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Xander Schauffele heads into the BMW Championship with a clear mindset — “I have absolutely nothing to lose.” Sitting in his lowest FedExCup position in years, the Olympic champion opens up about his season struggles, his positive outlook, and what it will take to secure a spot at East Lake. Can Schauffele flip the switch and deliver under playoff pressure?
Good afternoon. We’d like to welcome Xander Schoffley to the 2025 BMW Championship. Xander, you’re making your ninth appearance at the BMW Championship. Can we just get some opening comments on what it’s like to be back at Caves Valley? Yeah, it’s uh been a long year, so just trying to chip away and uh you know, try and use the playoffs to my advantage if that’s possible. So, um it’s nice to be back here at Caves. The course is obviously very different. Um and yeah, looking forward to a to a nice warm week. You’re number 43 in the FedEx Cup standings. Can you just talk about the state of your game as you try to make East Lake next week? Yeah, definitely been trying pretty hard to to get something going. Um it’s been a work this year has been sort of a work in progress to get to get back into some good form. So, uh, still still work in progress and, uh, like I said, I’m just, uh, you know, 50 guys and it’s a small field and I’ve played well in them before, so um, why not do it again? All right, we’ll open it up to questions. We’ll start over here with Bob. Xander, you said a couple of times earlier this year that you’ve been chasing, you know, chasing points, whatever, and and now you’re sort of in that ultimate position. I don’t think you’ve ever really been in this position your entire career. I probably Thanks, Bob. Yeah, sorry. Probably been set for the Tour Championship. Just Just curious what what that is like being in this position really. Maybe for the first time. Yeah, this is this is my worst worst position I’ve ever been in. you know, injury aside, it just is, you know, even my rookie year, I was in in a better position. Um, so it it sort of kind of has that rookie rookie year vibe to me a little bit. Just sort of um need to need to work my way through the playoffs. So, I got this is kind of this is kind of it for my for myself and my team and um just going to try and leave it all out there. But, uh, yeah, it’s been it’s been it’s been nice to sort of be in, you know, play you definitely play a little bit freer when you know you’re kind of in till the end. Um, and I’m trying to sort of get that freedom as well because I have absolutely nothing to lose. I was going to follow with that. Just do you approach this tournament then with more of a go for broke kind of strategy? Like can he even play golf that way from the first round on? Uh, not out here. Um, you know, it’s a big property. Um, there’s several, you know, mounds and the greens are a little bit firmer and, you know, if it doesn’t rain at all, then the greens will be even crustier. And, um, it it’s it’s tough. The I mean, I don’t know. Last time I was here, you know, I remember so many people were under par so early in rounds and I I just don’t see it. So, I’ve been proven wrong by everyone out here um, and myself at times. So, hopefully I can do that. We’ll go to Paul right here and then Doug. Alexander, at least statistically, you kind of look at your profile, had a great driving year last year. This year kind of that’s fallen back. Do you feel like that’s a product of stuff just with the rib with the swing changing at all compensating for that? Like when you look at that and you see that that’s been a struggling part of the game, like where does your head go? Ju just a I mean if I look at my stats there’s a few sort of outlier events where I drove it horrendously and putted horrendously and chipped horrendously and you know I think the irons were sort of something that I kind of hung on to. I was able to sort of manage that around certain events but there was there’s a few events where I I kind of went for broke and it definitely you know statistically hurt myself uh pretty heavily. So, uh, that was a little bit earlier when I came back. It sort of mellowed out a little bit in in previous months, but yeah, just just some bad habits and some new some new bad habits, I should say, and uh, a learning curve that, you know, I’ve been trying to trying to get used to. And then just between the driving and the putting, is there one that’s been kind of more frustrating and trying to figure out or just frustrating that it’s not clicking? Uh, yeah. I mean, yes and no. I mean, both probably. Not one more than the other, you know. Um, when it’s some, you know, when it feels like it’s your weapon and then, you know, you’re sort of intimidated by, you know, a club that you used to love, uh, you know, you have to try and mentally get over that. And just quickly, are you still working with Chris? I am. Yeah. We’ll go to Doug. Given your, uh, reputation as being one of the most positive players in the history of the game, has it been tested this year? Yeah, for sure. You know, I’d say something about sort of finding it in the dirt. Um through that process, it’s pretty easy to sort of lose lose your head. So, definitely been been challenged uh this year more more than before. Um which is, you know, refreshing. Where are you now? You know, it’s it’s a work in progress. You know, I I uh I saw you creeping out there on the range, Doug. I saw you. Um, you’re creeping on me while I was trying to hit some balls. I can’t remember what night that was, but it’s hard to miss your shirt. Um, what’s that? I was I was progressing. Yeah. But uh, yeah, it’s been it’s been one of those things where, you know, I’m trying to find a cue or feel or just something I can go with and um, you know, kind of still still in the hunt for it, but I think it’s going a little bit better. Just want to ask you at what point you talked about, you know, positivity being tested. Was there was there a point where you were tested more than usual this year? I mean, you just get you sort of get used to um you know, not that I took it for granted playing good golf, but you know, I know it’s sort of in there. You know, my body knows it. I’ve done it. I know I can do it. And then to know what a problem is and then not really know how to fix it is is the most frustrating. I had some frustration before when I didn’t know what the problem was and I’m sort of shooting in the dark um and having no clue what to do and and now it’s sort of all right this is the issue how do we fix it this is you know being difficult so frustrating in different ways all right we just have time for one more I had five more thank goodness thank you we’ll go over here to the right um with that search I mean do you go back and look at your old swing. How much are you looking at what you did before and how much are you trying to find is it is it is that in the past and you kind of work towards the future of what’s going to work now or like how do you kind of find that middle ground and that that balance knowing what you’ve done? Yeah, it’s it’s tricky tricky to to compare and and contrast sort of you know oh I won two majors when I felt like this. I mean, I felt like my swing was was different when I, you know, between Valhalla and and the Open, they were they were different to me. And that’s comforting knowing that, you know, it doesn’t have to be one one thing. There there are a few components that are important that I’ve sort of haven’t done very well um that I was doing at both those events. So, uh trying to get trying to hammer those down more more than sort of the overall thing. All right. Thank you, Xander. Good luck this week. Thanks. And then we have All right. All right. All right.
