After The PLAYERS Championship, many golfers opted out of the Valspar Championship. However, World No. 3 Xander Schauffele is not among them.
Schauffele teed off at the Copperhead Course on Thursday at 8:13 am alongside Sepp Straka and Adam Scott.
And the 9-time PGA Tour winner had a solid reason to appear on the course. The Valspar Championship will be the 13th PGA Tour event of this season, and the PGA Tour pro has only appeared in only three of them.
Schauffele’s sudden rib injury pain, which forced him to withdraw from The American Express earlier this year, has not allowed him to find his form.
The two-time major winner returned to the course at the Arnold Palmer Invitational but struggled with his performance.
In his words, “When people come back from injury, whether it’s a wrist or a rib or a knee or something, whether you’re trying to train or push through something, people feel like, you know, you never really know if you’re fully healthy.”
This might be the reason why we haven’t seen the 31-year-old’s best performance yet. Schauffele’s performance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was a testament to this, as he carded a total of 4-over par with 14 bogies.
His Players Championship play was also subpar, finishing just one position away from missing the cut. Indeed, it is not his best, and Shauffele is aware of it, too.
It was “just a last-minute signup. I just need to get more reps. As I feel sort of better and better, I just need to get some reps under my belt,” he shared during the pre-tournament press conference.
He added, “Competition golf is not the same as trying to play golf at home. It’s been a process, and I’m pretty determined to play better.”
Schauffele posted a historic season in 2024, winning the PGA Championship and The Open. Therefore, expectations were sky high entering 2025.
“A high bar was set after last year, and coming off of that season, I expected a lot of myself, and I still do now, even though it hasn’t really looked like that.”
Last year, Schauffele finished in the top five at the Valspar Championship with an 8-under-par score. With the Masters just 21 days away, the San Diego, CA native understands the importance of momentum.
“I think the Masters is demanding, Augusta National is demanding, and you imagine you would like to; you would rather play good golf going in there than not,” Schauffele said.
If Thursday is any indication, he is moving in the right direction. Schauffele is 2-under through 16, tied for ninth.
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