THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. We'd like to welcome Xander Schauffele to the 2025 BMW Championship. Xander, you're making your ninth appearance at the BMW Championship. Can we just get some opening comments on what it's like to be back at Caves Valley?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's been a long year, so just trying to chip away and try and use the playoffs to my advantage, if that's possible. It's nice to be back here at Caves. The course is obviously very different. Yeah, looking forward to a nice warm week.
Q. You're No. 43 in the FedExCup standings. Can you just talk about the state of your game as you try to make East Lake next week?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Definitely been trying pretty hard to get something going. It's been a work -- this year has been sort of a work in progress to get back into some good form. Still a work in progress, and like I said, I'm just -- you know, 50 guys, and it's a small field, and I've played well in them before. So why not do it again?
Q. You said a couple of times earlier this year that you've been chasing -- you know, chasing points or whatever. Now you're sort of in that ultimate position. I don't think you've ever really been in this position your entire career.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Thanks, Bob.
Q. Just curious what that is like being in this position maybe really for the first time?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: This is my worst position I've ever been in, injury aside. Even my rookie year I was in a better position. It sort of has that rookie year vibe to me a little bit. Just sort of need to work my way through the playoffs. This is kind of it for myself and my team, and just got to try to leave it all out there.
It's been nice to sort of be in -- you definitely play a little bit freer when you know you're kind of in till the end. I'm trying to sort of get that freedom as well because I have absolutely nothing to lose.
Q. I was going to follow with that, just do you approach this tournament then with more of a go-for-broke kind of strategy? Like can you even play golf that way from the first round on?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Not out here. It's a big property. There's several mounds, and the greens are a little bit firmer. If it doesn't rain at all, the greens will be even crustier. It's tough. I don't know -- last time I was here, I remember so many people were under par so early in rounds, and I just don't see it. I've been proven wrong by everyone out here and myself at times. So hopefully I can do that.
Q. Xander, at least statistically you kind of look at your profile, had a great driving year last year. This year it's kind of fallen back. Do you feel like that's a product of stuff just with the rib, with the swing changing at all, compensating for that? Like when you look at that and you see that that's been a struggling part of the game, like where does your head go?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: If I look at my stats, there's a few sort of outlier events where I drove it horrendously and putted horrendously and chipped horrendously. I think the irons are sort of something that I kind of hung onto. I was able to sort of manage that around certain events. There's a few events where I kind of went for broke, and it definitely, statistically, hurt myself pretty heavily.
That was a little bit earlier when I came back. It sort of mellowed out a little bit in previous months. Just some bad habits, some new bad habits, I should say, and a learning curve that I've been trying to get used to.
Q. Just between the driving and the putting, is there one that's more frustrating trying to figure out or frustrating that it's not clicking?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, I mean yes and no. I mean, both probably, not one more than the other. When it feels like it's your weapon and then you're sort of intimidated by a club that you used to love, you have to try and mentally get over that.
Q. Are you still working with Chris?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I am, yeah.
Q. Given your reputation as being one of the most positive players in the history of the game, has it been tested this year?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, for sure. I'd say something about sort of finding it in the dirt. Through that process, it's pretty easy to lose your head, so definitely been challenged this year more than before, which is, you know, refreshing.
Q. Where are you now?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's a work in progress. I saw you creeping out there on the range, Doug. I saw you. You were creeping on me while I was trying to hit some balls. I can't remember what night that was, but it's hard to miss your shirt.
Q. I was progressing.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it's been one of those things where I'm trying to find a cue or a feel or just something I can go with. Kind of still in the hunt for it, but I think it's going a little bit better.
Q. At what point do you talk about frustration or positivity being tested? Was there a point where you were tested more than usual this year?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: You sort of get used to -- you know, not that I took it for granted, playing good golf, but I know it's sort of in there. My body knows it. I've done it. I know I can do it. Then to know what a problem is and then not really know how to fix it is the most frustrating.
I had some frustration before when I didn't know what the problem was and I'm sort of shooting in the dark and having no clue what to do. Now it's sort of, all right, this is the issue; how do we fix it? This is being difficult. So frustrating in different ways.
Q. With that search, do you go back and look at your old swing? How much are you looking at what you did before, and how much are you trying to find -- is that in the past and you kind of work towards the future of what's going to work now, or how do you kind of find that middle ground and that balance knowing what you've done?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's tricky, tricky to compare and contrast, sort of, oh, I won two majors when I felt like this. I felt like my swing was different when I -- between Valhalla and The Open, they were different to me. That's comforting knowing that it didn't have to be one thing. There are a few components that are important that I sort of haven't done very well that I was doing at both those events. So trying to hammer those down more than sort of the overall thing.
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