Xander Schauffele is the betting favorite at the Valspar Championship this week, thanks in large part to being the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 7 in the world.
It’s not often he’s playing in a tournament where the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood are absent, but Schauffele said Tuesday that he hardly feels the weight of being a favorite on tour anymore.
Instead, it’s the years themselves that are starting to pile up for the 32-year-old father.
“It’s my 209th (career) start so I’m starting to feel like an old guy out here, to be honest,” Schauffele told reporters at Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Fla. “I feel that more than the actual rank in a field, you know what I mean. I think once the gun goes off and everyone tees off it’s sort of anyone’s game out here.”
That became something of a theme for the remainder of Schauffele’s interview. Now in his 10th full season on the PGA Tour, Schauffele has become one of the more familiar faces and in 2024 coupled his consistency with his first two major titles at the PGA and Open Championships.
The tour itself has also changed greatly since Schauffele won the Tour Championship and Rookie of the Year in 2017. New CEO Brian Rolapp is tasked with reimagining the tour’s schedule, and he made it clear in a press conference last week that he wants to move away from limited-field, no-cut formats that currently comprise the “signature events.”
A younger Schauffele may have opined on what that will do for the future of the tour, or for the pockets of the sport’s elite players like himself. On Tuesday, he deferred.
“As I said, this is my 209th event, as I get older I’m starting to realize there’s a lot more that goes into a tournament than I thought 200 events ago,” Schauffele said. “I’m starting to realize that there’s a lot that goes into it. When you want to change things and make everyone happy and sort of create a structure that’s supposed to be there for 50-plus years, I wouldn’t want to have that job. He’s asked us to be patient and I think we’re appreciative that he’s communicating well and kind of keeping things in front of us. Other than that, no, I’m not going to sit and speculate. I did that for too many years.”
Schauffele shared that when he was in the physio room at TPC Sawgrass last week, the 2004 Players Championship was being shown on TV. There was Adam Scott of Australia, winning the title over guys who now ply their wares on the 50-and-older PGA Tour Champions.
“I was like, holy smokes, you know, he’s been at it for a while,” Schauffele said. “And it’s impressive that he’s sitting out here at 45 with 190 ball speed just doing his thing. So there’s a lot less of those guys out here is what I’ve realized. When I first came on tour there was more, a few more of those sort of older 30-year-olds and younger 40-year-olds. And the tour’s getting younger, which is great for golf, but I’m realizing I’m starting to be in that sort of weird spot, so I need to stay healthy and stay strong and keep competing.”
Schauffele is off to a promising start this year, after he tied for seventh at the Genesis Invitational and placed third on Sunday at The Players.
He’ll take that over the slow start to the 2025 season, when he missed two months due to an intercostal/rib injury, finished 72nd of 72 who made the cut at The Players and did not win until October.
Asked what was the hardest part of his game to get back to 100% following that time away, he said, “Besides the actual rib itself or that sort of intercostal area, my brain.
“You have doubts and certain things creep in, and you definitely take good health for granted when you have it, when you’re kind of running around as a kid.
“So now that I’m old and dusty and, you know, things kind of come at you fast. I think it took me a little while to get my feet under me and sort of get that confidence back to compete.”
