THE AMERICAN EXPRESS

January 22, 2023

Xander Schauffele

PGA WEST Pete Dye Stadium Course

Quick Quotes

Q. Today will definitely make dinner taste better tonight. We'll start with the double eagle. Walk us through that.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, that's pretty much where my round started. 232 is what we had. Wind was varying a little bit off the right. It was kind of in, kind of down. I was trying to just hit it -- I was off a pretty good upslope, so I just tried to hit a 4-iron pretty much at it and have it turn toward the center wanting to get maximum distance. Kind of played it out to the right. Hit it really solid. Didn't say anything in the air because I was a little bit worried. So it was nice when I saw it hit on ground and then I actually saw it go in. So that was pretty special.

Q. Great overall round. 10-under today. Just some thoughts on the week kind of recapping things?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it's a good week back. I've never had to withdraw from a tournament. Bit scary for me and my team. Fortunately, I have a really good team that put me back into playing shape pretty quickly. So a lot to build on this week. Definitely looking forward to the next few events.

Q. Would you say that starting the day where you were on the leaderboard were you playing more aggressive today? Did you feel like you had an outside shot to win? What was your mentality?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: You want to be a little bit closer to try and win this golf tournament. Especially with the names that are up top. But yeah, I've seen guys shoot 61, 60, 62. So you just got to be one of those guys on Sunday and fortunately it was me.

Q. Do you feel like you have an outside shot being one back?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I'll hang around. I don't want to be a dummy and drive away here and have to whip in reverse. So I'll hang around, maybe grab a little bite.

But 17 and 18 playing downwind, usually it's in off the left makes it a little bit trickier. But I don't think 25's going to be enough.

Q. How did the week shake out kind of with your expectations Thursday morning coming back from injury?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Great. No complaints. Little soreness on a few of the days. But I would say I played more golf than I have in a while and in consecutive days and I felt better pretty much each day. So that's a positive.

Q. Still working your way back to a hundred percent would you say?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I would say these last couple days I've definitely felt it with the weather warming up. Some of those cold mornings make you feel old. So we'll try and avoid those.

Q. Ever had an albatross?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I have.

Q. When was it?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It was at Barona Creek in San Diego. I was 14. 3-iron from pretty similar distance on the 13th hole or something like that.

Q. Your caddie said he never saw it even hit ground.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: He looked away. I think he thought it was in the water, to be completely honest. We'll just call it what it is. Usually he's the one yelling and hollering at the ball, but he was pretty quiet. So I think he was just throwing up a prayer there.

Q. Was that your intended line? Because that's a pretty tough pin there.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: No, it was not. I swung really hard. Bail out to the left there all day. You just chip across the green. It's not a bad spot. We were just kind of in between clubs and in order for me to maximize my distance I kind of wanted to sort of sling it in, use the upslope to short of brush it in with the wind and I hung it out there.

Q. Five straight birdies there going around the turn. What was it that got you jump started with that?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Putt on 9. Really good up-and-down on 8. Putt on 9 was a bonus. Wasn't even very close. Maybe just inside 30 feet.

Then hit a really nice shot on 10.

Good shot into 11.

Another really good shot on 12.

So I would say that putt on 9 really kind of kick started it.