HAWAII — Xander Schauffele insists his remodelled swing remains a work in progress as he looks to capitalise on Scottie Scheffler’s absence from The Sentry PGA Tour in Hawaii.
World number one Scheffler has been ruled out of the opening PGA Tour event of 2025 in Hawaii after undergoing surgery to repair a hand wound sustained while cooking Christmas dinner.
The 2025 season begins with Scheffler leading No. 2 Schauffele by 6.3727 average points in the ranking system, which utilizes a two-year rolling period, emphasizes players’ most recent performances and factors in tournaments’ strength of field.
His absence sees Schauffele, the winner of last year’s PGA Championship and Open Championship, installed as the new favourite for the tournament in Maui.
But the 31-year-old from San Diego insists he is still getting to grips with the changes made to his swing overseen by renowned coach Chris Como during a break from the game late last year.
“Everything I was working on with Chris still feels like my swing, but it’s still something that’s a little bit uncomfortable,” Schauffele said.
“He just kept winning. Even in sort of his downtime, he won another event, which pushed him even further away,” Schauffele added according to Reuters. “So it’s one of my goals that will just have to stay on the calendar for a few more years.”
“As long as I’m producing good shots I feel the confidence to keep moving in the right direction, and obviously I got a lot of confidence after some results last year.
“There are certain times when you’re trying to push your swing to a certain place or you stack two or three good weeks in a row and you feel really good.
“I would say that last year that was Quail Hollow. And going into Valhalla I felt really good.
“The Open Championship is a different beast – you’re just trying to keep the ball in play, keep it low, leave it on the right side of the hole with the wind.
“So two completely different styles of golf that cater to different things from your game. I’m excited to keep working with Chris and see how well we can put the full swing together.
“Hopefully everything feels normal sooner than later. Just like anything else, when you take some time off – I took a few weeks off playing golf – old habits die hard and I start to shift back into old swing patterns.”
With world number three Rory McIlroy also absent from The Sentry – the Northern Irishman is the only player of the 60 who qualified for the event not to appear – the odds are further stacked in Schauffele’s favour.
Scheffler has a commanding position at the top of the global rankings but Schauffele hopes to overtake him at some point.
“I’m cruising around right where I want to be. It’s a wild time,” he said.
“Winning two majors and being further away, or closer to the 30th-ranked player than the first based on the off-season numbers…hat’s off to Scottie – he’s a beast.
“He just kept winning. Even in his down time he won another event, which pushed him even further away. So it’s one of my goals that will just have to stay on the calendar for a few more years.
“If I get there I’ll be very happy but it’s going to take some time and some patience.”
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