Xander Schauffele catches up with Todd Lewis to discuss his mindset entering the FedExCup Playoffs, sharing how he is keeping his head down and taking it one day at a time to hone in his game. Also, hear from Collin Morikawa and the latest on Scottie Scheffler. #Golf #NBCSports #FedExCup
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Xander Schauffele ‘not shying away’ from challenge of playoff run | Golf Central | Golf Channel
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Golf Central on YouTube is brought to you by the new Chrome Tour Golf Ball from Callaway. And here is the schedule for the next three weeks. The FedEx St. Jude this week. 50 will survive to Caves Valley outside of Baltimore for the BMW Championship next week. And then finally, the grand and lucrative finale, the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta, August 21 through 24. Well, at the beginning of each season, we’re all a little bit envious of Todd Lewis since he tends to start January in Maui and Honolulu. This week, though, not so much. August in Memphis can get pretty steamy. Think everything evens out, right, Todd? Yeah, you’re right. But it’s not as hot today, but that will change starting tomorrow. We’re going to creep up into the low to mid 90s. And you talk about starting in Maui. Well, Xander Schoff did the same thing, starting his season at the Century, but after that, he took two months off because of a nagging right rib injury. And when he returned to the PGA Tour, well, he just wasn’t the same Xander Schoffle that we have seen in the previous years. His game really has suffered. However, over the last two weeks, we start seeing flashes of the old Xander at the Genesis Scottish Open and at the Open. Both top 10 finishes in those tournaments. He led the field in strokes gained approach in Scotland. and we saw some flashes of his strong putting throughout his career in those two tournaments as well. I caught up with Xander today and I asked him if things are starting to finally come together at just the right time. I’m trying to make it come together, I promise. Uh yeah, they were they were pretty solid finishes or starts or whatever you want to call it. And yeah, I’m I feel like I’ve just been putting my head down uh the last bit of this season. You know, I really enjoyed playing you know, through the through the playoffs, you know, I’ve been fortunate in years past to sort of position myself better and I’m not shying away from, you know, the challenge that I’m facing now. Sort of I got to play well each each playoff event in order to get to the final one. How close do you feel like you are to having freedom with your swing? Uh, pretty close. You know, it’s it’s just funny. It’s just another season that’s almost is wrapping up and if if I start playing well late in the season, that’s totally fine with me. You know, as long as I start playing well, it’s all good with me. What attitude do you bring to the playoffs? because this is bam bam bam. Uh as you try to win the FedEx Cup, it’s uh I’m I’m not even really thinking of in years past I was thinking of how can I win this? What have I done in the past? What have I done differently? This year I’m like I’m just trying to survive. Survive. Yeah. I’m trying to survive. You know, I’m not guaranteed into BMW whatsoever. You know, there’s 4x points here and I have to, you know, beat certain players and play well to to get into BMW. So once that happens, I got to play well in BMW to get into East Lake. So, one thing, you know, one thing at a time and I’m just trying to play some really good golf this week and have that sort of nothing to lose mentality. Well, from a game plan perspective, does that force you to play maybe cautiously or more aggressive or is it about the same around uh TPC Southwind? You sort of uh play how however you you know feel like you fit and match up with the course. It’s not really a place you want to force things. There’s no need to. um 330 yards in the rough is you’d rather be 2 275 in the fairway. So there’s a lot of holes where you just need to be in the fairway and you can kind of control it especially with these greens being new and a little bit firmer. Well, Xander continues to play well and makes his way to East Lake for the Tour Championship. Look out. He’s got a great record there. He won the FedEx Cup there at East Lake. His scoring average is just over he won the tour championship I should say there at East Lake and his scoring average is just over 67. So Xander seems to be going in the positive direction. Kamore Kawa, he’s kind of flattened out a bit. His last two starts, miscut, miscut. So he’s trying to come to the FedEx Cup playoffs with a positive attitude. I caught up with him today and I asked him, are you going to look at the FedEx Cup playoffs as one big event or three individual tournaments? I think it depends where you’re at in the rankings, right? So if you are in the top five or top 10 coming into the playoffs, you can kind of look at it slightly differently. But where I’m at, where I’m sitting, you got to make sure you survive in advance. So you have to kind of chunk them up, say, “Look, we’re at, you know, St. Jude uh FedEx St. Jude Classic and and you got to figure that out. How do you survive from 70 into 50? How do you survive from 50 into 30?” And um ultimately give yourself a chance to win the tour championship. How would you describe mentally and emotionally this 3-week stretch for you guys? It’s a grind. You know, it’s been a grind. And every once we hit roughly the players and then that kind of rolls into the masters and then that rolls into the PGA and you know it kind of goes forth. It’s it it is all a grind, right? The months become very condensed or weeks become a lot shorter because you’re putting so much time into that that you want to get a little bit more out of that. But for the playoffs, it’s just it goes by very quickly and like I said, every shot matters. comes down to points, comes down to a half shot, a shot out there, and um you just can’t be willing to give out any of that because, you know, at the end of the day, you do want to make it to the end. Colin, what do you do individually to make sure that you’re mentally fresh for this grind? Um nothing special, right? We’ve done it before. We’ve played three weeks. Uh we’ve played three hard weeks before. And I think it’s just making sure you do the right things in the prep. You know, this week can be a hot week. The next three weeks can be very hot, humid, sweating a lot. So, you just kind of step out there knowing you got to do the right steps when you’re out there. Be effective with your practice. Get out, relax, reset. Uh, I know the FedEx Cup is a major motivation, but there’s another motivation next month, and that is the Ryder Cup. Do you feel like you have still something to prove these next few weeks that you should be back on that team? Uh, I mean, look, at the end of the day, great golf takes care of itself. And I know I haven’t done that and I’ve made it harder on myself, but um look, I feel like I I bring something to that team hopefully that, you know, no one else can. And and at the end of the day, like I said, good golf takes care of a lot, right? So depending where I put my focus, obviously a huge huge goal is to make that team. I want to be there. I want I want to be representing the red, white, and blue. I’ve done it in the past, and like I said, there’s no other feeling like it. There really isn’t, right? Stepping on that first tea, wearing wearing your color. So, um, I I’ve got some work to do, but for me, it it’s proving to myself that I know I I’m the golfer that I I know I can be. So, I’m I’m getting back to that game’s feeling a little bit better, and hopefully we can put it together for three weeks. Few months ago, Colin Morat looked to be a lock for the United States Rder Cup team, but I mentioned he has stumbled in his last two tournaments. If he doesn’t play well in the FedEx Cup playoffs, well, that may make Keegan Bradley think as to whether or not Colin should be on that team or not. But Moral wants to eliminate any doubt for Keegan Bradley. He wants to play well this week and next week at the BMW Championship to automatically qualify for that team. Aean Todd, one guy who doesn’t seem to have any doubt surrounding him right now, Scotty Sheffler. He’s expected to talk to the media tomorrow, but you were keeping an eye on the world number one earlier today. Is there any cause why the rest of the field should have hope this week? Um, that’s a good question. I from what I saw of Scotty Sheffller today, I didn’t see much stress surrounding the world’s top player. He was out here very loose playing a nine-h hall practice round, getting used to these new greens here at TBC Southwind, thinking that they may be a little firm and fast, but he said they’re actually a little more receptive than he anticipated. Now, Scotty, of course, we last saw him competitively playing at Royal Port Rush, where he won the Open. As soon as that championship was over, he flew home to Dallas, then immediately went to New York for the premiere of Happy Gilmore 2. He is a part of that uh very popular movie, and some say he’s probably the best player/ actor in the movie. There is no Academy Award category for that, by the way. And then he went to LA for some business after that. Then decompressed a bit at his home in Dallas last week. Started practicing, getting ready for the FedEx Cup playoffs. And then started playing some golf Friday, Saturday, and at home in Dallas. and then came here to get ready for this championship. Like I said, he’s in a very positive state of mind. He probably right now because it’s a vote amongst the players has the player of the year locked up once again on the PGA tour, especially with Rory not in the field, missing an opportunity to possibly win again and decrease that gap between he and Scotty Sheffller. But Sheffller is going to speak to the media tomorrow. I’m sure he’s going to get some questions about Happy Gilmore and his acting abilities. Uh but he is in a very very positive state of mind and he wants to win the FedEx Cup once again to continue his track on being an elite all-time player. Well, he’s winning every other award. What’s an Academy Award on top of that? Thanks, Todd. We’ll check in with you again right in just a couple of moments. Well, the FedEx Cup playoffs can be found exclusively on the NBC family of networks. Coverage of the first two rounds from Memphis begins on Golf Channel 2 p.m. Eastern time. Then on the weekend, we get things started at 1:00 p.m. on Golf Channel Saturday and 2 noon on Sunday before moving over to NBC for the conclusion of Play.
