Xander Schauffele reacts to what Jon Rahm said about him before the PGA Championship and suggests he’s got it wrong

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Considering he is the world number three and won two of the last four major championships, Xander Schauffele really is going under the radar this week ahead of the PGA Championship.

Xander Schauffele is the defending champion at the PGA Championship after his triumph at Valhalla 12 months ago. The 31-year-old then backed that up by winning The Open Championship at Royal Troon shortly after.

But recent months have not been quite as fruitful for Schauffele.

Schauffele had to take a couple of months off due to a rib injury. And he is yet to rediscover his best form since returning, with his only top 10 of the year coming at The Masters.

Xander Schauffele surprised by Jon Rahm’s comments about him ahead of the PGA Championship

It does appear that a lot more of the focus is on Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau this week. But it seems that many of his peers are not writing Schauffele off by any means.

When Jon Rahm was asked which skill he would take from another player for this event, Schauffele’s name came up for the putting.

But, while Schauffele insisted that he remains confident in his game, he admitted that he could not quite understand why Rahm picked him out for the flat stick.

“If you look at my statistics this week, they’re terrible across the board. I had a few bad samples come through returning from injury,” he said.

“But I feel confident with my ability and what I can do. Yeah, I’ve played with Jon in San Diego at the Grand a few times. I do feel like — even when he was back on the PGA Tour, and we played East Lake a bunch of times together and just throughout the year. We got paired a ton.

“I always did feel like I would play well when I played against him, and I would putt really well too. So it could be a little bit skewed because of that.”

Xander Schauffele’s surprising PGA Tour statistics in 2025

As Schauffele notes, his record on the PGA Tour this year is nothing to shout about statistically. He finds himself outside the top 100 players on tour in three different strokes gained categories.

One of those where he has struggled is putting.

As Schauffele notes, it is hard to see those numbers not changing drastically by the end of the season.

He was so well-rounded in 2024. There was not an obvious weakness within his game – as proven by the fact that he was able to win on courses as varied as Valhalla and Royal Troon.

Obviously, reaching those levels again is going to be extremely difficult for Schauffele. But it shows that he has all of the tools within his game – and is a huge threat if everything clicks.