Former PGA pro highlights Xander Schauffele’s ‘fixable’ flaw ahead of PGA Championship defense

Xander Schauffele won the 2024 PGA Championship with an outstanding performance. He finished the tournament with 21 strokes under par, putting him one shot ahead of Bryson DeChambeau. Schauffele got $3,330,000 in prize money for winning the tournament. That win was recently a hot topic on the YouTube channel, The Smylie Show.

In the May 5 episode of the show, Smylie Kaufman and Charlie Hulme discussed Schauffele among other golfers. When talking about the 31-year-old, expert Smylie Kaufman vouched strongly for his performance in the upcoming 2025 PGA Championship.

Kaufman also suggested how Schauffele could win the whole thing. The analyst said that the golfer struggled with his putting this year but despite this, he believes he has a good chance of winning the tournament. He stated (21:35 onwards):

"I think he could repeat, I really do. I think Xander Schauffele is 100% going to be slept on coming into this week. The reasons why—you know, when you go and look at his stats this year, you'll see the putter has been, you know, very poor for him."

He continued:

"I think if any of the players that you're going to name, I would say that Xander Schauffele, statistically—if we go back to last season—is clearly the best putter of the entire, I would say, best players in the world. I would take Xander over any of them. And this year, the putter has been off... That to me, seems like something that's totally fixable.

Smylie Kaufman also said that Schauffele still has time to improve his talents, which may help him find his rhythm on the course.

Talking about the PGA Championship, the event is all set to kick off from May 12-18, 2025. Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, will be hosting the event. Interestingly, the course has previously hosted the event in 2017. Practice rounds for the event will start from May 12-14.

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How has Xander Schauffele's 2025 season gone so far?

RBC Heritage 2025 - Round Two - Source: Getty

Xander Schauffele has been steadily improving his game this year. He started the year at The Sentry, finishing in 30th place. After that, Schauffle had a few terrible events, finishing at T40 and 72nd. Although at the Valspar Championship, he did make a great comeback and finished in the top 15.

Here's a detailed look at his 2025 season thus far:

The Sentry

• Position: T30
• Score: 275 (-17)
• Earnings: $137,500

Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard

• Position: T40
• Score: 292 (+4)
• Earnings: $78,000

THE PLAYERS Championship

• Position: 72
• Score: 301 (+13)
• Earnings: $50,250

Valspar Championship

• Position: T12
• Score: 279 (-5)
• Earnings: $178,350

Masters Tournament

• Position: T8
• Score: 283 (-5)
• Earnings: $588,000

RBC Heritage

• Position: T18
• Score: 275 (-9)
• Earnings: $226,056