'I beat myself up in hotel rooms': Xander Schauffele on 'no longer acting like a child'

Xander Schauffele might seem like one of the coolest and calmest customers on the PGA Tour right now, but that hasn't always been the case. 

Schauffele, 30, sat down with the media ahead of this week's second FedEx Cup Playoffs event at the BMW Championship to reveal he used to get very hot under the collar when things weren't quite going to plan on the PGA Tour. 

At least some eight years ago when he was applying his trade on the lower-tier Korn Ferry Tour attempting to earn a PGA Tour card. 

Schauffele missed nine cuts in a row in his debut season on the Korn Ferry Tour (back then known as the Web.com Tour) in 2016, and he admitted he got 'extremely angry'.

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He alluded to the fact he was even paying his long-term caddie Austin Kaiser more than he was making on the circuit.

To compound matters, despite rallying late in the season, Schauffele ended up losing out on his PGA Tour card by one spot and just $1,000 when finishing 26th on the money list. 

"First year on the Korn Ferry. It was my first time, I'm sitting there, huge pat on my back, I got through Q-school and I was fired up, and here I am," said Schauffele, as he reflected on his journey to the PGA Tour. 

"I'm a fresh kid out of college and I've got my card already, that's pretty special. 

"Then I made 25 grand, I'm floating Austin with me every week and paying him more than I'm making, we're rooming together and I'm angry all the time.

"It was a lot of self-reflection, I guess, at that time to realize that I was really frustrated and I felt like I was playing decent golf, I was just missing cuts by one shot and I was just having these little mini-meltdowns all the time."

After taking that agonising near-miss at the end of the regular Korn Ferry season to heart, Schauffele dusted himself down and rallied to finish 15th on the Finals money list to earn his PGA Tour card for 2017. 

"Got my act together, fixed that, and then looped that in," he continued. 

"Got my card my rookie year. Was able to get through the Playoffs on the Korn Ferry or Web.com at the time and then same thing happened."

Schauffele admitted he got even harder on himself after a tough start to this PGA Tour rookie season.

But it all changed when he Monday qualified into the 2017 US Open where he went on to finish T5 at Erin Hills. 

He then took out his maiden PGA Tour title at the Greenbrier Classic a month later shortly before clinching the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake. 

Schauffele now stands proud as a two-time major champion, nine-time PGA Tour winner and currently the second best player in the world behind Scottie Scheffler. 

"I was about to lose my card, and then I Mondayed into the US Open, and the rest is history. I was able to turn it around," said Schauffele.

"Two years of beating myself up in hotel rooms and just realizing that I need to stop kind of acting like a child in my own way is how I came to that conclusion."

As for the last time he got really hard on himself after missing out on a PGA Tour title, Schauffele immediately reflects back to the 2020 Tournament of Champions at Kapalua in Hawaii when he three-putted for par on the 18th to end up in a three-man playoff.

He eventually lost to Justin Thomas. 

"I remember sitting in the hotel room looking at the floor and my wife Maya is asking me if I'm okay, and I was like, you're going to have to give me at least 10 or 15 minutes," Schauffele said of that tough finish. 

"I just remember three-putting there, was really excited, really amped up, downwind putt, whacked it seven feet by, missed it, was in complete shock, then had to go into a playoff. Had no chance of winning that thing, obviously."

But more than four years on, this is now a very different Xander Schauffele we are looking at heading into the penultimate event of the FedEx Cup season where he ranks second behind runaway FedEx Cup leader and World No.1 Scheffler. 

Schauffele's mind and focus is clear, and his overall golf game is arguably the strongest on the PGA Tour right now. 

For years Schauffele was considered something of a 'choker' by a number of PGA Tour fans, but he has put that moninker to bed this season by moving halfway to a career grand slam by taking out two of the last three majors at the US PGA and The Open. 

He was also the only player to finish top 10 in all four majors in 2024. 

Schauffele is now hoping to cap off the season in style by seeing out a first FedEx Cup title at East Lake (where he won the Tour Championship in 2017) next week. 

He also intends to soon take down Scheffler as officially the world's best player. 

"I'm just going to keep knocking," said a determined Schauffele. "That's what I do."