Xander Schauffele put last week’s disappointing performance behind him and prepared to tackle the “gnarly” rough and “diabolical” greens at Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia.
He enters this week’s PGA Championship after finishing in a tie for 60th place, 17 shots behind the winner, at the Truist Championship in Charlotte, N.C.
“It’s significantly lower, obviously,” Schauffele said Tuesday when asked to compare his confidence level to when he won the PGA Championship for his first of two major wins in 2024.
“I finished close to last place last week. I’m actually feeling kind of good, surprisingly. It’s one of those things where I tried my absolute hardest and almost came in last place last week, and that’s just sometimes how a bad day in the office goes, but still beats being inside.”
On the heels of his finish at Quail Hollow, Schauffele said he was looking forward to this week.
“I don’t want to jinx it, you know what I’m saying? Yeah, confidence is a tricky thing,” he said. “I didn’t have a whole lot last week, was a little bit in my head on what I was capable of doing. I actually did a few things pretty decent last week, surprisingly. Hopefully, I can kind of drag a little bit of that into this week.”
Schauffele, 32, is still looking for his first win of the season to go along with his third-place effort at The Players Championship and T4 finish at the Valspar Championship in March, and T9 at the Masters in April.
The World No. 11 knows the keys this week will be avoiding the rough and finding the friendliest spots on the tricky greens.
“This is the type of rough where you can’t get a ball to curve at all,” he said. “You just grab a high-lofted club and hit a knuckleball and have it kind of trundle somewhere.”
Schauffele also shared his putting strategy.
“If you get aggressive to certain pins and short-side yourself, you’re going to hit it to 20 or 30 feet at best, just based on how the surface, how fast and firm it is and how much it runs away from you,” he said.
“But at the same time, there’s certain pockets where you can — little fingers on the greens where you can hit a really good shot and get rewarded for it, depending on firmness, obviously. The greens are definitely the thing to prepare for for this tournament. I think it will be fun to watch.”
