WM PHOENIX OPEN

February 11, 2022

Xander Schauffele

TPC Scottsdale

Quick Quotes

Q. Awesome 65 out there today. Can you just give us some thoughts on your round and being two shots back going into the weekend?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, relatively stress free, which is always nice around the property, there's a lot going on. So overall pretty pleased with how everything went.

Q. You and everybody still feeling all right?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Austin's starting to feel a little bit better. I get the excitement of waking up and testing every morning, so, so far so good. Tomorrow's my last day I have to test for the contact tracing, so fingers crossed, obviously.

Q. What is it about this place that you just feel so comfortable and shoot some low scores at?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Typically the pureness of the greens, but the putter's kind of holding me back right now, which is kind of unfortunate, so I guess I can take that as a positive and it means I'm playing good golf overall.

Q. Is this still like a sore subject losing this one last year, does it still bother you?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: No. I don't lose any sleep about my losses at this point in my career. I just look forward to the next win and getting that done.

Q. And do you count winning the Olympics as like a victory or do you feel like you still haven't won one since the Tournament of Champions as a win?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Do you count the Olympics as a win? I'm pretty sure I've gotten more recognition or attention for the Olympics and the gold medal than more than I've ever imagined. I think the longer that marinates, the better it gets for me.

At first I didn't just because it was just new and people were telling me no. And then I kind of sat down and looked at it and I was like, Hmm, screw everybody else, like I think this is a win.

So if you want to talk about PGA TOUR official wins, then, yes, I'm lagging on that end, so we'll pick up the slack.

Q. You mentioned wanting to get the putter going on the weekend. How big is it when it's not going for you to card a bogey-free round like this?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it's nice, it means you're doing a lot of things well. It can't, I mean, for me, it feels like I've been putting pretty bad, so whether it's just not seeing it or the greens being a little bit faster I think and maybe my putting off certain memory is kind of faulting me. But we'll have to clean it up if I want to win this thing.

Q. We've heard guys talk about regulating you're emotions, how important that is. Is it harder for you to bring yourself back down when you're on that high or is it harder to get yourself back to middle ground when you're struggling?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I try pretty hard to stay pretty level throughout the round. So there's a few holes that will get you going where everyone -- I mean, it's just that people are yelling around you, it's just a lot of noise. If you sit in a car and you're really calm and someone turns the volume up to 50 I think you'll jump a little.

But fortunately we know what to expect moving around the golf course, so I'm sure most of the guys don't really mind.

Q. How familiar are you with Sahith?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: He played at Pepperdine. I know Carl his caddie. When I was competing at school he was the assistant coach there. David Pelekoudas is a caddie out here, he's currently with Beau Hossler. He introduced me a long time ago I think when Sahith got into the Riv. So, yeah, he's been a stellar kid -- I'm not sure how old he is, I guess I'm calling him a kid here, he's obviously younger than me. But he had a surgery I think at one point in his career and then kind of bounced back pretty solidly, obviously. So besides those things, I don't know him too well.