Xander Schauffele makes Justin Thomas claim after | Sports News

Xander Schauffele has modestly downplayed his affect on Justin Thomas, regardless of the latter crediting his Ryder Cup colleague with serving to him clinch his first PGA Tour win in nearly three years final week.

Thomas triumphed on the RBC Heritage on Sunday with fill-in caddie Joe Greiner, outdueling Andrew Novak in a playoff after each completed 17-under-par. This victory marked an finish to Thomas’ practically three-year hiatus from the winner’s circle, together with his earlier win being the 2022 PGA Championship.

In a reversal of fortune, Thomas acknowledged Schauffele’s function in his renewed success following a dialogue that they had about placing on the conclusion of the final season. Keegan Bradley, in the meantime, has made his emotions clear on deciding on LIV Golf gamers – akin to Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka – for this 12 months’s Ryder Cup in New York.

Thomas informed reporters at Harbour Town: “I called Xander at the end of last year because I think he’s one of the best putters in fundamentals, and not just putting but everything and I was just like, ‘Can I just pick your brain for like two or three hours, just talk to you about putting.’

“I simply was speaking to him about this course of and how he reads greens and how he sees issues and his apply and every little thing, and it actually was simply being with him, and he would form of ask one thing, and I used to be like, ‘Yeah, I used to try this.’ And then he was like, properly, ‘How about one thing like this.’

“Like, I used to use the string line here. Okay. The more I was talking, I’m like, ‘I don’t do any of the things that I used to do in my best putting years.’ In 2017-18, I was very, very regimented of the things that I did, and how he said it is I had a home base and I had no home base.”

Following Thomas’ victory, his feedback had been shared with Schauffele, who was talking to the press forward of defending his title on the PGA Championship subsequent month. The 31-year-old remained humble, suggesting Thomas had been “trying too hard” in his efforts to resolve his points.

“Yeah, J.T., he played great. I don’t think I really have anything to do with him winning. He maybe gave me too much credit,” Schauffele stated. “He was pretty up front and asked if I could kind of tag along for practice one day. When I’m in town here (in Jupiter, Florida). J.T. is a very familiar face that I compete against.

“It’s one of the methods us people right here in Jupiter prefer to sharpen up earlier than a event. It was easy. He began asking me questions, and it ended up me being the one asking him all of the questions, type of how he thinks about placing, what he is accomplished previously.

“You know, I think more than anything, it was just sort of he was searching and maybe trying too hard, and he’s done so many good things in the past that it was sort of like maybe an eye-opening, sort of like, ‘I used to do, three, four, five of the things we were talking about, and I stopped doing them because I was down this crazy rabbit hole of trying to get better.’ Felt like all the answers were right in front of him. J.T. is so good that he figured it out pretty quickly.”