Grinding to regain form, Xander Schauffele embraces ‘dirty golf’ at Valspar

There are no pictures on Xander Schauffele’s scorecard but there are images in his head. And lately, what he’s seen has not been pretty.

“Gross” was the descriptor Schauffele slapped on his own game after last week’s Players Championship, where he finished 72nd at 13-over par, dead last among golfers who made the cut.

On Sunday at the Valspar Championship, the visuals still weren’t perfect for the No. 3 player in the world, but they improved, and so, it seemed, had Schauffele’s outlook after he posted a 5-under 66 on Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course, in a final round powered by four straight back-nine birdies.

“My brain feels like it’s going to explode after some bad days of golf,” Schauffele said. “But it was sort of nice to end this stretch with a 5-under.”

Everything is relative, of course. And bad days for Schauffele would count as pretty good for many of his peers. Since returning from a rib injury at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, his first start of the 2025 season, Schauffele has gritted his way into the weekend in three straight events on three of the toughest venues on the PGA Tour — a demanding stretch for a player who believes in asking plenty of himself.

As he did last week at TPC Sawgrass, Schauffele put himself through long post-round range sessions at the Valspar, seeking answers to a two-way miss. 

“Sometimes you just want to get out and make a few free swings on the range, whether you snap hook it or blow it a hundred yards right, just to get them out of your system,” he said on Sunday. “So last night was a bit of a frustration session — what am I going to go with today.”

Pounding extra balls has been part of Schauffele’s effort to regain the magic of 2024 when he shed the mantle of ‘best player to never win a major’ by claiming the PGA Championship at Valhalla. He then backed up the achievement by winning the Open Championship at Royal Troon. Those breakthrough wins came under the tutelage of Chris Como, who helped refine the swing that Schauffele had built with his father, Stefan. Though Como was not at the Valspar this week, Schauffele said his coach offered insights over the phone based on videos shared by Schauffele’s caddie, Austin Kaiser. 

“Austin is pretty good on his phone, he can send him swing videos and things of that nature,” Schauffele said. “But unless (Como) is here, it’s hard for him to know what I’m feeling, so that’s where the conversation comes into play.”

For Sunday’s final round, though, Schauffele said he focused more on mindset than mechanics.

“I just felt like I need to get back to me just playing, whether it’s kind of gross golf or dirty golf, just get the ball in the hole,” he said. “Innisbrook is a tough property to be on and it doesn’t matter how pretty you swing it. You just got to bet the ball in the hole no matter what it looks like.”

The next looks Schauffele gets will be of the giant screen at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, where his TGL team, the New York Golf Club, is scheduled to play in the TGL Championship against Atlanta Golf GC starting on Monday night. A little less than two weeks after that, his view will get even more scenic when he makes the drive down Magnolia Lane for the Masters.