TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 6, 2020

Xander Schauffele

East Lake Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. You've been in this position two years in a row, having a chance on Sunday with the final round going at the TOUR Championship. Is there any part of you -- I think you're leading the tournament if you take the strokes base away. Is there any part of you that thinks what could be?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: No, just because it's the format. It's been set. It's pretty -- I think they changed the format so it's even more clear for the viewing audience to understand it, and it's even clearer for us looking at the board.

Dustin is going to be at 18 or 19, I'll be at 14, and we'll fight from there tomorrow morning.

Q. Is there anything you learned from last year going kind of down the stretch?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, last year didn't hit my driver very well. I scrambled a lot. I remember even par felt like a win to me. I'm hoping I can get off to a better start. Staying patient early, it's kind of hard to force it here at East Lake. You have to let the birdies come to you naturally and forcing it really didn't work, and I think I got a little antsy last year and was able to kind of pull it off and hang in there.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and be as patient as possible. I'm five back, and if I can get off to a decent start you never know what happens.

Q. You mentioned how well Dustin has been playing. How would you handicap the prospects of chasing him down?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Well, I mean, he's showcased what he can do. If he does what he normally does, it's going to be almost impossible to catch him. I can try and influence him, which he probably won't really care about. If I birdie the first three holes it's not going to faze him. It's DJ. We've seen him do it for 20 plus years now, and I just have to try and be better.

Q. When you get something going and look at the leaderboard and see that you didn't made a dent, is that --

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yes and no. That's why those playoff events early are so important. You have to get yourself close, where I'm not in a position where I can afford to have a bad round. I have to have 66 -- sub-66 rounds just to try and catch up to him, and I haven't done that every round and he's pulling away.

I think, like I said, I just need to be better and hope for the best at this point.