JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay into the interview room here at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
Patrick, we will start with you. This is your fifth start at this event. Your best finish is T7 in 2018, and last year you and Xander teamed together to finish tied for 11th. If we can get you to comment about this format and why you like playing with this gentleman right here to my left so much.
PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, Xander and I are great friends and we've played a lot of golf together. Between Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, quite a few team events given our short tenures on TOUR. We just really enjoy it, and when we see it on the schedule it just sounds like a fun week and a week that we can compete.
JOHN BUSH: Xander, this is your third start in this event. If we can get you to comment on what you like about it so much.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it's definitely a really fun week for me. Pat and I get along very well. Like he said, we play a lot of rounds together, become closer and closer each year we're out here on TOUR, and our teams get along very well, so it's all around just a fun week for us.
JOHN BUSH: Xander, if you'll recap your season for us, your best finish tied for third at Phoenix. If we can get you to comment on your year up to this point.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, not really much of a recap in all honesty. It hasn't been very good. It's about time to catch some stride here and go on a nice little run to kind of cap off the season, and no better time to start than here with Pat.
JOHN BUSH: Pat, can you talk about the state of your game. Obviously the runner-up finish there in the playoff last week at the Heritage. Talk a little bit about your season.
PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, I feel like I've been playing pretty well this year, consistently well. I feel good about my game. I've had some very close calls this season. Sometimes it's just how golf is, but you just keep knocking on the door, and eventually the door will fall down.
Q. Xander, you talked about maybe kick-starting your season. Is this a really good event to do that when you have a guy that you can talk to and a guy that you've been paired with before? Could it help you?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it's rare to share success in golf. If I could do it with someone out here, I would love to do it with Pat. We're normally playing against each other every week, and as close as we are as friends, we want to beat each other more than anyone else. It's cool if we can kind of share some success this week.
Q. You've both used the term "have fun" this week. Is there some different way you kind of go into this week where it's just kind of like hey you're playing with a partner, you're just playing golf, or is it almost more stressful because you have another guy relying on you?
PATRICK CANTLAY: I mean, I would say just because it's so not the regular tournament, kind of breaks up the monotony of it all, so it does feel like it's a little more fun or a little more engaging just because you don't play alternate-shot hardly at all the rest of the year. You don't play best ball ever.
When you do get the rare opportunities to do it, it is a little more fun just because it's a break from the normal 72-hole stroke play tournament.
Q. Traditionally for the most part since we've changed the format here, guys that have got some sort of camaraderie or history together have done really well and been the winners. How important is that that you guys do know each other, are actual real friends and have that sort of dynamic in this format?
PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, I think it can only help, right? You wouldn't want to spend a whole week with someone you didn't like. Being here with a really good friend makes it all that much better.
Obviously we've played a lot of golf together and had some success in these type of formats before, so that can only be good vibes for a week like this.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, same thing. You spoke to successful teams playing well that are also good friends. It makes sense. Pat and I aren't going to be out here apologizing to each other about bad shots. We kind of spoke to it earlier. We've seen the best of the best and the worst of the worst from each other, so there's no need for apologies or anything like that. We just keep plotting along, and we have similar styles of play. As soon as we can get comfortable out there, the more success we'll have.
Q. What is the most annoyed at each other you've been? Will you admit what the moment was, when you've played together? I know obviously you played in the Ryder Cup together and whatnot. Has there been a moment where you've had to sort of check yourself?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: No. I'd say only --
PATRICK CANTLAY: If we could have gone back to Melbourne, we would have hit a lot more drivers off those tees. If we would have just gotten there a day or two earlier and figured out those lines. We were giving up 30, 40 yards and we couldn't win a best ball match. If we went back, we'd be hitting driver on every hole.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Or at least one of us would have. That's definitely a very good point. Both of us, it's a little frustrating when we're both hitting first, hitting 5-irons off tees, hitting 6-irons into greens and guys are flicking wedges on on lines we didn't even know about coming into the tournament. I'd say that's not really frustration -- we shared that frustration more than anything else.
Q. Do you think this can be good practice for the Presidents Cup? Can you get something out of this that could go forward?
PATRICK CANTLAY: I think if anything it's very slight. I think it being stroke play this week changes it, plus those weeks are even way different than even a week like this. In the years I played this tournament, this tournament feels more like a regular tournament than it feels like a Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup.
Maybe a little bit just because the formats are the same, but it's just a totally different animal when you play those big team match play events.
Q. Xander, since winning in Tokyo, has the reaction you've gotten being the Olympic champion been more or less than what you thought? Do you get recognized for that a lot? And I have to ask, where is the goad medal?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: More, for sure, a lot of positive attention and just reaction from winning it, just from people in the airport or just walking by, if someone were to notice an Olympic medalist golfer, I guess.
And then I couldn't tell you. I think my dad has it right now or my mom has it. I'm not sure. They like to show it off around town, so it's all with them.
Q. Patrick, this is a tournament that there are no World Ranking points for this week, right?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: No, there are no World Ranking points this week.
Q. Patrick, how much do you pay attention to that having gotten to where you are in the World Rankings up to No. 4? Is it anything that's on your mind a lot, I want to get to No. 1? And is it nice to take a break from that for one week and not have that be on your mind at all if that's the case?
PATRICK CANTLAY: I definitely know where I'm at in general on the World Rankings. I see it in various places. But I don't spend too much time trying to chase that. I feel like I spend all my time prepping for tournaments and trying to win tournaments, and if you win enough tournaments you'll find yourself in a much better position on that World Ranking list, and that's ultimately the way to climb the list is just to win events.
I don't put too much time or effort into where I am on a particular day or week on the World Ranking, but I do do everything in my power to prep for tournament weeks.
JOHN BUSH: Gentlemen, thank you for your time and best of luck this week.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports