who can now play freely without having to think about maintaining the streak. What’s more concerning is that he made a change in the offseason that’s made Schauffele’s poor form from 2025 worse.
Xander Schauffele says his driver change has affected his entire game
Schauffele looked to have turned a page when he won the Baycurrent Classic at the end of his 2025 season. He then spent a few months off to help care for his newborn son and has clearly lost whatever he found in Japan.
But Schauffele revealed after missing the cut that a change he made to his driver has had an effect all the way down his bag, and he missed the cut because of it.
When asked what went wrong at Torrey Pines, he said, “Several things. Kind of had some last minute tweaks to equipment and it really affected me through my bag, I thought.
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Xander Schauffele missed his first cut in 72 starts at the Farmers Insurance Open 😔
“So unfortunate I didn’t get that dialed in in the offseason, but it is what it is. So here I am. I’ll spend this weekend cleaning it up”
He was then pushed for the specific tweaks that he made, and Schauffele answered, “Just some driver stuff. Driver, shaft, trying to get the combination right.
“I don’t like switching stuff and I switched, and then when you switch back, things kind of feel weird. You start swinging to fit the club and if kind of affects like everything down the bag. So not a great place to do it.”
Torrey Pines is known to be one of the toughest venues on the PGA Tour schedule, so definitely not the best place to make changes. Hopefully, he can correct them to avoid having the same type of season as he did in 2025.
Xander Schauffele admits he’s ‘tired’ of trying to fix his game
Schauffele suffered a rib injury at the end of 2024, and he’s been trying to recapture the form that made him a two-time major winner ever since. It’s been an exhausting and unsuccessful process, and one that he’s tired of.
When asked how far he is from finding his game, Schauffele said, “Yeah, surprisingly, it feels kind of close. You know, good warmups, like I’ve had really nice warmups on the range. Tournament golf’s a little different, everything is a little bit different when the gun goes off.
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“I think I got a little bit more comfortable with the driver coming down the stretch. I mean, shoot, the fact that I was close to the cut is pretty amazing. I think I hit three fairways on South and (indiscernible) had some side action if I was going to hit the fairway. I think I hit my first fairway on the North Course on 18.
“So it was — I’m tired, I’m tired from just trying to get it together.”
It must be incredibly difficult knowing that there’s another level to your game that you simply can’t reach. Hopefully, Schauffele can muster the energy to once again challenge Scottie Scheffler at the top of the sport.
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