THE 153RD OPEN

July 19, 2025

Xander Schauffele

Mixed Zone

Q. Tell us about the eagle putt. How did you read that one and how long was it?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It was just one of those putts that you're trying to get within three to five feet. There's been some diabolical pin locations this week, and that was one of them.

It's a very gettable par-5 with it being sort of helping off the left. But it was nice to see a long putt go in. I think it was my first long one of the week.

Q. Did you see progress last week at the Scottish as far as your putting goes, and how rewarding was it for your putting to go well today?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I think I've been putting a lot better this week than last week actually. I think my stats ran in the red every day except Sunday. Tried pretty hard to figure out how to get everything correct to roll the ball well on these greens, and I think this week has been a little bit better.

Q. How do you do that? What's the process?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: A lot of it's speed. You just have to start -- we're very used to 12, 13. When you start to putt uphill or downhill, you kind of have to err on a little bit less break and more speed, which is kind of hard to get yourself to do at times.

Then you factor in some wind. If some greens are exposed, the ball will get affected by a little bit of wind. It's a bit of an educated guessing game.

Q. Feel better about the progression of your game here over the last couple weeks? Obviously you're starting to have some better results.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, today was nice. Had a nice phone call with Chris last night. Yesterday felt terrible. Even with some of the shots coming in, I felt like I was luck boxing my way through the back nine, somehow making contact and then sitting it somewhere near the hole and getting it in.

Today felt like I was in more control. Obviously the weather was much nicer and sort of what we're used to on the PGA Tour. But it felt like I could control my golf ball a lot more.

Q. When you can control your golf ball like that, does your strategy change just a little?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yes and no. I feel like you try to use your length to your advantage out here. If you can kind of get your driver on some tight lines with the fairways being a little bit firmer, you can get a ball moving pretty far down some of these holes, and that can kind of give you an edge at times.

Yeah, it's still scary. I wasn't aiming at that pin on 12. I may have pulled it a hair, but I was trying to hit that thing to 35 feet at best and then try to make it or two-putt. I think with these pins, I think you're trying to be a little bit more defensive.

Q. When you're in the zone like that, is there a number that you're trying to get to, or do you find yourself just trying to hit at every flag, or is it more kind of specific?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It just feels -- work feels easy on when you can control your golf ball. Kind of wherever you're looking, you're kind of hitting it. You're seeing certain numbers, and even your bad shots are on the correct side of the hole or just on the short-side. Like on 9, I wasn't trying to hit it right of the pin there, and I luckily hit a lob wedge, and it ended up to nine feet or so.

When it's blowing 5 to 15 miles an hour over here and the sun's up, you feel like you can golf a little bit more.

Q. Did you say luck boxing?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, I don't even know if that's a term, but that's how I felt.

Q. What's it like out there with the roars for Rory? Are you quite aware of the electricity that's around the joint?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, yeah, it's loud. It's cool. I'm glad he's playing well for his home country. It's sort of what golf needs, and entertainment's high. I was on 17 tee when I heard whatever happened on 12. I assumed it was an eagle, some sort of hole-out. I was pretty far away, and it was very loud, and he got a standing ovation walking down 13.

Looks like he's enjoying it. Looks like the fans are enjoying it, which is great for this event.

Q. Do you feel like you got yourself back in contention today?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Not really. I probably needed -- I missed two short birdie putts, which I'm looking at. Asking for par on 4 was a big ask. I gave myself like a 14-footer uphill. If I'm nitpicking my whole deal, I needed three more today to feel like I'm somewhere close enough to whatever Scott or Fitzpatrick or Haotong are going to post.

Q. Do you look at leaderboards? Do you react to them?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I don't react, but today I was. I just felt like there's no point in not. I need to find any bit of -- not that I'm not motivated, but any extra motivation I can to giddy up and try to get something done. There's a few guys that are playing some incredible golf.

Q. What's the motivator tomorrow then?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I'm so far back, who knows with the weather and whatnot. I believe in myself and what I can do. So just blackout hopefully. No luck boxing, blackout, there's your headline, and try to shoot something and give myself a lot of opportunities.

Q. Do you know what the deficit is? Did you find yourself in chase mode even if it's too far to chase because of other things? It's whatever.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's hard. I think it's pretty hard to -- depending on how windy it is, if I was leading a tournament, I'd want it to play hard just because you know no one's going to shoot 62 or 63, whatever it is. If you shoot level to 1-under, you're going to win the tournament. Chasing is difficult when you're on a links course with weather and wind and bounces and things like that.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like I definitely -- I feel like I've been in chase mode all year, which it is what it is.

Q. What was Chris' message last night?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Just some golf swing stuff, just wasn't doing -- we worked a lot before I came overseas to try to sort of reset a few things. I felt like I was doing some things pretty well last week at the Scottish and may have gotten away from that with a little bit of the weather getting a little bit tight, things like that on property. Just trying to get back to a little bit of what we did before.

Q. Can you define blackout?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Well, it depends. Blackout would be -- it's used in different terms. If you drink a few too many -- if you go to Harbour Bar, there might be a few blacked out guys there.

Q. More like in your situation.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Blackout would just be you're so in your own world. For me, when I use the word blackout in golf, it's like when a guy is just -- when I watch Scottie play a lot, he just looks blacked out to me, just doing his thing. He's just in his own world and nothing's going to bother him. He gets to that place often, which is a good thing for him.

Q. Did you make any adjustments coming from yesterday to today. You had a good round today. You talked that you were working with Chris last week. Is there anything you worked on?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, a few swing cues, I guess. Nothing crazy, but I felt like I was in a position, starting the day, where I had absolutely nothing to lose if it didn't work. I think Sunday of Travelers, I tried something as well, and it obviously didn't go very well. I'm not afraid to just try it on course. It's never not something I'm afraid to do.

I think a few of those cues worked a little bit better today than previous days.