Waste Management Phoenix Open: Power rankings at TPC Scottsdale

Ironically for Xander Schauffele, leaving home might be a good thing for his golf game. The San Diego State University product and La Jolla native missed his fourth cut in five tries at the Farmers Insurance Open last week.

Perhaps the pressure of playing in front of friends and family is just too much to handle.

Playing in front of hundreds of thousands of fans at TPC Scottsdale is a beast in its own right, but the X Man seems to be handling that type of test just fine. He posted a T-17 in his 2018 Phoenix Open debut (68-67-66-72) and improved to T-10 in 2019 (67-72-67-68). It wasn’t a great driving week last year, but his superior ball-striking allowed him to hit nearly 70% of greens in regulation. His putter helped him convert a lot of those looks into birdies as he gained 1.244 strokes per round on the greens.

The 26-year-old has developed into one of the game’s more well-rounded players. He ranked in the top 50 on Tour last season in all the main strokes gained categories. He was 11th in SG tee to green (1.149).

Schauffele is an excellent woods player and finished sixth in par-5 scoring (4.5).

Before his miscue at Torrey, he finished T-2 in his title defense at the Tournament of Champions as well as solo second in the fall at the WGC-HSBC Champions. He has four runner-up finishes since his last win, so I envision a hungry Xander Schauffele contending in Phoenix.