Xander Schauffele: ‘I felt dumb, I felt unprofessional, I felt irresponsible’

Xander Schauffele said he felt "unprofessional" during his time off with a rib injury.

It’s been a miserable year so far for an injury-plagued Xander Schauffele. But having been given the all-clear, he is prepared to reflect openly on one of the more challenging periods of his career to date.

Heading to last year’s PGA Championship, the same doubts haunted Xander Schauffele.

The Californian had not long turned 30 and there were question marks over whether or not he could get it done on the big stage.

Everything clicked that week at Valhalla, and two months later he put on a sublime showing at Royal Troon, gently turning the screw on his nearest rivals as he first put one hand, and then two, on the Claret Jug. Just like that, golf’s nearly man was halfway to the Grand Slam.

It seems, then, inexplicable that Schauffele comes into the 89th Masters as low down as ninth favourite with those who price up these sorts of things.

Understandable, perhaps, given our sport’s most recent major champion has barely played due to a rib injury that kept him out for long spells at a time – including two months between the season-opener at The Sentry and the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

But Schauffele has since been handed a clean bill of health. Music to the ears of those who believe he can get beat the odds here this week and pull on what will feel like a long overdue Green Jacket on Sunday.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever sat and talked about how I’ve felt underestimated,” Schauffele explained. “It’s how people would talk about me when I was playing well. It’s nice.

“I haven’t been in great form, but the only thing that really matters is that I think I can win and my team thinks I can win, and everyone else can just talk about whatever they talk about.”

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But that wasn’t the only open and honest assessment from Schauffele, who was refused to put his injury woes down to pure misfortune. Instead, this was one time he was happy to look in the mirror.

“I definitely didn’t feel unlucky,” he said. “I felt dumb, I felt unprofessional, I felt irresponsible, and I felt sad. Then I was motivated, then I felt sad again. Then motivated finally.

“I don’t know if there is a grieving process, but I dealt with it on my own. I knew I was going to come back and play, I just didn’t know when.

“I feel like I’m a kid. I just want to go out and play golf and compete at a high level, and that was stripped away from me. Luckily I have a very supportive wife and family to keep me entertained during the downtime.”

It was also a learning curve for the 31-year-old.

“Maybe I was more emotionally unstable than I thought I was through certain weeks,” he said with a smile. “Everything is gravy when it’s gravy.

“It was a nice wake-up call to maybe be a little more responsible when need be.”

As for how he spent that downtime, Schauffele said he was able to “catch up on some dinners with some friends” – both in his native San Diego and his current home of Jupiter, Florida – as well as spending time with his wife, Maya, and their dogs during days he would normally be away at a tournament.  

“I watched a lot of shows, a lot more shows than I [thought],” he added. “It wasn’t that hard to sit on the couch for five hours and, dang, I can see how people get behind bingeing five hours of shows. It’s not that hard.

“But it was a while since I was able to do that. I literally was just stalling for six weeks.”

He also watched a lot of golf.

“It’s funny,” he said. “When you’re in the mix it’s hard to see certain things. I’m peanut gallery, too – ‘Everyone knows you can’t short-side yourself there!’ Stupid stuff like that.

“No, it was a reminder of how much I love to play and compete. Guys talk about, ‘Oh, I’ve been on tour for 20 years, things go by so fast.’ For me it’s been eight or nine years, but it has gone by very fast. To be able to take a step back after winning two majors and accomplishing a lot, to still feel some fire burning watching other guys playing really well is a huge thing because at some point in my life that’s not going to happen. So I’m lucky that it’s still learning.”

Write Schauffele off at your peril.