THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE

June 3, 2021

Xander Schauffele

Muirfield Village

Quick Quotes

Q. Your overall thoughts on the round today.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It was good. Obviously. Near the lead and pretty much besides one chip I'm pretty happy with how I played.

Q. You were 9th in strokes gained in putting coming into the tournament. Were you wristlocking and armlocking today, could you explain why and is that the first time you've ever done it?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I've had a wristlock or like a wristlock you can call it or armlock putter for less than a week now. My putting coach, my whole team honestly, we're very against change and I had to see what the craze was about. I do feel funny, obviously being a top-10 putter on TOUR, switching putters or the style of putting. It's a distinct advantage.

I am for banning the armlock putters, but if everyone else is going to use it and I feel like they have a bigger advantage, I may as well do the same.

Q. First of all, what was the turning point to force you to do it? What made you do it?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's just, it's better, it's easier. It's more consistent. My coach and I work a lot, Derek Uyeda, in San Diego, we work a lot on start lines and making sure the ball's doing what we think it's doing. And the fact that it's anchored to your arm, there isn't a whole lot of -- you can flinch in your hands, but you can't flinch your entire left arm, so that's the process behind that.

Q. Are you completely comfortable with it?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: No, I'm not. But I know how good it can be and I think you still have to read putts and get the speed down correctly, but I'm in a very similar setup compared to my old putter and I know I can putt with a shorter putter, so I figured if I can get an advantage on the greens, you know, and maybe get to 1st in putting, that would be something special. So I'm giving it a go.

Q. Why do you feel it should be outlawed?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Because it's not, it takes the stress of putting out of the game. It's -- putting is so stressful in golf, obviously hitting shots and chipping and all kinds of stuff are difficult, but your putts are what give you the score on the card. And so -- it's ruined people's careers and it's helped people's careers. And so I think putting is an art in our game and when you can lock it into your arm or anchor it to your body, it kind of gets rid of that. Derek Uyeda is my putting coach, he's been my putting coach for seven years maybe.

Q. (No Microphone.)

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's the exact same putter. It is. He joked, from down the line he couldn't even tell that I'm using it. Obviously, he was with me, but we tried our hardest to make it as similar to my setup as before. Just so it's not like this crazy change.

Q. Is it the same putter just longer?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah. Longer, different grip.

Q. Two things on this: Why not go to it sooner and then also how hard is it to actually make yourself do something different, even though it might be easier?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, obviously I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think it was better. If I was No. 1 in putting with a short stick it wouldn't have even been a thought. But I just feel like at times I can make more putts and, obviously I am in the top-10, like I looked when I was switching, and I felt like it was -- I'm in a position where I have nothing to lose and if I can get better at something, then I can.

Q. Is it a thicker grip?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it's a SuperStroke grip. You got to look it up.