U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2020

September 20, 2020

Xander Schauffele

Winged Foot Golf Club

Flash Interview

Q. Xander Schauffele, 4-over 74. Xander, what are your takeaways from this week?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's a really hard golf course. Simple enough. Hitting it far helps. Yeah, I got a bit exposed there on the back nine, so happy to finish with a birdie.

Q. Xander, I know you say you don't pay attention to what other people do. You have to focus on yourself. At any point, did you glance up at the leaderboard today?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, I was looking all day. I was hanging tough there for a bit. That back side, that stretch hasn't been too kind to me this week. They're all into the wind, kind of you've got to shape it off the tee.

I wasn't hitting it great. I was there for a little. Obviously, Bryson being at 6 under now, I didn't have enough holes and not enough game to get there.

Yeah, I was looking at the board for a bit, though.

Q. What are your thoughts on Bryson just in general and what he's done in transforming his body?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, he's a man of his word. I said it last night, if there's anyone that I was worried about, it was him. Everyone talked about hitting fairways out here. It's not about hitting fairways. It's about hitting on the correct side of the hole and hitting it far so you can kind of hit a wedge instead of a 6 iron out of the rough.

Yeah, he's sort of trending in the new direction of golf, and he said he wanted to do everything he's doing, and yeah, happy for him. He's playing unbelievable.

Q. How does the challenge of a U.S. Open at a narrow venue like Winged Foot compare to a place like Royal Melbourne?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Just different. You've got rough. Melbourne is similar with slopes and undulations, but for the most part, it's just the rough and positioning. You can get some fast crusty putts.

Similar on the greens, I'd say, and coming into the greens, but for the most part, off the tee, Melbourne is a little more forgiving.

Q. U.S. Open next year in kind of your backyard at Torrey. Just your initial thoughts?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I've never played very well at Torrey, looking forward to trying to improve on that. Maybe it will be a U.S. Open, and it will be something I like more than just a normal tournament. Yeah, just going to try and maybe sneak out there a few more times. It is a public course. People don't realize how much traffic is on there. Excited to be on the West Coast.

Q. Going back to what you said before about Bryson, do you feel like he's revolutionizing the game?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: No. If you look at just people that have dominated, it's always been distance. Obviously, Tiger had the mix of touch and feel and everything. If you look back at he was sort of the first guy to really hit it far with those clubs. Jack hit is really far as well. All the greats hit it pretty far for the most part. It's no longer sort of a touchy-feely game.

The only way to make a golf course really hard is to firm up the greens and grow the rough. It's going to make it hard for everyone, and you'd rather be the guy in the rough with a lob wedge than with an 8 iron or 7 iron.

Revolutionize? Maybe he's just exposing our game in terms of, if he keeps hitting it further and further, I don't see why he wouldn't be able to win many more U.S. Opens.