There cannot have been many players who went into a major as both world number three and defending champion and felt as much of an underdog as Xander Schauffele does this week at the PGA Championship.
Xander Schauffele lifted his first major title at the PGA Championship one year ago. Meanwhile, he followed that by winning The Open Championship just a couple of months later. But of course, a rib injury ruled him out for much of the early part of the 2025 season.
Schauffele is yet to find that top gear again. That has meant that the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau appear to be bigger favourites at Quail Hollow.
But Schauffele’s recent results have been encouraging. The 31-year-old has finished in the top 20 in his last four starts. That included a top 10 at The Masters.
What Xander Schauffele is planning to do on the greens at Quail Hollow
And it seems that he has turned a corner with the putter recently. Schauffele is outside the top 100 for strokes gained on the greens this year. But that has not tempted him to make changes to his game, as Rex Hoggard explained on the Golf Channel Podcast.
“I had the chance to talk to Xander this morning after he did some putting on the green. And clearly, his putting has been what has separated him, at least statistically, from where he was at this point last year to where he is now. You look at where the struggles have been, it’s been mostly on the green, he hasn’t had the touch. But when I talked to Xander today and asked him are you doing anything different because apparently he turned a corner last week at the Truist Championship,” he said.
“He finished eighth for the week for strokes gained putting, it was probably his best putting week of the year statistically by far. And he said, ‘absolutely not, I’m doing everything the same, my routine, the way I prepare to walk into shots, the way I read putts, certainly, equipment wise’. He felt like last week he just started to see putts fall in the hole, and that was really just the difference. ‘It felt memorable’, is what he told me. ‘It felt familiar to me, I can go back’. And essentially he said, ‘it’s just rinse, repeat. I know after last year that everything I do can lead me in a good direction’, and he’s continued to do that.”
How Xander Schauffele inspired Justin Thomas before his latest PGA Tour win
It should probably not come as a great surprise that Schauffele is not going to be doing anything differently. Of course, what Schauffele does on the green has been a talking point this year, even when it comes to other players.
Justin Thomas explained after his victory at the RBC Heritage that Schauffele had helped him on the greens, by simply reminding him to revert back to some of the methods which had brought him real success earlier in his career.
It was fitting therefore, that Thomas secured that victory at Harbour Town with a long birdie putt in the playoff with Andrew Novak.
Schauffele managed to hold his nerve when he had a tester of a putt to win the PGA Championship 12 months ago. He would love to find himself in the same position on Sunday.
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