"All about process": Xander Schauffele shares his winning philosophy

Xander Schauffele is coming off the best season of his career in 2024 after winning his first two major championships. Schauffele recently explained the preparation philosophy that has led him to this point.

In an interview with Golf.com's journalist Dylan Dethier, the two-time major champion explained that he follows the adage "a steady drip dries the stone". For Xander Schauffele, it is a phrase that embodies the philosophy that continuous work is the key to results. He said (via Golf.com X account):

"It's just all about process. Over time you know, the stone's going to erode, and just kind of wear off, and wear off..until it's completely you know, all the way down to nothing, almost. And so, for me, that's just, that's like a a nod towards process. It may not look like something one day or like after the 200th day, or the second year, like over time if you keep dripping, it's going to go." [0:16 - 0:40]

Xander Schauffele also acknowledged that there is an element of uncertainty in the development process, but insisted that this "unknown factor", far from being frightening, is actually appealing to him:

"It's kind of scary because there's a little bit of this unknown factor so that's kind of like the spice of life for me in that sense... the winning is the result in the end and it's an awesome thing to share but that sort of that sort of, uh, that weird unknown sort of territory is... I think is a lot of fun." [0:53 onwards]

Schauffele became the first player to win multiple majors in the same season since Brooks Koepka won the PGA Championship and US Open in 2018.

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A look at Xander Schauffele's 2024 season

Xander Schauffele had seven PGA Tour victories and 10 worldwide wins heading into the 2024 season. At the time, he was considered the best player in the world who had yet to win a major championship.

That changed when he won the PGA Championship and The Open Championship in 2024, both with extraordinary performances. But his season went far beyond that, as Schauffele had 13 other top-10 finishes, including three runner-up finishes:

• The Sentry T10
• The American Express T3
• Farmers Insurance Open T9
• AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am T54
• The Genesis Invitational T4
• Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MastercardT25
• THE PLAYERS Championship T2
• Valspar ChampionshipT5
• Masters Tournament 8
• RBC Heritage T18
• Zurich Classic of New OrleansT23
• Wells Fargo Championship 2
• PGA Championship 1
• the Memorial Tournament presented by WorkdayT8
• U.S. Open T7
• Travelers Championship T13
• Genesis Scottish Open T15
• The Open Championship 1
• FedEx St. Jude Championship T2
• BMW Championship T5
• TOUR Championship T4
• ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP T41

These results earned Schauffele a spot on the U.S. Olympic team for Paris 2024 (T9) and the U.S. team that won the 2024 Presidents Cup. In addition, Schauffele currently leads the American rankings for the 2025 Ryder Cup.