Xander Schauffele ‘on a mission’ to win 2nd straight PGA Championship

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CHARLOTTE — Xander Schauffele counted on having the right mindset a year ago when he won a major for the first time at the PGA Championship.

He’ll try to replicate that approach this week as the tournament’s defending champion.

“When you’re in the moment, I think you don’t nitpick,” Schauffele said Tuesday at Quail Hollow. “You’re just on a mission. You’re on a mission to do one thing, and that’s to win. It’s sort of a whatever-it-takes mentality, and you’re not sitting there nitpicking yourself on the small things.”

The ability to do that was what he considers to be the foundation that allowed him to win the tournament last year at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville.

Now the venue has changed, but he’ll seek to recreate the same level of success. Both of Schauffele’s major championships came last year, also winning the 152nd Open Championship last summer in Scotland.

He’s no longer dogged by speculation that he might never claim a major championship, a major difference entering the tournament this week.

“It would have been that conversation that would have haunted me until I was done playing probably,” Schauffele said. “That’s just how the game goes. Luckily, I was able to rattle that one off, my first one at Valhalla, the PGA, which was awesome. … I feel like I’ve done it before, but at the same time, I feel I’m still trying to prove myself as well.

“I don’t look at it too different or feel too different as a whole.”

He said he senses he’s moving in the right direction with his game after missing several events during the winter because of a rib injury.

Schauffele’s first PGA Championship appearance came at Quail Hollow in 2017, when he missed the cut. Since then, he has produced five top-20 finishes in the PGA Championship, including last year’s title.

In his last five majors, he has finished no worse than eighth.

Schauffele said there will be certain challenges throughout tournament week. Some of those already surfaced with Tuesday’s practice round suspended for a couple of hours in the afternoon because of a storm.

“It’s already been off to an interesting week with the weather,” he said. “It’s definitely one of the hurdles everyone’s going to have to overcome this week.”

It will be a matter for all the golfers in the field to adjust to what could be evolving course conditions. Schauffele understands how that could work.

“Fortunately, I’ve been here a few times,” he said. “Delays and rain and things of that nature, they can kind of fool you a little bit on this property just because they haven’t been able to get the mowers out on the fairways, and the greens are exceptionally firm for getting a few inches of rain the last three or four days.”

–Bob Sutton, Field Level Media