WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPEN

February 4, 2021

Xander Schauffele

TPC Scottsdale

Quick Quotes

Q. Are you satisfied with that opening round?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah. I think so. It's just nice to get off to a good start. I think I'm three back. If someone shoots lower than 8, then that would be a hell of a round. But for the most part it was pretty clean. I had a couple clunky chips here and there; I duffed one. So definitely stuff I still need to work on and perfect, but overall, yeah, generally happy.

Q. I know it's been a while since you won, but at the same time you have been very consistent with your tournament finishes. How good do you think you are right now? Are you kind of close to where you want to be?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I think so. I think just as I get older, I deal with situations better on the course. You know, I feel like I am in a good place. I just need to really stay patient and not really try and force things and try to get back to my sort of lower expectations kind of attitude from my rookie year. I think that's sort of how I rattle off wins, and with a little more experience now in certain situations I can kind of combine the two, and that's what I'm trying to do and see if that works. I'm trying everything.

Q. Do you believe you have gotten in your own way, as they say in sports psychology terms?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, absolutely. You get hungry and everyone around you starts winning and you just want to join the bunch and all you want to do is win, and you forget about the nitty-gritty and the small things on your way, so just try and work on the small stuff.

Q. Does it mean something to you, though, to be one of the most consistent players out here?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I think if you look back at my rookie year or sophomore year on TOUR even, my third year, I spoke about becoming a more well-rounded player, and I'm in that boat of chasing. I haven't really won. My world ranking has gone up and I am playing more consistent golf, but I'm still not doing what I want to do. I guess it's a good thing. It keeps me hungry and keeps me humble, but yeah, the ultimate goal is winning and it kind of just dangles right in front of you every tournament, and you just try your best. I've knocked on the door a few times and kind of messed up and choked, I guess, if you want to call it that. But just try to learn from every moment.

Q. Do you feel like you've choked?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I mean, I have at certain times. What I've learned is sort of it's so hard to win in today's day and age. I'm very aware of that. But you just need certain things to go your way. I'm trying to just get to a level where when I know I'm playing really well, I can win. I don't know if my game is quite there yet to where I can show up to a course and really feel like I'm a hundred percent that I'm going to win this tournament. There's a lot of variables that come into play. Like I said, I still feel like I need to clean up some things.

Q. Was that your best putting round of the year?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it was nice. The greens are perfect. Torrey was relatively good for Torrey last week, and it's just the greens are -- you come out here and the greens look awesome. If you hit a good putt today, they were going in.

Q. What's it like to hear every single comment out there, going from the extreme din that you usually have at the Waste Management to just being able to hear every single fan?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, I mean, when there's a lot of people it almost becomes white noise. Out here I chunked my chip and some guys was like, Dang, he duffed it. I'm like, yeah, you're right, I just duffed the crap out of that chip.

You can kind of hear certain small comments more, which when you show up here you know exactly what you're walking into, but it is weird, though, overall sort of quietness here. It is strange to me.

Q. You found a little something at farmers over the weekend and it seemed to have made the trip to the desert for you.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, just kind of cleaned up some things. I think playing well at Torrey has given me a lot of confidence. I've been playing pretty decent golf, and Torrey was a true test, especially one mentally where I've never played well. To sort of have a good weekend there and know I can play good golf when I am playing well, if that makes any sense, is a comforting feeling.

Q. Talk about your putting; you made more than 100 feet in putts. I had you with one-putts starting at the 17th all the way through the 4th. Talk about that long-distance deuce you put on the board at 4.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, that was about 27 or 28 feet, something like that. It was nice. It was nice to make -- to keep sort of the ball rolling. I hit a really good drive on 3 and got kind of hyperaggressive, made a mental error going too much at that pin. Was able to make sort of a 15- or 16-footer for birdie there where I should have had an easy two-putt or eagle look. That was a big one, and to top one off on the next was very nice.

Q. How fun was it to have a little bit of crowd support out here?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it's nice. Everything was so easy going. We teed off early. It was relatively quiet. Rory and Berger, I know them very well. Their caddies are awesome, as well, so overall it was a very easy going day, so it was nice.