Xander Schauffele is the world’s second-ranked player, but he still sees room for improvement.
After all, he’s closer in points to the 30th player in the world rankings (Maverick McNealy) than world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
Schauffele has been working with his swing coach, Chris Como. But despite winning two majors in 2024, he said his swing is still a work in progress.
“I would say everything I was working on with Chris last year is still not—it feels like my swing, but it's still something that's a little bit uncomfortable,” Schauffele said Tuesday in a press conference at the season-opening Sentry.
The 31-year-old was ranked inside the top 15 in every strokes gained category last season—except for around the green, which was 42nd. He was also T-35 on Tour in greens in regulation percentage (69.97%). Both were still within Tour's top half, but Schauffele had a blunt assessment for his short game.
“My wedge play sucked,” he said. “It was really bad. Really, really bad. Golf is tough. With my club pitched a little bit more vertical in my back swing, it's not catering to the best—it’s great for driver, great for long irons, the stats show that. Then, with wedges it’s the club's moving around a little bit, it’s not ideal for hitting like a distance wedge. It’s something I’m trying to work on, still working on it now, still trying to figure it out, get the right feel for it.”
To improve, Schauffele is trying to keep his shoulder flatter, which will help keep the club “laid off and shut” and make him more rotational.
“I was a really, really good wedge player, really good inside 150,” he said. “And then the club is moving a different way, up more even across, and now all of a sudden I can smoke my driver and a 4-iron, but all of a sudden, like a 90-yard wedge is a little bit, at times. So just trying to figure that out.”
Don’t be fooled by the self-deprecation, though. Schauffele still believes he can build off his success last season.
“As long as I’m producing good shots, I feel the confidence to keep moving in the right direction,” the nine-time Tour winner said, “and obviously got a lot of confidence after some results last year.”
Yet, he’s aware catching Scheffler might not be a reasonable goal in the short term, even with the world’s top player sidelined this week.
“If I get there, I'll be very happy,” Schauffele said with a laugh. “I’m just, I try not to be too results-based, but just based on looking at the numbers and what I’m told, yeah, it's going to take some time and some patience.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Xander Schauffele Is Surprisingly Critical of His Golf Swing Heading Into New Year.
