Xander Schauffele taught me 10 lessons in one hour. Here they are

On a balmy south Florida morning in early December, Xander Schauffele meets us on the sun-soaked highway at Dutchman’s Pipe, a new private club just a short drive from the West Palm Beach airport. He’s joining us for an episode of ‘HEATAnd while he’s understandably skipped his typical pre-tournament routine—physique, then putting green, then chipping green—he greets us with a smile, grabs a wedge and gets to work. For the next hour, he’ll play golf, talking about everything from his origin story to how he hits it to Tiger Woods’ low-spinning, windy 9-iron at the Masters.

In the process, we learn a lot about what he said and how he said it, about golf and about Schauffele as well. Want to learn something about the game and want to know what it’s like to spend some time with golf’s last two-time major champion? Watch the video below. Or, if you’re more in the mood for reading, read on. Either way, enjoy!

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1. He will look at coverage before a round

I asked Schauffele to imagine he was warming up for the final round of a major he was competing in and it was an interesting insight; I’ve always wondered how guys competing in major tournaments deal with it. What’s it like to have golf on TV before their round when you’re a special part of the coverage? Some ignore it. But not Schauffele. While he’s wary of looking too far ahead of his time, when conditions can be dramatically different, he’ll turn it on three or four hours before going out.

“I like it,” he says. “I’ll look at some coverage. Maybe I’ll see a putt to a pin that guys are making or missing for some reason and I’ll try to remember that. I’m here to take every advantage I can.”

2. He likes to be ‘playful’ in his warm-up

Playful with shot shapes, specifically. As he starts with the wedge and goes down through his irons, Schauffele will mix up his ball flights to settle into something comfortable for the round. Calibration, he says, is one of his father’s favorite words – he’s adopted it, too.

“I will try to make small cuts, small draws. I’ll see what sticks, what doesn’t,” he says. “And then I recognize certain tendencies in my movement that would promote one thing or another. And if I’m going to make a cut or a tie, one better or the other, I’m going to favor the worst.”

Schauffele finds it easier to get a draw — the gun to the head, he says, is the shot he’d lean on — but he likes being able to work the ball both ways.

3. He thinks there is a real difference between claiming and winning

We often ask this from the outside: Is there anything different between the guys in the race and the guys who actually end up winning? Or is it basically luck and chance? Schauffele played in major after major, but didn’t break through until this summer, when he won two of them. He thinks the difference between claiming and winning is very real.

“You never know how you’re going to react once you’re on the ground,” he says. “You practice everything you’re supposed to do the right way, the process, all that stuff. But I would get into some of these spots and I felt like there were some holes in my game.”

He cites Carnoustie as an example, going back to the 2018 Open Championship, where he was in the mix on the back nine on Sunday.

“The way I was swinging the club, it was hard for me to make a controlled cut; everything was off the finger, crashing to the left. And that’s still my trend now; I just have a greater understanding of it. But I would go into these spots and see this right pin. I’m like, ‘Well, the perfect shot is a cut.’ And I’ve sat there and (been) disciplined enough throughout the tournament to try and hit like a low draw, just got away from it. And then all of a sudden, you know, I’m like, I’m going to try to hit and then mess it up. And now you are all in your head. You just start to unravel. And so a lot of things were happening to me, where I felt like my game was so close, I wasn’t accepting what I had. I always wanted more.

“And so, I think it’s like the pursuit of perfection where you want to hit all the shots at the right time in the big moments. And along the way you learn that it’s not really all about that.”

4. He relies on his talented neighbors for coaching

Schauffele moved to South Florida where he lives next to great pros like Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler and many others.

“That’s another nice part of being here,” Schauffele says. “There are so many great players to play here. So kind of my whole deal is whether I play nine holes or 18 holes and if I’m able to make one or two, even just a pressure shot, for example, the whole day is worth it. If I’m able to hit like two or three iron shots with pressure that I HAVE to hit, the whole day is worth it.”

Iron sharpens iron, they say. Apparently irons do too.

5. The wind at Augusta is as crazy as they say

Schauffele had a famously unfortunate experience with the wind at Augusta National when, while teeing off on Sunday, he hit an 8-iron into the water short of No. 16. It still stings, but after a few more trips to the Masters, Schauffele knows that he is in good company. After all, he still vividly remembers the experience of watching Tiger Woods make the veteran tee off on No. 12 in 2019, when most of his competition found the water short and he hit a no-spin 9 iron. in the center of the field. .

“Spinning in trees is crazy,” he says. “I really want to conquer the country. I mean, I feel like I’ve played pretty well there, but it’s a really fun place to be in, just with the history and knowing a lot of shots and being in a lot of spots … like, knowing exactly how they’re supposed to work the shooting. If I can run it, it’ll be great, you know? And so it’s a different feel when you play there versus the other majors.”

6. He still likes to hit balls

Schauffele is at home on the range.

“My first love was, for sure, the range,” he says. The range was a specific driving range in San Diego, near what was then Qualcomm Stadium. “That’s how I fell in love with the game at first, sitting there hitting golf balls. I just love watching the golf ball fly.”

He learned to play at a course called Doubletree, where his father befriended the director of golf and she let him teach; he would start at the 100 yard marker and, as he got bigger and better, he would go back to 150, then 200, then red tees and so on. This course is an apartment complex. The stadium is no longer called Qualcomm. Schauffele is 31 years old now. But he says this is just the beginning.

“I haven’t hit my prime yet,” he says matter-of-factly.

7. A driving range flute doesn’t bother him

Not anymore.

“I used to shake it a lot. Warming up in college, for some reason,” he says. “No a LOTbut like, there’s been maybe four rounds in a row where I’ve held it and it’s helped me realize how unimportant a warm-up is. It was a big lesson for me then.”

8. He is another person off course

Schauffele knows he keeps things even on the course. But away from the competition?

“If I’m with my friends or, you know, at dinner — which is rarely — my wife would be like, I’m stupid. Very different from what I am in the course. And I try to be the same person, but I can’t focus and be stupid at the same time.”

9. He’s never been late for a little while – but he’s been close

Schauffele takes a somewhat nonchalant approach to his arrival at the front desk. He never gives himself time to hit as many drivers as possible, he says. So his caddy, Austin Kaiser, will often leave the course before he’s ready, sending a strong signal to his player that it’s time to move on.

“The worst was at the PGA at Harding Park,” he recalls. “I had to make a quick move.” Schauffele crossed the line with 38 seconds remaining, realizing he had spooked the starter. Even better, his playing partner, Steve Stricker, still hadn’t arrived; he made it with six seconds left.

“Sure enough, I get up there and hook my shot and then Stricker hits the fairway,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘this feels right.'”

10. He has a go-to mantra when he’s nervous

“It will be over soon.”

Undeniably true.

You can watch the full video below.

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