Xander Schauffele put the disappointment of his performance at The Players behind him to put himself in contention at the Valspar Championship.
Schauffele finished bottom of those to make the cut at TPC Sawgrass as the rawness in his game since returning from injury shone through.
However, rather than take time away to work on things, Schauffele has been straight back out on the PGA Tour and shot a nice second round of three under to go into the weekend just two back of the leaders.
Schauffele, of course, is tuning up for The Masters next month and will be desperate to feel in a good place ahead of Augusta.
And speaking at the Valspar, Schauffele has revealed some pretty open discussions with his caddy, Austin Kaiser.
What Xander Schauffele has told his caddy about playing more golf
With Xander Schauffele keen to get back to the form he showed in 2024, the American knows that getting reps in is important.
However, he’s also spoken of his own desire to map out where and how he plays, resulting in some honest chats with his caddy.
“No, yeah, I mean 81 [at The Players] and, you know, a pair of hockey sticks or whatever I shot are bad scores, obviously. I told Austin, Austin and I have been together for a while so we have pretty open communication and I told him there’s a lot of things I need to work on,” Schauffele said.
“So no better place than to try and work on some things like THE PLAYERS Championship where you have water on almost every hole and you can start to feel really uncomfortable trying to move a ball off of water. I wanted to see where my game was at, and boy did I find out quickly. Am I surprised? No.
“This week was about getting back into playing golf, not playing golf swing and I was pretty open with Austin that I was going to play golf swing on the Saturday and Sunday and showed out, you know, I showed how good my stuff was there.”
Schauffele was also spotted putting plenty of practice in on the days leading up the Valspar.
And the world number three has admitted he’s probably doing a bit more than his medical team would want.
“Probably more than most of the people on my team want, but I feel pretty good and I’ve been pretty honest with them on how everything’s feeling, so so far so good,” Schauffele added.
Xander Schauffele shares which shots he’s still finding uncomfortable
Coming back from injury is hard for any golfer but with the modern golfer needing so much in their armoury in terms of shot making, there’s always going to be those that are a touch more difficult to execut.
And Schauffele has admitted that right now, there’s a few which are just proving a bit more difficult than he’d like.
“16, for example, I was trying to hit a little tight draw with a hybrid even, and the wind was helping, like six miles an hour or something, and I pull hooked it and across the luckily didn’t hit cart path, and ended up in the dirt by the tree,” Schauffele conceded.
“So just some small stuff where I can feel myself standing over the ball a little bit longer than I used to versus when I was playing a little bit better just thinking stuff. So just got to get that stuff out.”
When asked if he’s happy where his game and recovery is, Schauffele admitted he’s content so far.
“Yeah, it’s a process. I’m aware of that. I feel like Austin and I did a decent job just trying to plot along a golf course. This is one of those places where it can get away from you quick or you can kind of hang in there and your name will be up there on Sunday late in the day. So I’m just trying to play golf.”
With plenty to play for over the weekend, Schauffele will be hoping to reel the leaders in. Viktor Hovland is among those leaders, after finding some form of his own.
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