Xander Schauffele outlines what he found ‘pretty diabolical’ about Aronimink over the first two days
Photo by Tracy Wilcox/PGA TOUR via Getty Images Xander Schauffele is in contention for another major championship win after another impressive round at the PGA Championship. Schauffele started the tournament with a two-under 68 on Thursday, but failed to back that up on Friday with his 73. He is, however, heading into Sunday on three-under after a third-round 66 at Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania.
Schauffele was among a number of players making positive use of the reworked hole locations at Aronimink , which had come under plenty of criticism from his fellow players over the first two rounds. Scottie Scheffler called the Aronimink pins “absurd” on day two, with Schauffele now using the word “diabolical” when describing the early pin setup at the PGA Championship . Xander Schauffele highlights ‘pretty diabolical’ pins at Aronimink When asked how different the challenge was in round three concerning the conditions and pin positions, Schauffele replied: “Yeah, I thought the pin locations the first two days were pretty diabolical.
“Last night I actually thought it wasn’t playing very hard at all. I was just playing really bad golf. “Happy to sort of make a birdie there and kind of limp in in that fashion.
So it was nice to hit more quality crisp shots today and make some birdies. ” And sharing how aware he is of such a congested leaderboard, especially in round three, he said: “Yeah, I was pretty aware today and tomorrow, I called an absolute free-for-all, you know what I mean? “Just the way the course plays, I mean, someone early goes and shoots something 6-7-under, they might just have a chance to win the whole thing, depending on how windy it gets out there.
“So with that in mind, try to really stay in my lane with Austin [Kaiser, his caddie] and control what we can control. ” Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images What Xander Schauffele learned on the first two days of the PGA Championship Schauffele certainly knows what it takes to win the tournament, having triumphed at the PGA Championship in 2024. The American won The Open Championship the same year, but is currently without a victory on the PGA Tour this season.