Xander Schauffele Battles to Keep FedExCup Hopes Alive

Xander Schauffele is facing one of the biggest challenges of his career as he fights to keep his FedExCup Playoff hopes alive after carding a disappointing two-over 72 on Friday in the second round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

The Olympic champion and former Tour Championship winner holds 42nd place in the standings, sitting outside the all-important top 30 that will advance to the season finale at East Lake.

Schauffele Finds Himself In Unfamiliar Territory

Schauffele finds himself in unfamiliar territory after qualifying for the Tour Championship every single year since joining the PGA Tour in 2017. In fact, he has never finished worse than 15th and has posted two runner-up finishes along with one win in each of his seven appearances.

However, that streak is now under serious threat. The FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis marks the first event of the three-tournament playoffs. Only the top 50 players after this week will advance to the BMW Championship, and then officials will cut the field to 30 for the season-ending showdown in Atlanta.

“There’s a lot of golf to be played, so I’m just trying to get to BMW at this point,” the World No. 3 said. “In order for me to have a good chance to get to East Lake, I’ve got to play BMW, obviously. So yeah, that’s first. I’ve got 36 holes and, yeah, I’m just trying to play a little bit better golf each day. So today was a little bit of a setback from yesterday.”

A difficult year has shaped the 31-year-old’s fight for survival in the playoffs. A rib injury early in the season kept him off the course for nearly two months. Although he returned in March and hasn’t missed a cut since, the time away from competition left him chasing valuable FedExCup points. His consistent play since then has helped him climb the rankings, but it hasn’t been enough to secure a safe position heading into the postseason.

Schauffele Working On “Getting Better A Little”

Schauffele knows a strong finish this week could push him closer to the BMW Championship and keep the dream alive. But he will almost certainly need a top-10 finish at the BMW next week to reach East Lake. Despite this, Schauffele still fancies his chances. He shocked the field by winning the Tour Championship at the East Lake Golf Club in his rookie season in 2017, and he has been a fixture at the top of leaderboards during playoff events since then.