2021 Masters: Top 10 power rankings for Augusta National

Xander Schauffele is flying under the radar a bit going into the 2021 Masters. He hasn’t been super sharp his last few times out, but he began the year in good form and has good history at Augusta National.

The Californian is 3-for-3 making the cut at this event. Schauffele debuted with T-50th (71-78-72-75) in 2018 and was in the thick of things en route to T-2nd (73-65-70-68) in 2019. He missed a playoff with Tiger Woods by one.

Schauffele shot well again in 2020 to grab T-17th (67-73-71-70). He played part of a practice round with Dustin Johnson that week, so maybe he picked up a thing or two for this time.

The X Man’s been rock solid at the majors, collecting top-10s in half of his 14 career starts. With two runner-ups and three more top-fives, Schauffele is knocking on the door.

Same goes for the pursuit of his first win since January 2019. He came close with two runner-ups and a T-5th early in the year.

Schauffele ranks 38th or better on the PGA Tour in all of the main strokes gained categories. Driving accuracy is a rare weakness in his bag, but that can be mitigated at ANGC. The 27-year-old is also fourth in birdie average (4.68) and sixth in par-5 scoring (4.46).

He’s 24th in hitting the green when going for it ahead of regulation (28.18%).

The Spieths, DJs and Brysons of the world are deservedly getting a lion’s share of the attention this week. That could allow for the laidback Schauffele to slide up the leaderboard and end his winless drought in spectacular fashion.