'Don't jinx it': Xander Schauffele finds confidence, starts strong at PGA Championship
Xander Schauffele, despite a poor finish last week, shot 2-under 68 at the PGA Championship's first round.
NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — After a poor finish that wasn’t up to his standards last week, Xander Schauffele limped into the 108 th PGA Championship and was asked during his press conference on Tuesday to rate his confidence level compared to two years ago when he left with the Wanamaker Trophy in his possession. “It's significantly lower, obviously.
I finished close to last place last week,” he said. Then came the but…“I'm actually feeling kind of good, surprisingly. It's one of those things where I tried my absolute hardest and almost came in last place last week, and that's just sometimes how a bad day in the office goes, but still beats being inside,” he said.
“Yeah, I'm looking forward to this week and sort of the rest of this year. ” Schauffele was then asked whether he’d found something in his game that had buoyed his confidence. “I don't want to jinx it, you know what I'm saying?
Yeah, confidence is a tricky thing. I didn't have a whole lot last week, was a little bit in my head on what I was capable of doing,” he said. “I actually did a few things pretty decent last week, surprisingly.