While PGA Tour players who live in Florida and Georgia have frequently posted photos or video of themselves playing golf during the coronavirus shutdown — those states are among 36 in the nation that have not closed golf courses — their colleagues in California aren’t so fortunate.
For example, Xander Schauffele, who is holed up in his condo in San Diego, is unable to swing a golf club, or even walk his dog in a park.
Schauffele, ranked 12th in both the world rankings and the 2019-20 FedEx Cup standings, said he hasn’t a touched a club since March 12, when he shot a 70 in the first round of The Players Championship at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. When he spoke on a PGA Tour-sponsored teleconference on Wednesday, that marked 20 days and counting.
“I don’t have the option to go out and practice,” he said, referring to most golf courses being closed in California. “I’m trying to stay mentally fit, working out, but it’s been strange. I’ve lost a sense of purpose a little in terms of work, feeling unemployed with no date of us coming back.”
The PGA Tour’s shutdown interrupted what was turning into another solid year for Schauffele, who has won four times — including a World Golf Championship, the Tour Championship and the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
He had finished among the top-25 of nine of his previous 10 starts, with four top-10s. Schauffele also finished second in two tournaments he’s won in the past — the WGC HSBC Champions and the Sentry Tournament of Champions — after making playoffs in both events. He lost to Rory McIlroy in Shanghai and fell out of a three-way playoff with Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed in Kapalua.
Schauffele didn’t sound optimistic that the next Tour event yet to be canceled, at Colonial National in Fort Worth in May, wouldn’t meet the same fate.
“I really don’t think we’d be back at Colonial if Wimbledon got canceled,” he said. “All of the tournaments are in the same boat.”
Schauffele was asked how a Masters Tournament in the fall would feel from a playing and atmosphere standpoint.
He had what many would consider a good answer.
“That place is so special, on those grounds, that you lose track of time,” he said about the Augusta National Golf Club. “It doesn’t matter the date or the time of year. Once you’re on the property, it doesn’t matter when you play it. All of the pros will get up for it and prepare for it to the best of their ability. It will be different, aesthetically, course conditions … [but] all of us will be ready to go.”