PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 18, 2024

Xander Schauffele

Valhalla Golf Club

Quick Quotes

THE MODERATOR: Xander Schauffele is with us at the 106th PGA Championship.

Q. Holistically how do you process the first three days? You go super low on Thursday and then a bit of a grind the last two days?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I mean, you summed it up for me. It was easy going there the first round. Everything felt super easy.

Felt like I've had to work for a lot of my birdies the last two days. Haven't been able to make many putts. I feel like I'm still hitting the ball -- I've got to look at the stats but feel like I'm hitting the ball pretty nice. If I can just get the putter going a little bit, it should free me up.

Q. How do you approach tomorrow?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Just like any other tournament for the most part. It's another Sunday. I typically love Sundays. I think I need to really just stay in my lane and do a lot of what I've been doing and just worry about myself.

Q. Is there any difference based on the circumstance that you shared the lead and that there's a bunch of guys right behind you?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I mean, I said it yesterday.. it's funny, so there's blood in the water. Everyone kind of laughed, and then Shane Lowry almost shot 61 today.

Yeah, I imagine someone in that threshold now that it's been done twice is going to shoot something low and post a number early. I imagine that's going to happen.

Like I said, just staying in my lane is what's going to make me play well.

Q. I was sort of going to ask the same question. It's such a bunched leaderboard right now. Does that make it somewhat -- I know you guys always want to have the lead, but does that make it somewhat better, or is there a silver lining in that you know you have to go out and earn it and there's nothing to protect?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: No, you want the lead. Against these guys, you want as many shots as you can possibly take, no matter how nerve-racking it can be.

Q. Winning Olympic Gold of course is very special, very prestigious, but I'm wondering what would a first major title mean to you, your friends, your family?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It would mean a lot. At the end of the day, it's just a result. Winning a tournament is just a result. All I can focus on are good golf shots and striking good putts.

At the end of the day, wherever the cards fall, they fall. Yeah, it would mean a lot, obviously.

Q. It's more than just a result, though, surely, come on.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It really is just a result. But yeah, like I said, it would mean a ton.

Q. Do you mind walking us through your second, third and fourth shots on 15?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Second shot, 162 yards. Wind was sort of swirling. It was into the wind. The flags were kind of showing down. I tried to hit like kind of a soft sort of low draw 9-iron. Got a little bit on top of it. Didn't feel like I was trying to hit it hard. I have no idea how it went that far to be completely honest. I thought it would be sort of where my chip ended up.

The next shot out of the fescue was brutal. If there wasn't a hazard over the green, I probably would have swung a lot harder. I knew it was going to come out dead. I just couldn't get myself to swing at it. If I could go back, I would have hit it harder, obviously.

Then didn't hit a -- hit a good lie actually on my fourth shot. Didn't really hit a great chip, and lipped out another nine- or ten-footer like most of the day today.

Q. You talked about your putter being hot the first day. Lowry today, his putter was hot. Does it just feel like tomorrow it'll come down to who has the hot putter in some ways?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I mean, it's going to come down to a lot more than that but it kind of feels that way with the greens being receptive and the fairways being receptive. Hopefully it being a little bit -- even drier, the ball might roll a little bit more.

So yeah, it might come down to something like that.