Xander Schauffele was one of the brightest stars in the game, and a golfer destined for greatness. Whatever he was doing was working.
Except if you studied it closely.
Because if you did that, you would’ve noticed some small leaks, starting to appear. That’s what Xander did. Late last year he started making some changes. And almost 12 months later, it proved to be his masterstroke.
But what was the change and what did it unlock in his game? You can dive in in the video below.
To understand Xander’s ascension from good to great, you have to start with his distance numbers.
Xander wasn’t a short hitter by any means when he first arrived on the PGA Tour. Sort of a solidly above-average driver. But distance quickly became the name of the game in professional golf, and for the most part, the more of it the better.
In the last five seasons, he’s gone from being 3.5 mph faster than the average PGA Tour player, to more than 7 mph faster. The whole Tour has gotten faster, but Xander has outpaced his peers. It’s how he jumped from about outside the top 40 in swing speed on Tour, to now, inside the top 10.
But along the way, Xander’s swing began to change.
One way you could spot this was on his takeaway. Xander would start stretching his arms and club, further and further away from his body. This isn’t itself bad. It’s a powerful move because it creates a big stretch in some key muscles in golfers’ upper body.
But in Xander’s case, the way he stretched his arms out also had the effect of pushing his right shoulder down slightly. A move which, incidentally, is popping up in Rory’s golf swing these days.
It meant that Xander’s shoulders would turn too flat, or level to the ground, rather than on more of an incline. To compensate for this slightly flat shoulder turn, Xander started moving his arms more upright. This led to the club getting laid off at the top, and his lead wrist getting more and more bowed.
You can see clearly here in this comparison of his swing from 2018 to 2022. A shallower shoulder angle, a more bowed left wrist and a laid-off, open clubface.
From this position, you would often see Xander get the club a little steep as he moved towards the ball.
Now Xander managed this move pretty well. He won events with it. But it would also occasionally break down, especially under pressure. His misses could go in either direction, like here at a Golf Digest shoot late last year, where you can see him signaling fore right.
This kind of stuff can happen when the forces of your golf swing are slightly misaligned. One source issue can cause 2 or 3 other problems later in your swing. Think of it like building a house. If you place one brick slightly off, it can cause the whole structure to get a little wonky.
So Xander wanted to upgrade his technique, and issued a kind of bake-off with various coaches to decide who should help him do it. He eventually landed on Golf Digest top 50 teacher Chris Como at the start of 2024.
Together the pair set about tweaking things. Mainly by trying to feel Xander’s left shoulder moving down towards the ground, and his right shoulder working up towards the sky.
It’s why you can often spot Xander doing this rehearsal between shots.
Xander’s been doing this rehearsal move constantly this week.
Coach Como says it helps get his trail shoulder higher and steepen his shoulder plane, which helps Xander get less laid off at the top. pic.twitter.com/IZym20K0pd
— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) March 16, 2024
Xander can still feel the width in his arms on the backswing but when he works his left shoulder down and his right shoulder up, it means Xander’s shoulders turn more on an incline.
This helps pull his arms deeper around his body, rather than out, which is why they land more in-line at the top of his backswing, and less laid off. His lead wrist is now in a more neutral position rather than severely bowed as it was before.
Now with his golf swing matching his body better, Xander can spend less energy on counteracting issues in his golf swing, and more on simply swinging faster, because timing has gotten so much easier.
It’s how he was able to upgrade his speed even more this season, without sacrificing accuracy. In fact, when you look at the data, you’ll find that Xander isn’t just hitting the ball longer in 2024, he’s hitting the ball straighter too.
He’s increased his driving accuracy from less than 58% to over 62%. A small change it seems but he’s turned a weakness into a strength. He’s longer, faster and now more accurate than the Tour average.
But perhaps the true lesson isn’t the changes Xander made, but how he made them. He didn’t stop working on his swing when he was playing well, or tear it all down after a bad round. He dropped in the changes, gradually, every day. On the course, and on the range. Slowly, and consistently.
Every day, he’d make a small change to make his golf swing a little better. The definition of the “get 1% better everyday” mantra.
From small changes, he saw major results. And soon after, that led to major trophies.
You can watch the latest episode of Film Study right here:
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
