Open champion Xander Schauffele is going through a worrying reversal of fortune for a player about to defend the sport's most historic title, writes Iain Carter.
Huge portraits of Open champion Xander Schauffele were omnipresent at the Renaissance Club, home of the Scottish Open, a year ago.
This downgrade reflects a worrying reversal of fortune for a player about to defend the sport's most historic title. At least he could laugh about it, but this decline amounts to the first sustained setback of an otherwise stellar career. He celebrated Olympic gold in 2021 and has nine PGA Tour victories to his name.
"I've hit a lot of bad shots from a certain place but it was home for me. I've been playing from that, call it short and laid off and shut." "What would make me really happy is that I can just play freely," he said. "I think the obstacles of trying to play really good golf and then playing bad golf and then just fiddling all day long is really what drives me nuts.
But he remains brutally downbeat about the state of his game. "It's just bad across the board," he admitted.
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