PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 15, 2024

Xander Schauffele

Valhalla Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. How many times does it take to be close to win, and how hard is it to be close? Sometimes we don't realize that.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, you take it for granted. I'm playing really good golf. At the end of the day, when I go to sleep, I remind myself that I'm playing at a really high level. I've put myself in position. Seven years ago I won twice quickly, I had high expectations, then I didn't win for a year or two, then I won two or three times in a year. It's just kind of how it goes sometimes.

You look at some of these events now, too, the way they're formed, you have all the best players in the world playing, so it's harder to win these tournaments when they're not diluted at all. You have all the top 50, top 100 players playing trying to win and treating it almost every week like it's a major.

It's frustrating, but at the same time, like I was mentioning before, it's sort of why I love to compete. You get your blood flowing. You want to see what you've got. Unfortunately I haven't had the results in the end, but I've definitely had a lot of the adrenaline, the final groups, the close calls and things of that nature. I learned to appreciate those times in my game because when you're in 50th place playing on Sunday, it just doesn't feel like it's for much.

Q. The same way you appreciate, I understand also you have no problem confronting the failures or whatever you want to call them. How do you process a week like last week?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, last week was a bit of a buzz saw. I felt like if someone would have told me I'd shoot 4-under at Quail Hollow on Sunday and lose -- it's just a testament to how good Rory played. When someone like him is firing on all cylinders, he's a tough man to beat, and he proved that on Sunday.

Q. The golf course here, what do you see? First impressions?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it's kind of a tale of two nines. The front nine is much more open. The holes do shape with bunkers. The back nine, there's a lot more trees. The routing is a little bit different. It's sort of tighter almost. Really good finishing stretch. Just beastly holes in 16, 17 and 18.

Definitely I think geared up for a really exciting finish, and it's a beast of a property. With it sort of raining each day, the rough is getting long. The greens are receptive, but the course is still very long. Just because the greens are receptive you're still coming in with like a 5-, 6-iron and not like a wedge or 9-iron very often.

Q. I think we talked about this this year. The PGA Championship is getting kind of the most physically demanding if you want to call it that.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It feels that way.

Q. What is your daily routine? How do you prepare for something like this?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, you try and conserve energy. It's easy when you're on these massive properties to want to get your game in a perfect spot. Us pros like to keep chipping away at what's wrong in our game. Just because it's a major, you want to feel like everything is firing on all cylinders, but at the same time, these rounds are going to be over six hours is my guess. It's just a long walk. If you and I just went to walk the course, tee box to green to tee box to green, it would take us a couple hours. It's not like it's a short walk.

I think with it being soft, staying focused for all your shots is going to be a big challenge. For me, I'm going to get a little bit of practice in. I've tried to practice each morning just depending on the weather, not really knowing this golf course. Get a little bit of training in, and at the end of the day trying to sleep as much as possible because I know come the weekend you're going to need some rest.