Xander Schauffele has been one of the most consistently successful PGA TOUR stars over the last half-decade – but even he had some doubts lately.
Battling an injury at the beginning of the year and being forced to the sidelines for two months. Not making the TOUR Championship for the first time in his career. The end of 2025 was in his sights, and he wasn’t sure what was in store. Then Schauffele returned to Japan, a place awfully special to him and his family, and returned to the Schauffele of old. And to the winner’s circle. Schauffele won for the 10th time in his PGA TOUR career Sunday, firing a final-round 64 at the Baycurrent Classic to win by one over Max Greyserman. He’s the 119th player in TOUR history to reach 10 wins and with the trophy, moved from No. 4 to No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking. “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,” Schauffele admitted. “I have a really good team around me; they pick me up when I'm down. You know, 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.” It was another tough day in Japan, conditions-wise, but Schauffele (who was quick to heap praise on caddie Austin Kaiser) started strong, with three birdies in his first six holes. He bogeyed the par-3 seventh but got it back immediately with a birdie on No. 8. Schauffele and Greyserman continued to be neck-and-neck through the back nine, with Schauffele’s four birdies on the second side to Greyserman’s three the ultimate difference. Greyserman missed an 11-footer on No. 15 and a 16-footer for birdie on No. 16 that would have got him even closer to Schauffele (and missed his approach on the 72nd hole by just one inch from 182 yards that would have forced a playoff), but Schauffele calmly two-putted on the par-4 18th to close the door. Schauffele admitted it had been a “very strange week” with the weather, as it was tough for him to recall a time where TOUR players had battled elements of no wind, then wind, then rain all day, then back to no wind. It was a grind all day. Not to mention, of course, Schauffele was feeling the nerves down the stretch. “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 (Greyserman and Michael Thorbjornsen) 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. Max and Michael played very solid golf. “It was a very satisfying win because they're great players.” Although Schauffele was in the midst of a winless drought, he still came into the week with some confidence after playing well at the Ryder Cup. Even with the American side losing 15-13, Schauffele defeated Jon Rahm in Sunday singles 4 and 3 and said he had hit some quality shots in “high stakes moments” which helped to buoy his mental outlook coming to Japan. Mentally, too, Schauffele said he feels completely different after this win than any of his others – now that he’s a father. Schauffele said, of course, he’d do anything for his young son, and he couldn’t wait to not only get home to little Victor and his wife Maya but also bring him across the Pacific to visit Japan – where the Schauffele familial connection runs deep. Schauffele has been coming to Japan since he was about 9 years old to visit his grandparents, who, at 91 and 81 respectively, were out to support him this week. “I sort of fell in love with this country a long time ago,” Schauffele said. And with a trophy to his name Sunday, he gave himself another great reason to love it. | 
