‘Be harsh’: Why Xander Schauffele is so hard on himself amid struggles

If you’ve listened to any of Xander Schauffele‘s interviews this season, you may have noticed that he can be hard on himself if his game is not meeting his lofty expectations. But according to his most recent convene with the media, there’s a good reason for his harsh self-assessments.

And it has to do with game improvement.

Schauffele struggles amid return from injury

After playing the season-opening Sentry event in early January, Schauffele missed the next two months while dealing with a rib injury.

He returned to action at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in early March, where he revealed that at times he was in so much pain from the injury that he could barely sneeze or roll over in bed without wincing.

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But his results since returning have been well below his 2024 standards. He finished T40 at Bay Hill and followed it up by finishing 72nd at the Players Championship last week.

Coming off a year in which he won two majors and temporarily rose to World No. 2, Schauffele’s frustration with his poor performance is apparent.

Schauffele’s tough self-assessment

But during his pre-tournament press conference at this week’s Valspar Championship on Wednesday, Schauffele explained that harsh self-assessments are not a negative. Instead, they play an essential role in his quest to get back to his world-beating form.

“I think in assessment you can be as hard as you want,” he said. “When I’m playing out there my expectations aren’t through the roof, I don’t think. I’m pretty happy with a drive that’s in the fairway right now, and I’m pretty happy when I hit a good cut or good draw. But when you’re assessing yourself I think it’s important, if you want to elevate your game, to be harsh. It’s easy to be biased and think you’re doing okay. So, yeah, that’s kind of where that maybe what seems to be a harsh assessment came from.”

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But he also admitted that returning from such significant time away has been a lot harder than he expected, especially give what he expects of himself.

“I didn’t think it was going to be this tricky,” Schauffele said. “Maybe I’m being a little impatient, it’s been two weeks of tournament golf for me, coming off of pretty much zero golf. I played Sentry and then before that was the Zozo, so the layoff felt more than just that six weeks, it feels like I haven’t golfed in quite some time. I have expectations and I think my team has expectations and just try to be professional through and through. But that includes shooting better scores.”

His actions are proof. Schauffele revealed that he didn’t initially plan to play the Valspar, but that he signed up at the last minute because he “needed more reps” to help turn his game around.

“It’s been a process and I’m pretty determined to play better. High bar was set after last year, and coming off of that season I expected a lot of myself, and I still do now, even though it hasn’t really looked like that.”

Schauffele’s Masters prep

Now that he’s a major champion two times over, Schauffele’s focus is understandably directed toward the Masters, which begins April 10 at Augusta National. And he’s concerned about how his current game will fare at the first major of the year.

“I need to play better tournament golf. I think the Masters is demanding, Augusta National’s demanding, and you imagine you would like to, you would rather play good golf going in there than not,” Schauffele said Wednesday. “That goes for every big tournament. So there’s only a few guys I can name off the top of my head that have played 12 events and won a few of ’em, and I’m not one of ’em. So I can save that for later in my career.”

While Schauffele’s finishes aren’t up to snuff, he still has maintained his active record for most consecutive made cuts despite the feeling that he’s “cramming for a test… not really just takin the test.”

Whether or not that record matters to him, Schauffele explained that making the cut is essential because it affords him two more rounds at each tournament to sort out his struggles.

“I think it’s something that I noticed also from a personal goal is, it’s important for me to play as many tournament rounds as possible, so making the cut allows me to play two extra rounds on the weekend, versus sort of being rusty and only playing Thursday, Friday,” Schauffele noted. “So it was definitely, I was close both times I played and it was definitely something in front of mind when I was out there.”

And since he and his team have not decided whether he should make another start before the Masters, Schauffele needs to make every round at the Valspar Championship count.