Xander Schauffele heads into the FedEx Cup finale at No. 2 in the standings. It will mark his best start at this event since he made his Tour Championship debut at East Lake Golf Club in 2017.
Tour Championship: Xander Schauffele makes a conscious choice to focus on himself instead of whole PGA Tour
Schauffele is on the verge of one of his best seasons, which happened once he chose to think about himself and not the PGA Tour.
Photo by Tracy Wilcox/PGA Tour via Getty Images
Ahead of the tournament, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan will address the media. Many call it his State of the Tour speech, and he will discuss various topics surrounding professional golf.
Schauffele is not one of those players worried about it, though. He changed his focus and made a more conscious decision to worry about himself.
“I haven’t paid attention, to be honest,” Schauffele said. “I’ve been a little busy with my own — with my head in the sand. I have been focusing on my own stuff, and I have not sat and asked a single person how is the TOUR doing because I care how Xander is doing, and that’s pretty much it.”
That mindset continues to pay off for the nine-time PGA Tour winner. Schauffele won the PGA Championship and the Open to take home half of the 2024 majors.
He is on track to record one of the best seasons in his career. In 20 starts, he has 14 Top 10s, 19 Top 25s and three runner-up finishes.
Schauffele mentioned that he should probably read his emails from the Tour more often, but he chose to concentrate on the things he could control.
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
“It’s a very private matter what’s going on between — trying to make tours merge and the state of golf and those things,” he said. “Those are behind-closed-doors talks. It’s not a room I was ever in, and I haven’t thought much about it. That’s probably why I’ve been playing much better. I’ve just been focusing on my stuff.”
The 30-year-old has not finished outside the Top 25 since February when he was T-54 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Since his win at the Open, Schauffele posted T-9, T-2 and T-5 finishes.
It seems that shifting his focus away from the uncertain future of professional golf paid off. There is one challenge left for him, and it comes at a place where he has a lot of success. East Lake is usually kind to Schauffele, with seven Top 10s and three runner-up finishes in his last five starts at the venue.
Schauffele could take the FedEx Cup away from Scottie Scheffler based on how he played last month. He starts at 8-under and two shots behind Scheffler. The two players tee off at 2 p.m. for the first round of the Tour Championship.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @golf_girl_sl.
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