Xander Schauffele bringing the smoke to Masters: 'I know what I'm capable of'

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — There is a balance to Xander Schauffele this week at the Masters that was missing in years past. Coming off a double-major winning season it’s as though the accomplishments finally match the 31-year-old’s energy.

There has always been a self-assurance to Schauffele. Nobody looked more in his element during the 2021 Ryder Cup celebration than Xander; puffing on his cigar, winking to onlookers, with a wide grin and a happy glaze in his eyes. It was an image he seemed built for, except years kept going by and individually there were no cigar-worthy moments.

“I think I know what I’m capable of when I’m feeling good,” Schauffele said Monday when asked about his confidence this week at the Masters coming off the first injury of his career.

“I mean last year I was firing on close to all cylinders at some points, and I sort of saw what that got me and how far that got me.”

What that got him was his own page in golf’s history book, winning the PGA Championship at Valhalla in May and cementing his resume by raising the Claret Jug at Royal Troon in July.

Without a doubt, much of the cocksure attitude Schauffele can at times convey comes from his bon vivant father Stefan. In fact, if you look up cocksure in the Oxford dictionary, the example literally says ‘The cocksure golf prodigy from California.’ So it’s not Xander’s fault, the San Diego kid was born into it on two fronts.

“Self-belief, it’s sort of been hammered into my brain by my dad,” Schauffele said at Augusta National. “Just always. He was always hard on me but always wanted me to believe in all of the corny positive self-talk.”

Wherever his resilience came from, it has deep roots and it paid off in 2024 when Schauffele broke through after coming close to gaining the worst reputation an elite athlete can have: Someone who comes up small in the biggest moments.

Schauffele had six top-5 major championship finishes and two runner-ups before 2024, and the first real close call was at the 2018 Open Championship at Carnoustie where he was tied for the lead going into Sunday, before Jordan Spieth eventually won.

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“I had the rope in my hands, and it was just slipping and I couldn’t get a hold of it. And before I knew it, the front nine was done, and I shot like 44. And it was like, holy smokes,” Schauffele said. “Then there’s been other times where I’ve been in there and I was aware of that one moment, and I completely lost the grip. And I tried to slow things down, and I was almost playing so slow that I was throwing myself off.”

“Something about dealing with the situation, looking too far ahead, trying to slow yourself down, trying to stick to your process, trying to look at what other people are doing. There’s so much going on, and I think until you’ve actually done it and sort of make sense of it in your own head, then you learn sort of how you can win.”

What Schauffele found last season is the zone that athletes talk about often but only the best find, and Schauffele did a wonderful job explaining it on Monday.

“There’s a peaceful — if you can find it — there’s a serene part of it if you allow yourself to enjoy it. But I think it’s so high stress that the hardest thing to do in those spots is to stick to your process, to have the correct conversation with your caddie before you hit the shot as if you’re teeing off on Thursday. That’s the hardest place to get to. And the better you can get at that when you’re under the gun, I think you’ll be more successful.”

These days, Schauffele is viewed by many experts as the most complete player in the game; the only player in the deepest era of golf with no faults in his game for a major championship to exploit.

The only question this week is whether the downtime from his injured ribs have taken the edge off the sharpness of his game. And if so, whether in a game that can come and go like golf, can he summon it all back on command to win a green jacket.

“Everything is gravy when it’s gravy. It was a nice wake-up call to maybe be a little more responsible when need be,” Schauffele said of his injury. “To be able to take a step back after winning two majors and accomplishing a lot, to still feel some fire burning watching other guys playing really well is a huge thing because at some point in my life that’s not going to happen, so I’m lucky that it’s still burning.”