‘Absolutely horrendous’: Xander Schauffele explains Bay Hill’s juicy rough

Xander Schauffele is one of the most talented golfers on the planet, currently holding down the No. 6 spot in the OWGR.

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Schauffele has established himself as a regular contender at the Tour’s toughest tests, too; he’s a regular contender in major championships and has never finished worse than T14 in six U.S. Opens. But even Schauffele is still baffled at just how difficult Tour setups can get — including this week. And with the Arnold Palmer Invitational returning to Bay Hill Club and Lodge, Schauffele discussed why the course is a perfect prep for major courses.

Talking to the media during a Tuesday press conference, he not only said Bay Hill is “good prep for a major,” but he also described just how brutal the setup looks, including one feature of the rough he’s never seen before.

“They started mowing the rough towards tee boxes, which is just absolutely horrendous. It makes it so difficult. Every time you miss the fairway, you’re sitting underground or trying to like, find a bunker you can hit your next ball into, or if you can cover a hundred yards over a hazard or you name it.”

The difficult mow pattern in the rough is just one of the changes that Schauffele has noticed since last playing the Arnold Palmer Invitational a couple of years ago. He also talked about the putting surfaces — pretty firm, if on the slower side this early in the week — and explained just how hard it is to recover from a tough spot.

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“Out here, if you’re out of position, you would be lucky to have a 40- or 50-footer. Typically, you’re going to have a 30-yard bunker shot or a 20-yard bunker shot, depending on where the pins are. Just because you hit a great drive doesn’t mean you’re going to have a decent look on birdie. You have to keep it going on every shot pretty much on every hole.”

Schauffele is looking to add to his seven PGA Tour victories this week and, later this year, to hunt down his first major victory. While he has a top-10 finish at each of the four in his career, he hopes that playing tournaments and courses like this weekend’s will challenge him tactically, physically and mentally and help him tune up for places like Augusta National.

“The level of difficulty they’re putting up here is real. So it’s definitely good prep for a major and definitely gets you, or it should get you very dialed in.”