Xander Schauffele has been out of sorts since returning from his rib injury at the Arnold Plamer Invitational two weeks ago.
He really struggled last weekend at The Players Championship and finished last of the 72 players who made the cut.
Now, Schauffele’s latest round at the Valspar Championship on Thursday was actually impressive on the face of it.
However, one expert thinks his score only painted over the cracks of what was another disappointing performance.
Xander Schauffele’s first round at the Valspar Championship was ‘very wild’
Former PGA Tour player Dennis Paulson watched Schauffele’s opening round at the Valspar Championship closely and his verdict was surprising.
Paulson, who won the 2000 Buick Classic (now FedEx St. Jude Championship), described the world number three’s round as “wild”, even though he ended the day just outside the top 20.
When asked if Schauffele had improved after his Players nightmare, he said on the PGA Tour’s main feed: “I didn’t see it really, yet. There were a lot of wild ones. To be perfectly truthful with you, there were some really poor shots from Xander today. Nothing was very tight.
“What I did like about his round today – scoring. He got a round out of it. He could easily have been two or three over from where he hit it. He should have been out of bounds on the par five. I think it hit the roof and then hit the OB fence and came back in and he ended up making a birdie there.
“Those are the little things that happened today but he hit some very wild shots. He hit it into the hotdog stand on 8, the par three. You know, those are shots you just don’t see from Xander and so those are the things we’ve got to pay attention to.”
Why we shouldn’t worry about Xander Schauffele’s performances
Schauffele’s 2025 season has not gone to plan. After finishing 30th at The Sentry in January, he missed two months before his return at the Arnold Palmer.
The American came 30th at Bay Hill and followed that up with 72nd at TPC Sawgrass last week – two underwhelming results by his standards.
However, the PGA Tour is so competitive that for even the best players in the world, any sign of rust is enough to see great players tumble down the leaderboard.
So, we shouldn’t be concerned by Schauffele’s last two tournaments, nor should we if things don’t go to plan at the Valspar Championship or the Masters in three weeks.
He might be struggling now but it wouldn’t be shocking at all to see him defend his PGA Championship title at Quail Hollow in May.
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