JOHN BUSH: We'll go ahead and get started. We would like to welcome Xander Schauffele to the virtual media center here at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. He's making his fifth start at this event including a win in 2019.
Xander, I know you love this place. If we can get your comments on being back at Kapalua.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it's always nice to be, to come back. It means that you won a tournament. I feel extra fortunate this year. The Olympics wasn't on the list and the TOUR was nice enough to sort of put it on the list with the help of some players lobbying for me.
So it's nice they recognize the Olympic gold medal as a winner and here I am. So excited to be back.
JOHN BUSH: Speaking of the Olympics, just try to recap 2021 for us if you can just in terms of what it will mean to you when you're older and looking back at your career.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it wasn't my, as a whole or body of work it wasn't my most decorated year, but I think 2021 will always be the Tokyo Olympics, so I have that to carry with me.
JOHN BUSH: Talk about the gold ring that you gave Austin afterward. Just talk a little bit about what went into giving him that.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it was actually a really long delay. My family and I were happy to deliver it to him sort of just in time. All the guys out here, some guys were giving me some, heckling me a little bit about not going him anything or anything like that.
We ordered it such a long time ago so I tried to, I had to, I got a big mouth sometimes, so I had to keep my mouth shut on his gift just so it would be really special. It was cool. I have that medal to carry with me and now he has a that ring as a piece of memorabilia, so he can always cherish that.
JOHN BUSH: Back to Sentry. Take us back to the win in 2019, what you remember about that, and then also talk to us a little bit about this golf course and how it suits your game.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, they redesigned it since then slightly, but, yeah, it was sort of a blackout day. Bogeyed the first hole and then ended up shooting 11-under. So I don't really know how to describe it or explain it. I had two eagles and everything was going my way. I got lucky Gary didn't birdie the last hole with his length and his power.
So just a fortunate situation, kind of a perfect storm for me, and unfortunate for some others. But, yeah, it just shows that I can play really well here and anything's really possible on this property for me.
JOHN BUSH: We'll open it up to questions.
Q. What did you think of the TOUR's decision on Saudi releases and Pebble Beach, and did that make you think about your decision to go?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it's sort of one that's still being ironed out. I've had my reservations about playing at AT&T, so it's definitely a tricky one to handle that situation. So we're still navigating that with my team and we'll kind of see what happens here shortly.
Q. What's one area of your game that needs to get better and how long did it take you to figure that out?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: A lot of areas of my game need to get better. There's certain areas of my game that actually got worse last year, which is wedges from certain ranges, chipping. It's sort of been a little bit too inconsistent for my liking and it's sort of showed in my play and my placement in the fields of certain events.
So if I can sort of make more things more constant, I think that would be better for me and more, allow me to be more consistent.
Q. What have you learned from your dad coaching-wise that you'll pass on regardless of sport?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: That's a good question. I think -- God, I've learned a lot. I'm trying to think of -- probably more of the just the work hard sort of mentality and blue collar mentality that he's sort of ingrained in me as a kid is something I can always take away from golf.
It's funny, golf is always something you can, I always feel like whatever happens off the course will happen on the course, and he really made that apparent to me at a young age, so I've always tried to be a better person off so I can handle situations on, and I think I would always, if I had kids that's something I would try to relate to them as well.
Q. How do you think it will be, how difficult do you think it will be if you do have a family and kids who will obviously have good means, you know, as opposed to not?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it's a tricky one. You got to do extra parenting is how I would think of it, about it. Yeah, I grew up really fortunate with pretty much zero trauma, as I would call it. I was lucky I had nothing terrible or bad ever happen to me as a kid. So I would want that same sort of environment for my kids as well.
And with that said though it's also somewhat of a trap at times because trauma does do something to an individual to make them work hard or make them fight and make them a grinder, and I feel like if I could sort of create that same bubble where there is no trauma or nothing bad happening, but also kind of have that resilience and hard work mentality built within that bubble that would be ideal.
Q. It's hard to get that underdog thing that you thrived off if you don't start with it.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it's just something that happens that way.
Q. New year. There's always new equipment. I understand a new driver for you. Do you want to run us through the changes?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I have the new Rogue ST in the bag and it's a seemingly seamless change for me. It's been, they have plenty of, you have different heads and sizes that I can fit into.
So I've always used a new driver here at Kapalua. It's kind of been my thing. I have a new golf ball as well in the bag, so I'm pretty excited for the week to see sort of how everything performs in the wind.
Q. How much pretesting have you done or with it or how much more will you do this week?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: As much as needed. I'm sort of like an, if I hit three drives and two of them are good and I kind of make one weird swing, I know the driver's good. If I make -- all the guys at Callaway know I'll hit one drive and if I hit it kind of squirrely, they take it out of my hands because I won't even go beyond one or two shots with it because they know I'll start compensating.
I hit a couple drives with mine and kind of did the same amount of testing I've always done this week as I've always done with the new equipment.
Q. So you're hitting bombs obviously?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I'll leave that to Phil, but the driver's been working very nicely.
Q. What else coming into the year are your expectations and hopes? You've always done pretty well hitting the ground running here, how important do you think that is?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's very important. In the past I've sort of gotten off to a better start, sort of during our Asian swing. I have not done that, we didn't go to Asia or, I mean, partially, so maybe that's why I didn't get off to such a great start.
We played in Vegas and I did play in Japan, but for the most part I didn't really get off to that sort of hot start that makes me really comfortable pushing through. So I need to use this tournament and this West Coast Swing to really hit the ground and run so I can kind of plan the rest of my year accordingly, versus chasing.
Q. Given the trip that you'll go on, how do you see your West Coast actually playing out schedule-wise?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, I mean, as of right now it's going to be Farmers and then I'm going to go over to Saudi and then I'm going to come straight back and play Waste and L.A., I wouldn't miss those for anything and just because I'm going over there I'm coming straight back.
So we'll put my body through the wringer and my mind through the ringer, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.
Q. Talk about the loaded field that we have this week and also how excited you are to have fans back here at this tournament after not having them last year?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, just showing up on the island you can tell that people are here. Last year -- I'm a bit of a recluse myself, but last year it was very quiet, the beaches were empty, and now when you go around there's just people everywhere.
So playing in front of fans is always an easier way to sort of grab momentum or get something going and you feel good about it. So I'm excited that people are back and looking forward to seeing all, seeing some familiar faces out here.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports