Xander Schauffele is so fed up with men's pro golf he has a new motto
PGA Tour star Xander Schauffele says he will bury his head in the sand this year to block out the distractions in men's pro golf.
Xander Schauffele has revealed his new slogan is 'head in the sand' ahead of the new PGA Tour campaign.
Schauffele is one of 59 players teeing it up in Hawaii this week as the North American circuit reverts to a calendar-year based schedule for the first time in more than a decade.
It's an important year for Schauffele as he hopes to make the U.S. team for the Olympics. He is also targeting winning his very first major.
Aside from those distractions, the protracted uncertainty over what men's professional golf will look like hovers over the game.
Schauffele has made it clear in recent months he's unhappy the PGA Tour management went behind players' backs to try and make peace with LIV Golf's financiers.
According to Schauffele, PGA Tour boss Jay Monahan has a long way to go to earn back his members' trust.
Schauffele withdrew from Tiger Woods' recent Hero World Challenge, which prompted further speculation he was about to make the leap to LIV.
Yet here Schauffele is ahead of the new campaign on the PGA Tour with a fresh new look.
"A lot of distractions," Schauffele said when asked by a reporter in Kapalua about the state of the game. "It's been like that for quite some time.
"Everyone sort of has their opinion and everyone floats around, but I can just speak to sort of what I've been trying to do and that's really dig my head in the sand and try to get back to sort of letting the clubs talk."
Schauffele was asked for his opinion on Jon Rahm's switch to the Saudi-backed league.
The American shrugged his shoulders and offered: "I don't really have a whole lot to say on the matter, to be honest."
Asked whether it would be difficult to get all players back together in the future, he said: "I'm sure there's some smart people out there that have some ideas on how to do it correctly. I'm not one of them.
"You're going to bother some people more than others, a lot of people feel like they're owed something.
"So, when you take sort of everyone's opinion into play, I think you just need someone that's really smart that's going to create a fair pathway back for everyone to play again."
Schauffele said his head is so far in the sand right now he's didn't even vote for his player of the year.
Scottie Scheffler beat Rahm to that honour.
"I put my head in the sand, man," he said of the vote. "I'm serious, I really have just locked out everything."
Schauffele also stated he won't allow himself to think past the West Coast swing because of his new motto.
He added: "I'm honestly more worried about what my West Coast Swing is going to look like right now versus sort of five, six months from now.
"If I can take care of business, then I'll have to, you know, or if I play well enough, then I think I should be able to qualify for that [Olympics] team.
"It's going to be tough."
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