Xander Schauffele Reflects On ‘Worst Season’ Of Career To Date; Delighted With Toilet Portrait

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Xander Schauffele opens up ahead of the 2025 Genesis Scottish Open, revealing that this has been the most challenging season of his career.

But with the Open Championship at Royal Portrush just a week away, the Olympic gold medallist is feeling upbeat – both about his game and his recovery from a lingering rib injury. Schauffele also shared a lighter moment, expressing delight at his now-viral “toilet portrait” artwork.

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to the Genesis Scottish Open. You were obviously our first winner of the co-sanctioned era here at the Renaissance Club and it’s uh seems to be a tournament that’s become a pretty important part of your schedule. Can you just tell us how much you enjoy coming back here? Yeah, it definitely is. Um it’s important for me to get acclimated uh to the time. Um important to get used to the grass, the way the ball’s rolling, all those good things. So, um it’s definitely become a staple in my schedule. And obviously you played here last year before going on to win the open. I mean how important is it to have that sort of solid couple of weeks in the UK? I think it’s massive just across the board. Um just hard to replicate any sort of um tournament feel back home in the States where you know you can hit a an iron you know the same club you know a difference of 50 to 60 yards just based on how how you hit it or what kind of wind you get. So um there’s only one way to to to get that done and it’s coming over here. So whether it’s, you know, hitting drivers and crosswinds or getting used to a different bounce um with your wedge or trying to hit it over those big lips uh that you guys have over here. Um it’s it’s a lot of fun uh to prepare that way. Very good. Well, we hope it goes well this week. We will open up with Doug Ferguson over on the left. A familiar face. Oh boy. Pretty simple. Xander, just given the unusual um start to your year, where are you right now and what are your where’s your confidence level in your game and everything else? I’d say the belief is pretty good. I you know, I don’t I don’t feel like I’ve given myself a lot of reasons to believe that I’m playing okay. Um it’s been uh it’s been a pretty bad year to be completely honest. So, I’m definitely looking forward to I’ve been I feel like I haven’t really tried to add on too many other events and I’ve tried to just play to an incredible uh get to an incredible place with with less stars, which is really hard to do these days. So, I’m trying to, you know, I’m trying to do a lot of things. And, you know, I think the the best part of my game has probably been my mental just fortitude or whatever you want to call it. Just just trying try trying to stay positive and and behave as if I am playing really well. But, um, coming off a year like last year, getting hurt, and then coming back, obviously, my expectations and my playing ability uh haven’t really queued up uh very nicely. What’s the closest you’ve come to your uh great mental attitude being not so great? Um maybe Valpar kind of early on in the in the mix. Just had a couple feelings of what am I doing out here and Austin’s like we’re two off the lead so you should probably get it together and I was like yeah it’s a fair fair point. That’s probably the closest where it wasn’t really you know it just you know like I said I played incredibly well last year and um I was out for six weeks. First time I’ve ever been hurt. Didn’t really know what to expect coming back and um my mind and my the way I was playing golf of just look at the target and hit it at the target. Um didn’t really match up uh coming back uh at the beginning of the year and it’s still a work in progress, but uh you know I’ve been spoiled to be to play at a pretty high level for for quite some time. So um this has been a fun experience to try and get back on the horse. Okay, we got David. Commander, just going back to the injury, was it maybe a case of you um not appreciating quite uh how serious the impact was going to be or were you maybe even deliberately downplaying it because you didn’t want to be lucky for for sympathy? Uh yeah, I mean both probably. Uh I just, you know, try not to make a big deal out of it. Uh just for me personally, learning try to learn from it as much as possible. um more from an expectation standpoint, but uh yeah, probably downplayed it in my own mind being like, “Ah, you’ll be fine.” You know, you’ve been playing great golf. You just came off the best year of your career. Um and I’ve backed it up currently with the worst year of my career. So, um it’s it’s been a hot one. But, uh like I said, I’m I’m trying to do the best I can. as you tried to turn it around, how much of a a comfort level is it the fact that you haven’t just won here this uh this venue, you’ve also won next week’s tournament, all be it somewhere else. I mean, does that provide an extra layer of comfort? Yeah, there’s some some version of um I wish I could have come over here and played earlier in the year to be honest from just from a mental standpoint. Something about playing over here relaxes me a little bit. Um, I I definitely try to play less golf swing. Uh, you know, it looks like with the weather this weekend, it might be a little bit of golf swing, but um, normally, you know, when it’s blowing 25, 30, you know, some some wind and rain comes in, it’s pretty hard to to think about what you’re trying to do with the golf club in your swing versus just trying to keep your hands dry. So, um, there’s there’s something to it. Right, we go to Brian in the front row. Xander, good to see you once again. um by winning the open last year, how much has that changed your life? Um and in terms of being uh an open champion when you’re going into any tournament nowadays, do you find there’s more pressure on you? I mean, I feel like for a little bit I drank a little bit more than I normally do. Um that was probably the biggest change in my life that that I had was, you know, I was trending towards an alcoholic, but um no, it’s been it’s been awesome. you know, I really don’t feel like it’s been a weird it’s been a weird year for me just from coming off of my, you know, the year I had last year um into sort of what I did just kind of disappearing and then playing bad uh coming out of it. So any expectation I had of of whatever I thought I was capable of doing um you know from a field standpoint last year um has been sort of reset and I am in full chase mode um like a like a kid. Thanks for giving us a headline first of all. Yeah, please don’t use that one. A little context would be appreciated, but we’ll do that. Um, you mentioned you wish you’d come over a bit earlier. Is that something that in the future you might actually come to Europe a little bit more than you do at the moment? I mean, if there’s some some way for me to guarantee playing in in some sort of, you know, difficult condition um on Lynx Links Golf, it it could be. Yeah. I mean just I was just thinking sort of when I come over here how I play just coming off of nine holes just being a little bit more creative sort of tapping into that side of your brain. Um I was really beating up on myself for quite some time to try and get you know get myself to play like I did last year things of that nature which isn’t really you know how you’re supposed to do it but um you know victim of that and something about being here just kind of you sort of take your hands off the wheel and that’s how I play my best. All right, we’ll go to Ian at the back. Xander, just sort of touching on that. You say, you know, looking to go back to how you were playing last year. Is it is it is it as simple as that? Is it like looking at videos what you were doing 12 months ago and analyzing those and trying to incorporate them or is that is it not possible to go back to how you were because of the nature of of golf and the way that you developed? I was going to say if it was possible, you know, I probably would have it would would have felt like almost won every tournament I’ve played in this year, but I’ve been pretty far from that. So, yeah, there’s uh I I’ve played pretty good golf from different places. I played really really good golf in in a play from a certain place last year whether you call it attached to that or not. Um my mind was definitely there and um a lot of you know too much comparison I guess uh from from this and that for myself versus just sort of I don’t know getting back to some some basic things. So, a little bit, you know, we’re trying to dip into that sort of video uh pond last year and looking at what’s going on and and sort of what I’m doing poorly this year. And then the hardest part has just been sort of, like I said, taking the hands off the wheel and and feel like I’m just, you know, swinging and and playing golf. Okay. Over on the right here. Yeah. Is you mentioned earlier that it’s it’s probably been the toughest season of your career so far. I’m just curious in terms of as a person and as a golfer, what’s the biggest thing you’ve learned about yourself? Well, I knew I was stubborn. Um, still, you know, I don’t know if I learned that bit, but uh, yeah, I’m not sure. I mean, I I I think I’m uh, you know, it’s there’s no I I don’t feel too stressed. I’m very upset with how I’ve been playing. Um, I’ve just really taken on this mindset of, uh, I looked at sort of how I would behave when things were going really well. And um you know there’s no need to be bipolar. So just make it as genuine as possible. You know, if I’m shooting 80, you I really don’t want anyone to to look at me on the course and be like, “That kid’s shooting 80.” You know, there’s a few guys and doesn’t matter. You know, I don’t really care if guys get mad or or sad or or smash clubs or whatever. This is more of a me thing. So, um I just know when I’m when I’m playing really well, I you know, I behave a certain way and and my mind’s in a certain place and I’ve just been trying to rinse and repeat plug myself in that in that position. So, um, but yeah, you know, the year’s I still have a few a few tournaments this year and we’ll see what I can do. Yeah, I was I was reading earlier that there’s a new partnership been announced with a a Scottish clothing company that you’ve now become an ambassador for. I’m just wondering if you can give us a little bit of background on that and the concept behind it. What’s that? Theo Health. No. Oh, it was announced online earlier. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sorry. looking at my agent. I was like I was working through that with in such prototype um yeah lovely people doing it. Yeah, it’s uh the sensors sort of to see um when I saw it it was very prototype stage. I mean we were like shaving bits of my leg off to put the sensors in to see sort of how um it basically it’s it’s more of a recovery um recovery uh look in terms of you know when you get hurt, how you know how are your legs firing, how are certain parts of your body firing. Um, and you use sensors to see sort of if there’s a a matchup on your left and right. And that’s at least what I when I went through the prototype type phase, we were looking at sort of my legs. And when I was doing a squat or a lunge or a single leg lunge or um just the the side to side comparison of of sort of the output um of each leg and if it’s firing correctly. So um the way it was explained to me was sort of if you’re coming back from injury, it’s a really unique and and interesting way to to recover. Sorry, this makes me look terrible. I was like, goodness. See, now we know that someone hasn’t stolen your identity. We’ll go over. Hi, Zender. You’ve talked about this week being a preparation for next week. What are the specifics of how that looks both today and maybe tomorrow? And how does that differ from a typical tour week? I’d say uh flight’s a big thing. Um, a lot of it’s just feeling comfortable with the window, maybe playing the ball a little bit further back. uh wedge grind, a little bit less uh bounce on a wedge and then turf conditions. I mean, I think the clubs are, you know, depending on how much it rains, you know, the club’s going through the ground a little bit differently than than maybe back home, but um other than that, you know, and then green speeds are are a bit slower. So, uh other than those few things, um I’d say that’d be it. Okay, we’ll go to Bob. You talked earlier about um how last year was more just target and swing and when you came back from the injury, are you a little surprised you just didn’t pick that right back up or was there maybe even um a possibility that you favored it some and and got into some bad habits? I’d say bad habits, you know, it was still new. the way I was moving the club last year was still new and then the bad place I got the club to um this year was new. So I’ve played plenty of or hit a lot of bad shots from a certain place but I I it was home for me. I’ve been playing from that, you know, call it short and laid off and shut. I’ I’ve played a lot of golf from there. So I was, you know, playing at home with it, missing missing my shots at home with it. So as soon as I come out to a tournament, you know, I already know that’s like my DNA. And so plug in sort of how I’ve overdone maybe the club getting too far across and then it got short and this is a spot I’ve never played from. So um it’s hard to create a some sort of learning curve in a season that you’re trying to get back into. Um so just a bad bad matchup for me. Uh what do you remember about Port Rush and how do you think it suits you and and uh and and going back there next week? It’s uh I I just remember it being the most rain I’ve ever like the hardest rain I’ve ever played in. Um almost to where you’re like, “Wow, we’re still golfing.” You know, that’s sort of what I remember. Um but, uh I remember a few holes, not you know, not anyone specifically. Uh but like I said, I always enjoy the challenge, so looking forward to relearning the course. Bob, if you just pass back to Rex, please. I think so. Sandra, are there any lingering effects from the injury or 100%. Yeah, I mean, I feel 100%. You know, there’s definitely stuff we look out for to make sure um you know, just in terms of like, you know, T-spine mobility, things of that nature to make sure I’m moving moving good. So, um but I’d say um I’m I feel 100%. And I know this can be a little esoteric, but is there one part of your game that you feel like you need to from last year to this year is different? Uh, I mean it’s just bad across the board. So, I mean I guess no would be, you know, there’s a lot a lot of parts. There isn’t just one. Okay, back to the front. You know that we always like to talk about the RDER Cup on this side of the Atlantic. And I think in this room last year, we like talking about it back in the days, too. You you you told us last year that you wanted some of the player functions cut back. It’s still up in the air, but how would you feel about a plane captain? Do you think a playing captain’s possible if that’s the the route Keegan goes down? Yeah, I mean it clearly he’s earning it. If you ask him, he’s playing the best golf of his career. We just we just want our best 12 playing, you know. I think that’s sort of, you know, what what it really comes down to. So, um, he is just flying up that qualifying that standings leaderboard. And would I be surprised if he got into the top six and just wasn’t even a conversation anymore? I don’t think I’d be very surprised. I don’t think he would either. But um you know if he doesn’t it’s going to be a a fun fun situation for himself but I think he’s surrounded himself with really good vice captains and um which you know I don’t think he’s going to make a decision he regrets. Do you see any obstacles if he was a playing captain? I mean you’d have to you’d have to sort of pass some responsibility just because you you know you got to prepare and practice and you know get your head in the right place. So some it would probably be some sort of co- captaincy. I mean, it wouldn’t be that, but you know, on paper, he’d still be, but at the end of the day, you know, it’s it’s a they’re big shoes to fill and to do it all alone would be really difficult, even if he wasn’t playing. Stay in the front with Craig. Hi, Z. You’ve touched on obviously the reasons why and the injury and stuff, but golf’s very fickle and very forgetful, you know, and at the end of last year, you’re the man, you’ve got two majors, you’re you’re sort of almost top dog. The start of this year was Rory this, Rory that doesn’t. So then it’s been Scottish air for this, Scottish air for that. We’re used to that though. So not ego, but just competitive fire. How much do you want to be in that conversation again? Don’t forget about me. I’m one of these I’m one of these guys. I mean, it’s not I don’t I don’t play I don’t go to bed at night saying like, “Please talk about me.” You know, it was nice to see my photo up by the toilet. That was, you know, heartwarming. Summed up summed up how I feel about what’s going on right now. Um so, uh I actually chuckled when I saw that one. Um uh but no, I I don’t I don’t play for those reasons. I I um I I really just want to play good golf. I just Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I’m I’m pretty content with with myself, you know. I I definitely feel happy when I’m away from, you know, frustrated, but in general happy. I I really what would make me really happy is that I can just play freely. 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 um it’s what it’s what’s driving me crazy. So, if I can just kind of get out of my own way, that would that would be the, you know, the thing that would make me happiest right now more than, you know, even winning a tournament, that would just be the result. All right. And I think last one with Doug, you mentioned uh you were in chase mode. What What exactly are you chasing? I mean, just Yeah. playoffs, trying to get, you know, get into some sort of contention to try and feel something again, you know, um other than upset. I think I’ve just been angryish. Um that’s like been the biggest emotion of just this is frustrating versus, you know, why why we love playing is is to be in contention and and kind of see what you can do. Um but, you know, that part’s been humbling. Um, so you know, it’s it’s it’s a battle and you know, I’m going to try and win it. You you you talk about belief. Do you believe you can win this week? Is that what you’re is that what belief is like? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. You know, like I said, I haven’t really showed a lot of signs, but um when I’m when I’m playing really well, I I believe I can win every tournament. And it shouldn’t, you know, that’s like a separate belief. It shouldn’t be too attached to sort of how you’re playing. I think that’s just how your mentality should be. So, um I’m I’m I’m going to hang my hat on that one. I’m dying on that hill, Doug. Die away. And one one more. Um cuz you mentioned Scotty a minute ago with with what he’s done in terms of the the world ranking. I’m sure everyone has aspired to be number one at some point. Is that something you just kind of put aside for now? Everyone else. Yeah. I remember talking about some sort of mountain and and climbing up it. I mean, this is a steep steep mountain now, you know. Um, yeah, it’s, uh, I was really concerned about it when I was, you know, firing at a high level. I feel like I could kind of win every week. And right now, I’m just, like I said, small small victories is where I’m I’m I’m battling. You know, if we can move my photo away from the toilet, that’d be awesome. I’m just kidding. You can leave it there for the next 10 years. Um, no, I’m just I’m just Yeah, if I can if I can play 72 holes without fiddling with my golf swing this week, that’d be a massive win. And wherever I finish, I finish. Uh, that’d be a good place for me to get to before I play next week. If you could write headlines, would you go with alcoholism or game in the toilet? Well, I mean, the the writers are pretty creative over here, so you know, we’ll see what you got, Doug. All right. All right. All right.