I ask Xander Schauffele if one of his goals this year is winning the Masters. In 2019, he finished second by a stroke to Tiger Woods. In 2021, Schauffele faltered late in the final round and had to settle for third. Could 2025 be the year he breaks through at golf’s most prestigious tournament? But he brushes aside the question.
Then, I ask him if it’s his goal to be history’s greatest golfer from San Diego. Schauffele entered that conversation in 2024 by becoming only the 16th golfer ever to win the British Open and another major championship in the same year. On top of that, he’s got an Olympic gold medal from the 2020 Tokyo games and a win at the 2017 Tour Championship. He’s now ranked number two in the world. Yet he shows little interest in chasing down Phil Mickelson, Billy Casper, and other San Diego golf legends.
So I ask him what aspect of his game he wants to improve, and the answers spill out. No one self-flagellates like a golfer. “It really is a big goal of mine to be the best player in the world, to get to the top of that mountain,” the 31-year-old Scripps Ranch High alum says. “The saying ‘so close, yet so far’ really hits hard, because for me to have a career year and win two majors and to be further away from number one…”
Schauffele trails off, then finishes the thought: “Cheers to Scottie for kicking everyone’s ass.”
He’s referring to Scottie Scheffler, the only man above him in the Official World Golf Ranking. Schauffele’s season last year was great, but Scheffler’s was legendary. He tallied nine victories, including one at the Masters; won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics; and took home the FedEx Cup, golf ’s season-long competition. Schauffele is undeterred.
“As soon as I get a few steps up, I seem to fall further down the mountain, but I’m pretty stubborn for being as chill as I can be,” Schauffele says. “Hopefully, that pays off in the end.”
Schauffele doesn’t have a ton of length. He ranked 33rd in driving distance last year. His ball striking is celebrated, but he ranked sixth in strokes gained. He didn’t crack the top 10 in putting. You’d be hard-pressed to identify a superlative skill of Schauffele’s or find a statistic in which he ranks first. He’s a jack-of-all-trades golfer, very good at a lot of things. His greatest trait, however, is his work ethic.
Ryan Donovan, the head golf coach at San Diego State University, says Schauffele is the hardest-working guy he’s ever had in the program. “He was always competing, always improving, working on things,” Donovan adds. He tells me that, as a senior, Schauffele switched his classes to the evening so he could practice every day until sunset. Three years later, Schauffele was voted the PGA Rookie of the Year.
And for all his success—all his time playing on the world’s best greens—he still recalls fondly his years at San Diego’s humble municipal tracts. “The most fun I had was in high school, when we were at Torrey Pines and the sun’s setting over the ocean and we’re scrambling to finish on the ninth hole in the dark,” Schauffele says.
If Schauffele doesn’t think about any one tournament or being the best golfer from San Diego, then it’s because all he thinks about is practice. Of course, that’s the only way to win the Masters, to become one of the greats.
