Xander Schauffele rediscovers game, saving lost season with stellar play through Ryder Cup, Baycurrent Classic

Sometimes, in sports especially, it’s difficult to parse perception and reality as personal biases muddy the waters and educated opinions of respected individuals may even sway stances like a limber tree in the night breeze. Actions being witnessed may not reveal all the necessary facts, while the data on paper may not tell a full story.

In Xander Schauffele’s case, the perception and the reality of his 2025 season aligned perfectly. By all accounts, it was a lost year for the No. 4-ranked golfer in the world — one without an ounce of contention nor a memorable moment — a season he would rue given its timing amid the prime of his career.

That is until Schauffele started to flip the script — page by page — beginning at the Ryder Cup and culminating at last weekend’s Baycurrent Classic in Japan where he entered the winner’s circle for the first time since raising the Claret Jug in 2024. Schauffele discovered what was lost, and in the process, changed both the reality and the perception of his 2025 campaign.

“I thought at the Ryder Cup I played pretty solid. I left [Patrick Cantlay] hanging in our second alternate shot match or foursomes match; I played really poor there and let him down. But the other rounds, I felt like I was starting to kind of play some good golf,” he said. “It’s very high stakes, high-pressure golf, and I started to hit some shots that I wasn’t really hitting throughout the year. I think the whole tournament, even though we lost, for me personally I was able to hit a few shots in high stakes moments that sort of gave me a little bit of confidence for sure.”

Following a campaign that took him from being perceived as good player (2023) to the most well-rounded player in the world (2024), Schauffele was the only player to finish that latter season inside the top 25 in all four strokes-gained categories. He was seen as a competitor capable of putting together a ferocious encore in 2025, even amid the dominating noise from world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. 

Schauffele entered the new year with the longest made cut streak on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods’ run of 142, standing as the reigning major champion at two separate tournaments. Long heralded as Mr. Consistent, the 31-year-old’s game was showing off the vaulted ceilings to go along with the hardwood floors. 

But Schauffele never got up for the show. After opening the year playing in the PGA Tour’s first tournament of 2025, the smooth-swinging right hander missed the rest of January and all of February due to an intercostal strain and a small cartilage tear in his rib.

The only remedy was rest, rehab and patience — the latter coincidentally became the theme of his season.

When he did return inside the ropes, Schauffele struggled relative to the high standards he set for himself. His first top-10 finish of the season came at the Masters, and inconsistencies in his game appeared both off the tee (where he wrestled on and off with a new driver) and on the greens (where he was lethal the year prior).

Xander Schauffele entering Baycurrent Classic

Career rank out of nine PGA Tour seasons

The results on paper improved as the year progressed — Schauffele added top 10s at the Scottish Open and The Open — but he was, frankly, an afterthought in those tournaments. He finished 42nd in the FedEx Cup standings, missed the Tour Championship for the first time in his career and stood in jeopardy of failing to log a top-five finish for the first time in his PGA Tour career.

Then he showed up at Bethpage Black, and a renewed energy engulfed the Californian. Not seen since the BMW Championship due to the birth of his first son, Schauffele was in full-grind mode, particularly on the practice putting greens. Assuring himself of start lines over and again, he became a fixture there before the event kicked off.

Schauffele hit the fifth fewest amount of range balls from Monday through Thursday of the 24 players at the Ryder Cup. Instead, he searched for answers with the putter. While not all of them surfaced, enough did that he was able to compile a 3-1-0 record — tied for the best on the United States team.

The confidence carried over to Japan last weekend where he started the Baycurrent Classic as the betting favorite. A hard-fought 71 came amid difficult conditions in Round 1 before he played his final 54 holes in 19 under to skirt past Max Greyserman and Michael Thorbjornsen in the final group.

“I was plenty nervous. It’s been over a year since I was even looking at winning a golf tournament,” Schauffele said. “I was probably just as nervous or more nervous as they were just because I knew I’ve done it before and I had to dig kind of deep in my memory to do it again.”

The win changes only so much of the reality from Schauffele’s season. The skinny is that he picked up one win and one top five, enjoyed a solid Ryder Cup performance and extended his made cut streak to 72 tournaments. Schauffele notched three top-12 finishes in the major championships, too.

What it did accomplish, however, was altering the perception, especially in Schauffele’s mind where it matters most. His season ended with his game not lost but found, suddenly memorable and inspiring rather than forgettable and disappointing. Schauffele’s 2025 was not smooth sailing by any means, but from the storm he emerged with his game and inner belief in tow.

“I was confident, [but] I definitely had doubts,” Schauffele said. “I think every player in any sport, at some point in time, you feel like you’re on top of the world and then you feel like, not that you’ve lost it, but you feel less confident. I have a really good team around me, they pick me up when I’m down. 

“This is really special for me. Sooner than I thought, to be fair. I was running out of events in 2025 to sort of put my mark on it. I’m sure, when I look back on 2025 at the end of my career, I’ll smile and think it was a great year.”