RACHEL NOBLE: We would like to welcome Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele to the virtual interview room here at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
This week will mark your first time as teammates here, Xander, how do you, how did this pairing come to be?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's actually not the first time we're teammates. As everyone knows, we have been teammates at the Presidents Cup and we have the Ryder Cup this year and Pat and I are good friends, we play almost every week at least once and we figured it was a bit of a no-brainer.
RACHEL NOBLE: Patrick, you guys are the highest-ranked team in the field this week with each of you in the top-10 of the official World Golf Ranking rankings. Just some thoughts on being back here as you make your fourth start in this event and playing with Xander this year.
PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, it should be great. Like Xander said, we struck up a pretty good friendship at Presidents Cup and played well too. So we figure we would play this week and it's the only team event other than those big team events at the end of the year, so it should be really fun and we're really looking forward to competing.
RACHEL NOBLE: Xander, several top-10 finishes for you this season, how do you assess your game heading into this week?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Good. I think it's a different test out here. The grass is a bit different than what I'm used to at least on the West Coast or in Las Vegas. And it's a little bit wet, got some mud balls and definitely got some interesting lies. So my game feels good, just trying to adjust to the facility and looking forward to the week.
RACHEL NOBLE: Patrick, four top 10s and a victory this season for you, how are you feeling coming into this week?
PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, it's a golf course that I like and it's a format I like. I think it's fun that we don't get to play this format all the time, so it should be a nice change of pace and it will be great teaming with Xander. I always have a good time when we play together, if we're playing against each other in a friendly match or on the same side and so it will be nice to have him on my team this week.
RACHEL NOBLE: We'll open it up to questions.
Q. Curious, both of you are similar, personality-wise or game-wise, and what are those commonalities that you guys share?
PATRICK CANTLAY: I think we're both pretty -- we have a similar demeanor, I think we're pretty even keel and we don't get caught up in too much, whether it be good or bad. And you all seem to write articles saying that we're under the radar or unsung or whatever, you guys have better adjectives for that. But I think we get along really well because we think about life and golf very similarly. We each have a little different strengths in our golf game, but all in all I think we're both all around pretty solid tee to green and on the green. So nothing too flashy about what we do.
Q. Who is funnier?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Both rather dry, I would say. I'm definitely more sarcastic than Pat is. Pat is much more linear than I am. (Laughing).
PATRICK CANTLAY: We have fun though.
Q. Xander when you were at Long Beach State did you come across Patrick at all at Virginia and I was wondering if there was any, what that was like at the time, he was No. 1 amateur in the world and kind of the big shot in amateur golf, what was kind of maybe an early meeting between you guys?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I mean we met a long time ago in college of the we actually played in a twosome at CordeValle when Pat was the top-ranked player, I was a freshman at Long Beach and my coach at the time at Long Beach wanted me to play with the top player in the world to kind of compare and Pat shot a swift little 65 there and I think I shot 78. So I've come a long way here. Pat and I joke about that now, it's been a -- we have known each other for quite some time, obviously we have become friends in the last couple years on TOUR, but I've known of Pat and things like that but we never really met or were too close back then.
Q. What did you learn from that round with him or what did that do for you, I guess?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: He was way better than me and I needed to get better at golf. (Laughing).
Q. For the record, who officially asked who to be partners this week?
PATRICK CANTLAY: I've been grinding on Xander for a while now, since Hawaii. So I'm glad it came to fruition. Couldn't ask for a better partner. So I'm excited that he agreed to do it.
Q. Xander, how did you become partners with Tag Ridings in 2017?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: That was my rookie year. I was, I think I was the last man in or maybe Tag was, but we got auto paired and so that was a pretty cool moment. I was just happy at that point my rookie year to get in. I thought it was a for sure thing for me to qualify for this sort of tournament format or a partner format and I was last guy in, sort of the week before. So Tag's a great guy, we still text here and there, but that was sort of an auto pair.
Q. How important is chemistry with partners in this type of a format and how much do you think it helps that you guys do play so much together?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, I think that you kind of hit the nail on the head there. Pat and I play every week so we usually are competing against each other week-to-week, especially in our little nine-hole matches, so we know our games inside out, I think that will give us an advantage. Sort of, Pat knows my strengths and I know his, along with our weaknesses, so we'll try and communicate our caddies are close, we'll have a very open conversation in practice rounds as well as tournament rounds to make sure we're doing the right thing.
Q. Xander, having a little time to think about it, do you still feel like you hit the perfect shot at 16?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah. Yes, I did. I'm still happy with the shot I hit.
Q. Off-beat question here, but curious your thoughts on the TOUR's new Player Impact Program that went into effect this year and highlighting things like social media and so forth which I know neither one of you guys is particularly active in, but just general thoughts on the program, if you like it, dislike it.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: We don't know much about it, in all honesty. It's just sort of -- apparently we were told about it in January, I was not made aware, Pat and I were in Hawaii, we weren't made aware of this news, maybe we were and we forgot about it, but I can't really speak on it.
PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, I don't any of the particulars on it. So I'm just going to try and win as many tournaments and see how far up I can get on it.
Q. Essentially if you look at what they're doing with the Premier League in soccer, for example, incentivizing stars, that sort of thing and really building the sport around top programs or in this case top players. Is that something you think that is helpful to the sport overall for golf?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I mean, golf, this is a team event, golf is such an individual sport or game and you use the Premier League as an example, I think all the top guys are with the most social media followers are the highest paid and the best players, so in the league there I don't know too many players that would have a better social media account than their actual foot skills. So I like to relate it to golf and I think Pat said it right, wins and good golf take care of everything and the rest is secondary.
Q. Would it inspire either of you to get more involved in social media?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I mean, I can speak for both of us, we're not really -- maybe a bit old school when it comes to that. I'm not on my account, I don't even think -- my brother helps run my account, Pat doesn't even have an Instagram on his phone, neither do I anymore, so we're hard to reach on there.
Q. Talking about the personality traits that you guys earlier. Curious, is one more important to you than the other? In other words, is it better to get along and have a great personality kind of mojo or having your games matchup, given the format this week?
PATRICK CANTLAY: I don't know if games really match up for this type of format. I think you definitely want to get along with who your partner is and then you want to grab the best player you can possibly grab. So I feel like I got the best of both worlds this week, we get along really well and we would play together anyway. So I think getting along is key to getting, feeling comfortable and not putting like more pressure on yourself because I think sometimes you can get into the team format and feel like you may be letting the other guy down, but in this case I'm not going to think about that once. It's just not going to be a factor, I'm just going to try and go out and do my best and I know he's doing the same, so there's really nothing along those lines to talk about, which I think is key in this type of format.
Q. Guys, how much did the fact that it's a Ryder Cup year encourage you to play in this event and do you feel like this is a week where you have a chance to make a statement to Captain Stricker?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I mean, for me, Pat was leaning on me hard since January, so he had a lot of -- his whole team -- we're all close, so it was funny, I get a text from Jamie, his coach and Preston and it was -- I was kind of messing with Pat, too. I had a little inside game with Jamie to lead Pat on for a few months here, even though I was kind of committing to playing anyways, but, yeah, I think like, look, like we said earlier, Presidents Cup was really fun, we played all five matches together.
PATRICK CANTLAY: Four.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Or, sorry, all four together, we can't play the fifth one. We played all four matches together. I think we were, we definitely feel like we could have been more successful, but we definitely meshed and clicked really well and our games matched up and our mentalities aligned and I think Stricker, he knows that I would love to play with Pat and vice versa. So like I said, it's a fun week that we don't get to do very often. Yes, it's a Ryder Cup year, but I think it's more so Pat and I are buddies and we're definitely trying to win this golf tournament.
Q. Pat, would you have played this week if he had stiffed you?
PATRICK CANTLAY: (Laughing) I would have been disappointed if he would have stiffed me. I always had faith that he was going to play, so you know, maybe not -- probably not. So I'm really glad he decided to and hopefully we can play in lots of team formats together, because we enjoy it and I think we're good together.
Q. Patrick, what was your final assessment of what didn't work for you at Augusta this year?
PATRICK CANTLAY: I did not hit the ball well the first day. Which rarely is a thing for me. But it was that day and just couldn't overcome it the next day. So the golf course was playing more difficult this year and so those mistakes were highlighted a little more and some days you just don't have it and those two days I did not.
RACHEL NOBLE: Looks like that's it for questions, guys. Appreciate the time and good luck this week.
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