Three months ago, Xander Schauffele arrived at Valhalla Golf Club as the best current player to never win a major. He also had not won in nearly two years, with his last victory coming at the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open.
But since then, Schauffele has turned in two legendary performances—a stretch that not even Jack Nicklaus achieved during his illustrious career. Schauffele shot a final round 7-under 65 at the PGA Championship to eclipse Bryson DeChambeau by a stroke, thus winning his first major. Then, two months later, Schauffele had what he called ‘the round of his life’ on Sunday at Royal Troon: a 6-under 65, which made him the Champion Golfer of the Year.
These two performances, coupled with his 13 top-10 finishes this year, led many pundits to label Schauffele as the Player of the Year—during the same season in which Scottie Scheffler has had an improbable, Tiger Woods-like run.
But none of this success happened overnight. It usually never does.
Instead, it took hard work, years of grinding it out, and dedication to his craft for Schauffele to reach the sport’s apex. Yet it also required Schauffele to look at himself in the mirror, know what sets him off, and what distracts him to become one of the best players in the world.
“I get frustrated often. I quickly try to correct myself, knowing it doesn’t do me well,” Schauffele said ahead of this week’s BMW Championship.
“I don’t operate well when I’m too angry or too happy. If I ever get too chatty on the golf course, I lose focus on what I’m trying to do, and if I get too angry, I lose focus on what I’m trying to do, as well. I try to stay in the middle lane of my mind.”
Schauffele said he learned that tactic during his rookie season on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2016, when he missed nine cuts but recorded three top-five finishes. He did not win that season, either.
“First year on the Korn Ferry Tour. It was my first time, I’m sitting there, huge pat on my back, I got through Q-school and I was fired up, and here I am. I’m a fresh kid out of college, and I’ve got my [Korn Ferry] card already; that’s pretty special,” Schauffele reflected.
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“Then I made 25 grand, I’m floating [my caddie] Austin [Kaiser] with me every week and paying him more than I’m making, we’re rooming together, and I’m angry all the time. It was a lot of self-reflection, I guess, at that time to realize that I was really frustrated and I felt like I was playing decent golf, I was missing cuts by one shot, and I was having these little mini-meltdowns all the time. I got my act together, fixed that, and then looped that in. Got my card my [PGA Tour] rookie year.”
Schauffele finished 27th in the Korn Ferry Tour rankings in 2016, which helped him secure PGA Tour membership the following year.
But life on the PGA Tour is a whole different animal. He began the 2016-17 wraparound season with a T-60 at the Safeway Open in California. Then, he bounced back, posting a top-five finish at the Sanderson Farms Championship, which helped his wallet and his confidence.
A healthy dose of struggles followed from there.
From November 2016 to the end of April 2017, Schauffele missed cut after cut. When he did make it to the weekend, he failed to contend. His best finish during that stretch came at the Puerto Rico Open, where he tied for 30th. Life was difficult for the rookie, so Schauffele leaned on his loved ones for support, as many young adults do.
“I would set goals and talk with my dad a lot about sort of the mental side of it, a lot of positive self-talk, a lot of self-belief,” Schauffele said.
“As a kid, you tell yourself things, and you try and dream of them at night, but until you actually do it, it’s sometimes hard to believe.”
He also admitted to ‘beating himself up in hotel rooms for two years,’ fighting internal demons and frustrations, hoping to keep his PGA Tour card intact. Unfortunately, Schauffele’s chances of doing so looked slim by May 2017. He tied for 24th at the Wells Fargo Championship that month, which improved his FedEx Cup ranking to 125—right on the border of those who receive tour cards the following year.
Then, everything changed on Monday, Jun. 5.
Schauffele made it to U.S. Open final qualifying in Memphis, scheduled on the Monday before that year’s FedEx St. Jude Classic at TPC Southwind. He shot the low round of the morning at Ridgeway Country Club, shooting a 64, and then posted a 71 in the afternoon at Germantown Country Club, which put him in a five-for-two playoff for a trip to Erin Hills. That quickly turned into a three-for-two playoff the following morning, as darkness suspended play for the day.
Schauffele then advanced, which paved the way for a massive confidence boost.
“I played with [Steve] Stricker for 36 holes to get into Erin Hills, and I played with him, and I had to go into a playoff the next morning actually to play like four more holes,” Schauffele reminisced.
“I got off the green, Strick told me, ‘I think you’re really good.’ He asked me how my year had been going, and I told him it hadn’t been going great. He gave me a nice veteran pat on the back. Then I got to Erin Hills and tied for fifth.”
The second top 10 of his PGA Tour career came at a major championship, as Schauffele finished six strokes behind Brooks Koepka. But that strong finish in Wisconsin gave Schauffele a bevy of FedEx Cup points and even more confidence.
Another strong result at the Travelers Championship followed, and then two weeks later, Schauffele won The Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia, securing his PGA Tour card for the next two years.
“I think when you secure your card as a rookie, it is something that you can celebrate, no doubt,” Schauffele said.
It only got better from there. Schauffele made the FedEx Cup playoffs and then became the first rookie to win the Tour Championship. Of course, his incredible record at East Lake since 2017 has been discussed at length in recent years, as Schauffele has never finished worse than a tie for seventh. He also has three runner-up finishes.
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However, winning a playoff event does not carry the same weight as winning a major title, which took Schauffele a while to do. Yet, between then and now, plenty of frustrations continued to linger.
Am I good enough?
Am I a top player?
Do I have what it takes to win a major championship?
No doubt that Schauffele had the talent to do so. He always has. The results show it too. Between his major debut in 2017 and this year’s Masters, Schauffele recorded 17 top-20 finishes of the 28 majors he played in—pretty impressive stuff.
But that internal anxiety and pent-up frustration lingered for years.
He also won tour events somewhat sporadically, going three years between victories, fueling those internal demons. After his triumph at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in 2019, Schauffele did not return to the winner’s circle until 2022, when he and Patrick Cantlay won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
Tough finishes took place in between, perhaps none more difficult than how things ended at Kapalua in 2020.
“I had a two-putt to win, and I three-putted, and I got in a playoff, and then I was so rattled from three-putting, I had an internal meltdown and chunked a chip off the fringe or something—I can’t remember. I’m pretty good at being a starfish when it comes to stuff; I forget. Three-second memory here, and I forget about it. But I just remember three-putting there, was really excited, really amped up, downwind putt, whacked it seven feet by, missed it, was in complete shock, then had to go into a playoff,” Schauffele said Tuesday.
“Had no chance of winning that thing, obviously. I remember sitting in the hotel room looking at the floor, and my wife Maya was asking me if I was okay, and I was like, ‘You’re going to have to give me at least 10 or 15 minutes.’”
It took over two years for Schauffele to win again after that snafu.
But after that win in New Orleans, he rattled off two more wins. He won the Travelers Championship and the Genesis Scottish Open, which gave him all the momentum in the world.
Yet another drought lingered.
“I’ve done it twice now in my career,” Schauffele joked.
“I haven’t won a tournament for two years and was able to rattle off two majors [this year]. I don’t even know what that means.”
What it means is that nobody—and this is why I love golf, because golf most certainly applies to life—should ever lose faith in their passion and in themselves. Schauffele never became so frustrated or down on his luck that he walked away from the game. He never quit. Instead, he learned how to keep those internal emotions at bay, going from having major meltdowns to winning major championships—a testament to his hard work, perseverance, and dedication.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.