New Headline: Schauffele Makes Impressive Progression With Solid 69 on Tough Course

Photo by Tracy Wilcox/PGA TOUR via Getty Images 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. Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images 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.