00:00So just looking at Xander's year, maybe unpacking a little bit because it was going to be difficult to match his 2024 performance, winning two majors.
00:09But I think even Xander would tell you 2025, probably beneath his standards or at least his renewed standards after he became a major winner.
00:16He, of course, missed two months of the season with a rib injury between the Century and Arnold Palmer Invitational.
00:23For a guy who's usually one of the best putters on tour was, I think you'd say, he's disappointingly average.
00:29And I thought, and maybe you can kind of reiterate this because we talked a little bit about this.
00:33The Ryder Cup is that maybe some of that had to do with a loft issue on his putter, which I found interesting.
00:39And then for a guy that's usually the Eastlake Whisperer, didn't even qualify for the tour championship this year.
00:44But despite all that, he still made all four major cuts, had top tens at the Masters and the Open Championship.
00:51As mentioned, co-leading point earner for Team USA in the losing effort to Beth Page, three points, one.
00:56And then wins the Bay Current Classic.
00:58And again, we talked about Tommy's strength of field, the DP World India Championship.
01:03Bay Current, not the strongest field in the world, was the 39th strongest field in 2025, one below the Dunhill and one above Vedanta.
01:11But in looking at this and looking at the trend of this past few months for Xander, does this kind of feel like the get right that he needed as we look towards 2026 and finding that form again?
01:21Was it ever? It just feels so important for Xander heading into next year.
01:27He's a player that, gosh, not only did we talk about him, we were screaming from the rooftops.
01:33We couldn't wait for him to get started in 2026, coming off of two major championships.
01:382025, I think you mean there, right?
01:40Yeah, 2025.
01:412025, I mean, we had just the highest hopes set for the guy, you know?
01:45After just the massive year, it just felt like he was going to continue on, especially, again, when you talk about his game, there's just not a whole lot that ever felt like he could get off.
01:56Unless, of course, that he had an injury pop up, and that's what happened.
01:59It took a long time for him to get sorted through the injury.
02:03And then, unfortunately for him, I think the toughest part for Xander, and he'll probably say the same, is that when he came back, he's playing his way into shape on golf courses that are really hard.
02:14When you show up at the Florida Swing, you'd like to have some tournaments underneath your belt, or at least, if not tournaments, a lot of prep at home done.
02:23You know, just playing a bunch at home, where you're really challenging yourself, whether it's playing matches or, you know, really advanced practice, and having to show up at Bay Hill as your first start, it's not exactly where you'd like to be to figure out where your game is at.
02:41And just a snapshot for Xander Schauffele at the end of the year, when you look at all of his stats, you kind of mentioned the putting.
02:48He was 130th strokes game putting this past season, which is, I mean, he's, in my mind, always been a top 10 putter.
02:58And I just wanted to kind of look at, even in more in depth, from four to eight feet, it was 143rd.
03:03So really, just those momentum putts, when you talk about whether they're for birdie or for par, the putts that you got to make to keep the momentum going in rounds, he was struggling to make them this past year.
03:13And I think he's always had one of the best setups.
03:18He's got nice high hands for somebody with a left-hand low type of style putting.
03:24Lines look really incredible, but he really struggled all year with the match in his line and with the speed.
03:31So when we look to next year, Charlie, I really expect a big bounce back here for Xander.
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