Xander Schauffele last appeared in a standard PGA Tour event at the BMW Championship in mid-August 2025. He finished in a tie for 28th and then disappeared from professional golf to stay home with his wife and newborn son, Victor. And now, before teeing up in the Farmers Open 2026 at Torrey Pines, Schauffele admitted his 6-month hiatus would have lasted much longer without his wife Maya’s intervention.

“I think carrying a kid, I’m learning like just so slowly, you get like dad shoulder, neck’s all messed up, you know what I mean? Stuff just happens when you’re holding like a 15-pound, 20-pound bowling ball all day. I can’t imagine how my wife feels, to be honest. Yeah, straighten that out,” Schauffele reflected at the pre-round interviews at Torrey Pines.

Schauffele missed chunks of the 2025 season because of a rib injury before welcoming his son Victor on August 29, 2025. After August, he played the Ryder Cup and then won in Japan in October. Following that win, he stayed home for months to live a family life.

In between, he’s just “trying to play as many 18-hole matches just at home with friends or other pros in town just to kind of sharpen up, just to get something in the veins going just because it’s been quite some time…..played no golf in the last six months it feels like.”

He did not hide that parenting took a physical toll, joked about “dad shoulder” while admitting the work shows up in his swing. He also said Maya made his return possible by taking responsibility to run the family. And this is not the first time she has proven to Schaueffle’s massive relief in the field of brutal competitions.

The couple first met as students in 2014 while attending different universities in the San Diego area. Maya was a graduate student in healthcare administration who initially had no idea that Xander was a golfer. Since then, she has been there with him.

She first made a massive professional sacrifice by leaving her established job as a high-level healthcare administrator.

She holds a Master’s degree but chose to become the primary architect of Xander’s global support system. This allowed the two-time major champion to focus solely on his game during a very long winless drought. She even caddied for him during the Par-3 Contest at the Masters to share the pressure of Augusta. Then, in July 2022, she took an active role in managing the Xander Schauffele Family Foundation’s complex operations.

From the 2024 PGA Championship to the 2024 Paris Olympics, Maya was always there to back his husband.

Xander has recognized that several times.

After his major wins in 2024, he credited Maya for keeping him steady and shared how she lived through every missed cut with him. During his 2025 low patch, Maya kept the home front intact. Schauffele missed the Tour Championship for the first time in years.

He also battled a rib strain earlier in the season. Maya took over the household load and still traveled when events mattered. Her presence let him say yes to the Ryder Cup and to his final start in Japan.

It’s not only logistics that she handled. Maya also gave him emotional breathing room. And most recently, the couple was spotted together at the Miami Heat and New York Knicks match around November 2025.

Maya shared several snaps of the moment, and her friend Jena Sims (Brook Koepka’s wife), Nikki Guidish, and fellow pros reacted warmly to her posts.

Now, as the nursery grind is finally over for Xander Schauffele, the quest for legacy at Torrey Pines is just beginning.

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The Torrey Pines test: Can the hometown hero conquer the San Diego courses?

Xander Schauffele enters the 2026 season as the world number six after a slight dip during his long hiatus. When he last played a full schedule, he reached the number two spot following a dominant two-major campaign back in 2024. So, his competitive clubs have remained largely untested for approximately 109 days since his last victory in Japan.

The ‘rust factor’ will be a massive hurdle as he faces a field of very active competitors.

To prepare for this homecoming, Schauffele worked with coach Derek Uyeda to fix a putting stroke that struggled during the 2025 season. He also reported playing eight to ten high-intensity 18-hole matches in San Diego to get his rhythm back. And on Jan 13, 2026, Schauffele helped the New York Golf Club to an 8-3 victory against Jupiter Links GC (Tiger Woods’ team) after losing in the season opener against Billy Horschel’s  Atlanta Drive GC.

Fortunately for Schauffele, some of his most challenging rivals, like world number one Scottie Scheffler, are missing this week.

Scheffler is resting after a dominant win, while Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood are playing in the Swasia. These notable absences have solidified Schauffele’s status as the betting favorite with odds currently sitting at +1200.

Still, success is not guaranteed because the San Diego native has historically seen mixed results at Torrey Pines.

Despite being the local favorite, Schauffele has missed four cuts at this iconic venue. However, he did secure a career-best T2 finish in 2021 and a solid T7 at the U.S. Open.

The tournament features a $1.728 M purse and 500 FedEx Cup points for the winner on Sunday. For Schauffele, a win would be the ultimate validation of the shared team effort he and Maya built.