Xander Schauffele’s frustrating season has left him with 1 question

Twelve months ago, Xander Schauffele arrived at the Genesis Scottish Open as one of the two best golfers in the world. He was the defending PGA champion and was one week away from winning the 2024 Open Championship. Scottie Scheffler was world No. 1, but if he looked in his rearview mirror, Schauffele was much closer than he appeared.

Things are different now for Schauffele. His 2025 season got derailed early by a rib injury. He fell into some bad swing habits and has spent the last few months trying to be that Xander Schauffele again.

“I’d say the belief is good,” Schauffele said Tuesday at Renaissance Club. “I don’t think I’ve given myself a lot of reasons to believe that I’m playing okay. It’s been a pretty bad year, to be completely honest.”

“Probably downplayed [the injury] in my own mind,” Schauffele said later. “Yeah, you’ll be fine, you’ve been playing great golf. You just came off the best year of your career. And I’ve backed it up currently with the worst year of my career. It’s been a hot one. Like I said, I’m trying to do the best I can.”

That year started with a T30 at the season-opening Sentry before the rib injury sidelined him until early March. Schauffele struggled upon his return. He battled to make the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and fired a Sunday 81 at the Players Championship. That week at TPC Sawgrass, Schauffele spent a lot of time on the range with his coach, Chris Como, trying to get back to the swing that brought him two major titles in 2024. The combination of the new swing he won with in 2024 and his first injury led to some issues he’s never dealt with before.

“I’d say bad habits,” Schauffele said. “It was still new — the way I was moving the club last year was still new, and the bad place I got the club to this year was new. So I’ve played plenty of — or hit a lot of bad shots from a certain place, but it was home for me. I’ve been playing from that, call it short and laid off and shut. I’ve played a lot of golf from there. So I was, you know, playing at home with it, missing my shots at home with it. So as soon as I come out to a tournament, I already know, it’s like my DNA. So plug in how I’ve overdone the club getting too far across and getting short. This is a spot I’ve never played from. It’s hard to create some sort of learning curve in a season that you’re trying to get back into. So just a bad matchup for me.”

Schauffele seemed to be on the upswing after the Players. He finished T12 at Valspar and T8 at the Masters. But he hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish since, with his best result being a T11 at the Truist Championship. Per Data Golf’s True Strokes Gained metric, Schauffele ranks 28th in Strokes Gained: Total (1.01). He ranks 78th off the tee (0.17), eighth in approach (0.77) and 106th in putting. For comparison, last season, Schauffele ranked second, fifth, second and fifth in those categories, respectively. The grind of the search has made him angry.

“Trying to get into some sort of contention to try and feel something again, other than upset,” Schauffele said of his goals for this two-week stink in the U.K. “I think I’ve just been angry-ish. That’s like been the biggest emotion of this is frustrating, versus why we love playing to be in contention and kind of see what you can do. But you know, that part’s been humbling. So you know, it’s a battle, and I’m going to try and win it.”

That work starts between the ears, where Schauffele admits he has had moments where his attitude slumped, but the grind back has taught him how important it is to be in the right mental place consistently. When that happens, the game normally follows.

“I’m very upset with how I’ve been playing. I’ve just really taken on this mindset of I looked at sort of how I would behave when things are going really well,” Schauffele said. “You know, there’s no need to be bipolar. Just make it as genuine as possible. If I’m shooting 80, I really don’t want anyone to look at me on the course and be like, that kid’s shooting 80. Doesn’t matter. I don’t care if guys get mad or sad or smash clubs or whatever. This is just a me thing. I know when I’m playing really well, I behave a certain way and my mind in a certain place. I’ve just been trying to rinse and repeat and plug myself in that position.”

The two-time major champion’s search is one of golf’s great paradoxes: Sometimes, the best swing thought arrives when your brain is off. Schauffele isn’t necessarily looking to turn his brain off as much as he’d rather distract it with something else. Like how the conditions and firm turn and heavy wind across the Atlantic Ocean can direct your attention away from the technical, more toward the fundamental.

“I wish I could have come over here and played earlier in the year, to be honest, just from a mental standpoint,” Schauffele said. “Something about playing over here relaxes me a little bit. I definitely try to play less golf swing.

“I was just thinking sort of when I come over here, how just coming off of nine holes, just being a little bit more creative, tapping into that other side of your brain. I was really beating up on myself for quite some time to try and get myself to play like I did last year, things of that nature, which isn’t really how you’re supposed to do it. But a victim of that, and something about being here, you start taking your hands off the wheel, and that’s how I played my best.”

Twelve months ago, Schauffele left Royal Troon with the Claret Jug and felt like, if he wasn’t on the same plane as Scheffler, he was at least really close. Climbing that mountain feels a lot steeper now, but Schauffele isn’t looking to do it in one fell swoop.

“Small victories is where I’m battling,” he said. “If I can play 72 holes without fiddling with my golf swing this week, that would be a massive win, and wherever I finish, I finish. That would be a good place for me to get to before I play next week.”

A lot has changed in a year for Xander Schauffele. He arrives back in Scotland, knowing his old form is still there, but he faces a question with no obvious answer: How do you find freedom when trapped in an all-consuming search for something that’s hard to find?

“What would make me really happy is that I can just play freely,” Schauffele said. “I think the obstacles of trying to play really good golf and then playing bad golf and then just fiddling all day long is really what drives me nuts. It’s why we love the game but it’s what’s driving me crazy. So if I can just get out of my own way, that would be the thing that would make me happiest right now more than even winning a tournament. That would just be the result.”