WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPEN

February 5, 2021

Xander Schauffele

TPC Scottsdale

Quick Quotes

Q. Xander, pretty sporty inward nine for you. Come home bogey free, a 30, and you go birdie, birdie, birdie, and eagle at the 15th. Tell me about the last nine holes.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It was nice to do it. I think everyone in the field knows if you can play those holes properly you have the chance to make a lot of birdies coming in.

Obviously can go the other way as well. So it was kind of a slow front nine. Stayed really patient. Gave myself -- I hit it in the fairway most of the holes coming down the stretch and gave myself some opportunities.

It was nice to sort of capitalize.

Q. You see, I thought you just touched on the key portion of the round. You had only one birdie on the outward nine. You a lot of chances. I thought you were playing well and had very little to show for it. It would be easy to force something. I thought your patience was really good out there.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, that's sort of what the team and I talk about, just getting back to the old mentality where I am more patient, I don't push as much, kind of let the round come to me.

If you're playing well, if I try and force things sometimes it works out, but sometimes it doesn't. So try and kind of stay in our lane and keep doing what we're doing.

Q. Couple hidden stats here that bode well for the weekend. Six of eight scrambling through 36 holes; you have played six par-5s; you played them in 6-under par.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it's sort of what you have to do out here. There are a couple tricky par-4s where you sort of lick your chops when you have a wedge or 9-iron in. Once again, if you short side yourself it's kind of an easy bogey. You do have to take advantage of the par-5s, and I feel like we're doing a pretty good job of that.

Q. How good was that round? Clean card, eagle, and a bunch of birdies.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it was, nice. It was a nice finish. It was a bit slow at first. Kind of saw everyone's name flying up the leaderboard, and we talked about that earlier in the week and how my goal is to keep my head down, do what I did before, and stay patient.

Pretty happy with the result, and obviously what I thought would work did work today.

Q. 19-under par in your last four rounds counting the weekend at Torrey. Has something elevated had your game over the last few days?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Just trying to kind of stay calm, I guess. Like I said, I want to win really bad. I think everyone wants to win really bad. People talk to me about it now more than before.

So it's okay to be aware of these things. It's okay to be scared of bad shots and the unknown, but I think just sort of an overall calmness. I feel like whenever I'm in a content place off the course and Austin and are jamming well on the course together, it's sort of an easy place for me to play well.

Q. Tell me the formula used to manage trying to stay in the moment, which sounds like you're doing, and not thinking about holding a trophy?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's Friday. I think that's the easiest thing.

Q. But the weekend is upon us and you're in the lead. What changes? Anything?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's a one-shot lead. If you have like a seven-shot lead I think that would be a question to answer on a Saturday. I have a one-shot lead. Like I saw today, I teed off and I was ten shots back of where I started.

I'm going to wake up tomorrow and someone is going to be four shots ahead of me or something like that. I think this is one of those golf courses where no lead is very safe, and you need to really, like I said, keep my head down and stay calm.

Q. When did you and your team come up with the change in mentality?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: We kind of just realized where I was getting to I think in terms of me just becoming impatient. I feel like I had a sense of urgency when I really didn't need to. I would look back at the week and I was like, Man, why did I kind of jump the gun there? All I had to do was play decent and I would've been right there.

I thin it's just a result of pushing and pushing and pushing and having decent results, but not what we really want. I've played well in a calm sort of state of mind, and that's when I've done my best.

Q. What was the time frame?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I don't know. I think it's just been -- like you said, I've been playing good golf, so I just need to get out my own way and let my game take over. That's kind of where my head's at.

Q. Will you converse this evening with your dad before the round? Do you do that regularly?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah. You know, obviously I'm doing what he wants me to do. So not much conversation other than a hello I think, just to say hi and check on how he's doing.

Besides that, I don't think there is a whole lot to talk about.

Q. The eagle putt at 15, did you think that was going to make it?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I'm going to be honest, I thought it was going to miss just left. Kind of had soft speed on it and kind of held, which is a bonus.

Q. What did you consider the best shot you played today?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I thought that bunker shot on 18 was good for me. I just missed that short putt on 17; hit kind of a timid, soft putt as well. Caddie and I were a little questionable on the read, and showed in my aggression on my stroke.

So I kind of toed my drive on 18, and I was happy to cover the water and then it was nice to sort of cap off a birdie at last.

Q. 36 hole lead in Vegas and played not your best on Saturday. What do you think you'll learn from that experience tomorrow?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Just stay in the moment. You know, like I said, it's only Friday. I got to -- love to answer all these questions tomorrow, which means I'm still playing good golf.

Control what we can control.

Q. Have you ever dealt with -- gone to a sports psychologist?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I mean, my dad. He's not a sports psychologist, but he's been through some stuff and we've had our fair share of hashouts. I think I've seen the good and the bad.