Xander Schauffele shares reality of playing with Rickie Fowler at PGA Championship

Xander Schauffele in motion (Image: undefined)

Xander Schauffele described it as “awesome” to be paired with Rickie Fowler throughout the third spherical of the PGA Championship, as he posted a powerful 4-under spherical.

The Americanwho claimed this main title in 2024, rebounded from a 73 on Friday to thrust himself firmly into competition on a tightly packed leaderboard at Aronimink.

He now sits at 3-under for the match, simply two photographs off the tempo set by chief Alex Smalley. I’ve achieved this alongside Fowlerwho sits at 1-under for the most important. It comes like this Justin Thomas left speechless after watching Jordan Spieth at PGA Championship

“I mean, on Saturday you’re just chasing,” mentioned Schauffele. “It was awesome playing Rickie. He plays really fast and very positive. Just gotten to know him a little bit better in Jupiter, so incredible pairing there on a Saturday. He played great, too, didn’t make a bogey. So it was nice playing with a guy who made two birdies and all pars is usually a nice thing to watch. So all good here on a Saturday. Yeah, definitely, nice to be back in touch in a major.”

Reflecting on his spherical as a complete, Schauffele was upbeat heading into Sunday’s remaining spherical.

“Played way better, yeah,” Schauffele mentioned. “Hit better tee shots, hit better iron shots. The putter kind of kept me in it yesterday and the first day, so really leaned on the flat stick to keep me alive, I’d say.

“It was simply type of good to connect some higher photographs so I may have some extra seems to be at birdie versus par.”

With the opening two rounds proving exceptionally challenging, the World No. 11 noted that the greatest test lies in mental fortitude. “You know, it is difficult,” Schauffele remarked. “I believe difficult or quirky could possibly be the right phrase. I imply, man, some of these pin places are fairly gnarly. I actually hope they do not put them there for the members on any day, as a result of, whew, that is — it is a grind.

“I think discipline was the biggest thing I could think of the first two days. I mean, you have a wedge in your hand, and you’re like I’ve got to hit this to 50 feet or 40 feet, or I can make a 6 or the quickest 5 ever.”

Schauffele echoed the emotions of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy concerning the difficult pin placements throughout the opening two rounds.

“I thought the pin locations the first two days were pretty diabolical,” Schauffele mentioned.

“Last night I actually thought I wasn’t playing very hard at all. I was just playing really bad golf. Happy to sort of make a birdie there and kind of limp in in that fashion. So it was nice to hit more quality crisp shots today and make some birdies.”

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