Xander Schauffele has shown signs this season that he is close to getting back to his best.
Schauffele posted an incredible round of 65 on Friday at The Players Championship, but he was stuck in reverse during round three and ended up shooting a 74, falling five shots adrift of the leader, Ludvig Aberg.
The 32-year-old American experienced a challenging 2025 season after enjoying a stellar 2024 when he won two major championships.
Halfway through The Players Championship this week it seemed like Schauffele was back to his very best.
However, it came as a real shock to everyone when the 10-time PGA Tour winner performed poorly at TPC Sawgrass on Saturday.
Schauffele and Aberg were warned about their pace of play early on in their round on the fifth hole, and the American struggled pretty much from that point onwards.
In spite of his third round 74, though, Schauffele is clearly close to rediscovering his very best form.
Rich Beem’s opinion on Xander Schauffele’s swing changes
Schauffele worked incredibly hard on his game after his successful 2024 season.
The two-time major champion thought his club was too laid off at the top of his backswing (pointing too far to the left) and attempted to get it into a more neutral position.
However, he obviously needed to go backwards before he could make any genuine progress.
Beem responded when asked whether Schauffele went too far with his swing changes last year after it became evident that the American had the club too far across the line at the top of his backswing.
“I remember as a kid when my dad taught me anything about the golf swing he said to me, ‘I want you to overexaggerate first of all, I want you to completely go the opposite direction, and then all of a sudden let’s back it off and let’s find the happy medium in there someplace’,“ Beem explained.
“And of course, I think that’s what you’re going to see with a lot of top professional golfers.
“They’re always going to go too far and they’re like, ‘okay, we got to back off that little bit’.
“I personally like the 2019 position he had, but obviously leaving his dad and going to Chris Como and trying to just get a little bit more, getting the distance that he’s added, though, the last couple of seasons. I think that’s given him the most confidence more than anything else with the driver.
“I think that going up there and knowing that he can you know, if he really needs to step on one, he can keep up with the likes of Rory McIlroy, I think gives him a lot of confidence.
“But, you know, yes, of course, you can go too far as a professional golfer. We all do it.
“But again, I think that’s how you learn.
“I think that’s how you then make the swing your own, and you can decipher between what’s laid off, what’s across the line, and what’s perfect.“
Paul McGinley speculates why Xander Schauffele’s levels dropped in 2025
When speaking on Sky Sports on Saturday, Paul McGinley absolutely raved about Schauffele.
However, he did point out that the American performed poorly in 2025, and suggested a reason as to why that might have happened.
“It’s fair to say that he’s back to his very best, which was 2024,“ McGinley said.
“Again, another guy where his career path has been phenomenal over the last 4 or 5 years, a brilliant player.
“I mean, there’s no weaknesses in Xander’s game. He had a blip last year. Maybe that was a reaction to winning two majors the year before and having a phenomenal year like he did.
“And that often happens, guys come off the boil a little bit.
“You know, life gets in the way a little bit, and, you know, maybe your drive is not quite the same, but from what we’ve seen over the first two days, this is the best he’s performed in terms of ball striking, since he won in Valhalla so impressively in 2024.
“So it looks like he’s back to his very best.“
