PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 12, 2026

Xander Schauffele

Aronimink Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: 2024 PGA champion Xander Schauffele joins us now at the 108th PGA Championship. Xander, welcome to Aronimink and your 10th PGA Championship. What are your thoughts on the golf course and your game as you prepare for Thursday's opening round?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: The course is -- luckily the weather has kind of held up. It's nice to see the sun, a little bit cooler weather than what we've had on other parts of the TOUR. Weather's good. Course is firming up. Greens are diabolical. It should be a really good test.

Q. Based on your experience playing out here, being here, just in the Philadelphia area over the course of your golf career, how do you view golf in this area and its culture and even the city in general?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I like -- I haven't had enough time. I'm kind of one of the players that will really stick around the property to try to get to know it during the tournament week. So I haven't had really the opportunity to explore and enjoy Philadelphia. Snuck a little Angelo's at the Cricket Club last year.

The fans are obviously very passionate. They do love their sports and golf up here. For the most part, it's always nice. The Northeast golf courses, me being from the West Coast and San Diego, it's nice to play this style of golf at this time of year as well.

Q. We're in the middle of a three-month run of four majors and five Signature Events. How does that packed schedule work for you, and would you change it in any way?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Play good golf. Yeah, it's a little bit more of a sprint. You definitely want to be in good form and stay there.

In terms of changing it, there's a lot more that goes into the schedule than I think people realize. It's hard to just, Well, let's move this there and this there, and everything will be great. So it's hard for me to speak to that.

I think they're working their best to make it all work, all the bodies of golf.

Q. If you could give one piece of advice to young golfers and their parents, what would it be?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It probably would be different advice to the two. Parents, just to kind of let your kid enjoy the sport as much as possible or any sport they're playing.

And to any young kid, I thought a really good thing that I had was I had a friend to play with. Golf is very much an individual sport and can get a bit lonely, especially for a kid when you see a bunch of other kids playing team sports. So having a friend, someone that's better than you, is always a really good thing. You've got someone to lean on and someone that's going to make you better.

Q. Champions Dinner tonight. What do you expect from Scheffler's menu, and how would it compare to yours?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I can't even remember what I had on mine. I'm sure Scottie will do a nice job. This is only my second one I'm going to attend. Still very new to this whole Champions Dinner thing, and it's cool to kind of get to know some of the guys a little bit better. All the older boys always have all the good stories. So definitely looking forward to that bit.

Q. Any favorite stories from those dinners, those two dinners?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Larry Nelson speaking about using different clubs every day of like a major championship, and different caddies and just putting it all together, and of course Larry's a great storyteller. So if you ever have a chance to hear him tell one, definitely sit around.

Q. Just curious, as you've gotten older, how has your prep for all the majors -- you know, the big tournaments, the major championships -- changed? And in particular, this one.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I feel like I prepare relatively similar in all the majors. For me I feel like it's a bit more of a mindset you have to kind of lock into. Majors are always tougher, and there's more stress, there's more people, there's bigger buildings. There's sort of all those things at major championships. If you can kind of get your game in a good place but your mind in a better one, you can kind of tap into whatever you think you're capable of doing.

Q. A lot of talk here at Aronimink about Donald Ross putting surfaces. I'm just curious what your level of familiarity is with them and how you go about planning for putting this week.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: You can make it as easy or difficult on yourself as you'd like. I think, if you get aggressive to certain pins and short-side yourself, you're going to hit it to 20 or 30 feet at best, just based on how the surface, how fast and firm it is and how much it runs away from you.

But at the same time, there's certain pockets where you can -- little fingers on the greens where you can hit a really good shot and get rewarded for it, depending on firmness obviously.

The greens are definitely the thing to prepare for for this tournament. I think it will be fun to watch.

Q. And there was some similar conversation about brutality of the course and putting surfaces two years ago, and you proceeded to open up with a 62. Do you see a 62 out here this week?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I don't think anyone ever sees a 62. You just sort of -- you know, kind of like I alluded to before, you get your mind in a good spot and hopefully have a little blackout moment.

Obviously we got a little bit of rain at Valhalla. So that softness assisted very much with that score. But on a day like today, that would be a very special score.

Q. I understand that this isn't Augusta National, but the way that you go about attacking these greens versus the way you go about attacking those at Augusta National, is it similar or different?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: There's a level of familiarity at Augusta, I think, just being there so many times. This is my second time on this property, and the first time it rained a crazy amount. I think it was lift, clean, and place every day. So hard to pull from any of that knowledge back in 2018.

Barring that, I think you -- I'm playing early on Thursday, I believe. So I'm kind of in that wave of setting the pace. Usually when you're in the afternoon wave, you can kind of see what guys are doing and get a feel of what's possible out there. That's at least what I do. For the most part, I think in the morning the greens will be a little bit softer if it's not too cold, and they're going to firm up with the wind in the afternoon.

If you're in the fairway, you can definitely be aggressive, but if you're in the rough, this rough is pretty gnarly.

Q. You talked about the schedule being bunched together. I'm curious if you kind of liked that gap previously from the Masters to the U.S. Open, whether it was a little more of -- I guess just a gap to prepare for that major? Then this was in August. I don't know.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I've never won the Masters or the U.S. Open, so there's no gap or anything that I like or dislike. It sort of is what it is. I just try to prepare with my team to the best of our ability.

Q. Two questions.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Nice of you to show up, Doug.

Q. Sorry, my watch stopped working. Who are you?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I mean, you came.

Q. When we talk about getting the best players together more often, what's the right number of tournaments?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: In a year? I mean, it's such a personal number. Some guys like to play 30 weeks a year. I like to play 20-ish. Some guys like to play 15.

Q. I'm not so much talking about your schedule, but in terms of getting all the top players together --

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Oh, like in a field.

Q. Do you think every tournament or before they all start looking the same, what would be an effective number, in your opinion?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I'm not sure. Brian talks a lot about talking to fans. I think that would be a good number to try and poll, see how exhausted guys or gals are of watching golf. I love playing golf. So rarely do I get tired of it.

You know, coming in 60th a few too often times will make you tired of your job. But for the most part I enjoy the challenge of getting better. So I'll never get tired of playing, but I think it would be a good thing to try to poll from fans to see, do we want to watch golf every week for three months, or do we like a little break? Whatever that looks like.

Q. Second question, pardon the vagueness, but do you like trees?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I do like trees, Doug. Do you like trees?

Q. I like trees too, Xander. Let's do Cat in the Hat next.

(Laughter).

In terms of a golf course --

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I know where you're going. Go ahead.

Q. Go somewhere then. Keep making me work.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, when I hear certain designers saying, I'm going to restore this course to 1915, I'm like, Well, it probably takes a good hundred years for a nice tree to grow, just to take it out, just to say it was where it was before.

I think people keep talking about distance and how the game is played, but just put a bunch of trees on a course -- I think Hilton Head is a good example. Do I like Hilton Head? Not really. But it's hard. It's kind of crazy, if you look at the winning score at Hilton Head and the winning score at Doral, one's called Hilton Head, and one's called the Blue monster. You're like I think the winning score at Miami is lower. It's just funny when you kind of look at it in that sense.

That's all I have to say to your tree question.

Q. Is it more framing, or is it more trouble?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's just hard. I think when you have -- like this rough, for example, if we had trees in the rough and you hit it in it, this week you'll see guys kind of gouging it towards the green. If there's a tree there, you'd be chipping out sideways. This is the type of rough where you can't get a ball to curve at all. You just grab a high-lofted club and hit a knuckleball and have it kind of trundle somewhere.

There's certain weeks where the rough is, you can kind of curve it a little bit. But there's reasons guys are praying to be on the pine straw or dirt when they hit it off line, versus being in thick rough, just because you can get some movement on the golf ball.

Q. Do you like 180 bunkers?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Bunkers are bunkers. It's not a big deal. If you had a bunch of trees around the bunkers, it would be a lot different, you know what I mean? Again, you'd be curving shots and thinking a little bit more.

Like I said, this week is greens are the biggest protection this week. They're going to hold up, for sure. I think they're going to cause some problems and make it really tricky on little pitch shots or two-putting or things of that nature. That's the biggest protection the course has.

Q. How would you compare your confidence level from when you won this tournament a couple years ago to now?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's significantly lower, obviously. I finished close to last place last week. I'm actually feeling kind of good, surprisingly. It's one of those things where I tried my absolute hardest and almost came in last place last week, and that's just sometimes how a bad day in the office goes, but still beats being inside.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to this week and sort of the rest of this year.

Q. Do you feel like you found something?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I don't want to jinx it, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, confidence is a tricky thing. I didn't have a whole lot last week, was a little bit in my head on what I was capable of doing. I actually did a few things pretty decent last week, surprisingly. Hopefully I can kind of drag a little bit of that into this week.