OWINGS MILLS, Md. – A missed fairway on his first hole of the day that led to a bogey is sort of the way 2025 has gone for Xander Schauffele. He had the opportunity to make up for the errant shot, but couldn’t get a 6-footer for par to drop.
It was a single hole in a round of golf, but an example of the frustrations that Schauffele has faced this year. He bogeyed the 3rd hole as well and ended up with two more on his first nine holes, putting him in a similar position that he’s endured since returning from a rib injury in March: chasing.
And after months of feeling behind, the two-time major winner still has never quite caught up, leaving a spot in next week’s Tour Championship in serious peril.
“This is my worst position I've ever been in, injury aside,” Schauffele said of his quest to make the Tour Championship for a ninth consecutive year. “Even my rookie year I was in a better position. It sort of has that rookie year vibe to me a little bit. Just sort of need to work my way through the playoffs. This is kind of it for myself and my team and just got to try to leave it all out there.
“You definitely play a little bit freer when you know you're kind of in till the end. I'm trying to sort of get that freedom as well because I have absolutely nothing to lose.”
Unfortunately for Schauffele, his 4-over-par 74 effort in the opening round Thursday of the BMW Championship made his task even more difficult. He likely needs a top-five finish at Caves Valley in order to advance to the season-ending Tour Championship, where the FedEx Cup will be decided.
And it highlights what has probably been an underrated run of high-level golf and consistency.
The seven-time PGA Tour winner has never failed to make the Tour Championship—the top 30 players following the preceding FedEx Cup playoff events qualify—in his eight previous years on Tour. He’s still ranked third in the official World Golf Ranking and is all but certain to be on the U.S. Ryder Cup team in what is turning out to be his worst year as a pro.
Schauffele won the Tour Championship and was rookie of the year in 2017, and aside from finishing 15th in the standings in 2018 has never been out of the top five in the final rundown. Three times he finished second and last year he was fourth.
All of which makes his plight this year disappointing.
Schauffele, 29, never really recovered from the early-season rib injury that hindered him at the Sentry in January and kept him from competing again until the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March.
He finished 40th there and then 72nd at the Players Championship—last among those who made the cut—following a final-round 81. He rebounded with a tie for 12th the following week but he’s posted just three top-10 finishes and never really been in back-nine contention.
Of note: despite his struggles, Schauffele has continued his PGA Tour-leading consecutive made cut streak, which will reach 71 this week: halfway to Tiger Woods’ record of 142 and the longest since Woods’ mark was set in 2005.
“If I look at my stats, there's a few sort of outlier events where I drove it horrendously and putted horrendously and chipped horrendously,” he said. “I think the irons are sort of something that I kind of hung onto. I was able to sort of manage that around certain events. There's a few events where I kind of went for broke, and it definitely, statistically, hurt myself pretty heavily.
“That was a little bit earlier when I came back. It sort of mellowed out a little bit in previous months. Just some bad habits, some new bad habits, I should say, and a learning curve that I've been trying to get used to.”
Schauffele zeroed in on one of the issues when asked if his driving and putting were part of the problem, and then suggested he’s struggled for much of the year with the driver.
“When it fees like it’s your weapon and then you’re sort of intimidated by a club that you used to love, you have to try and mentally get over that,” he said.
For example: Schauffele is 110th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained off the tee. Last year, when he won the PGA Championship and the British Open, he ranked 10th in a year in which he was second in strokes gained total.
“It's been one of those things where I'm trying to find a cue or a feel or just something I can go with,” he said. “Kind of still in the hunt for it, but I think it's going a little bit better.”
After playing his first 10 holes in 3 over par on Thursday, Schauffele settled down, made a birdie at the 16th and was looking to get to the clubhouse with a respectable score of 72.
But another errant drive at the 18th led to a double-bogey 6, making his weekend quest for the Tour Championship all the more challenging.
Still chasing.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Xander Schauffele's Long, Disappointing Season Continues.
