For the first time after the Presidents Cup Xander Schauffele returned on the PGA Tour greens, but it did not go well for the world no. 2. The 2-time major winner teed up at the ACCORDIA Golf Narashino Golf Club for the ZOZO Championship, however, at the par-4 ninth hole he made a quadruple bogey. What happened was, as he shot the tee shot, his ball was stuck near the root of a tree.

Schauffele tried to hit the ball from that spot two times, but he failed and his strokes only increased. Eventually, and as his caddie, Austin Kaiser advised, he took an unplayable and this lone shot tainted his pretty clean scorecard. Other than this, the 30-year-old didn’t make any other bogey but a birdie on the 13th hole.

At the post-round press conference, the 30-year-old was asked about his mishap on the ninth and questioned if it felt like a consolation because there were still three more days to the tournament. Schauffele composedly replied, “A hundred percent.” He further explained that if it was the final, and he was trending and had hit such a shot, he would’ve been “pissed.” But since it was only the opening round, he has brushed it off and was more focused on how to play in the remaining days.

He also shed some light on his strategy to catch up to the leader, Taylor Moore  [7 under 63], as he is 10 strokes behind the leader at T70 with 3 over 70. Schauffele said that depending on what Moore and other golfers on the top of the leaderboard do in the second round, it might be a little hard for him to get inside the top spots. However, as his tee time for the next day is in the morning, the green would be a little less bumpy, aiding the 2-time major winner to score low.

He further added, “If I can shoot 7, 8, something even lower, that would be incredible, or string together a bunch of 3 to 5 under-par rounds, and I could be right there” at the top of the leaderboard, as he was not that affected by the stumble on the ninth. While he talked about the upcoming rounds at the ZOZO Championship, Schauffele also shared what went wrong during that one shot.

Xander Schauffele’s ‘overconfidence’ dropped him to the bottom

After his ball was stuck near the root, Xander Schauffele’s demeanor was not exactly that of someone frustrated. He was instead laughing as his caddie told him that the damage was already done. So why did Schauffele even take the first two shots from such a bad spot? He explained that he thought he would hit the ball, it would bounce off the tree and end up somewhere else.

But, “The worst thing happened, the worst thing that could have happened happened twice. Just a combination of being overconfident and being really stubborn and it sometimes pays off for me in tournaments and today it bit me in the a**,” said the 30-year-old. Nonetheless, Schauffele is one of the best in making solid comebacks.

At the FedEx St. Jude Championship, entering the final round, Schauffele was nine strokes behind the leader, Hideki Matsuyama. However, as the Japanese pro fell to the bogeys and his lead shortened, Schauffele posted seven birdies without any bogeys and finished only 2 behind Matsuyama. Seemingly, the 2-time major winner has more chance to come back on the second day and hopefully, enter the leading spot.