Schauffele is ready to return from rib injury with modest expectations

ORLANDO, Florida: Xander Schauffele took his first swing on a PGA Tour course in 57 days and found the middle of the fairway.

And then he took another golf ball from his bag and tossed it into the thick rough. That was the real test.

“If this doesn’t go well,” he recalled telling his caddie, “then I’m going to get in my car and drive back to Jupiter.”

Schauffele gave it a rip and didn’t feel any twinge in his right ribs from an intercostal strain and slight tear in his cartilage that has kept him out of golf for two months. He returns to the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill this week with modest expectations.

He started the year as the top threat to Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player. Schauffele broke through in a big way in 2024 by winning two majors at the PGA Championship and the British Open, going from no majors to halfway to the career Grand Slam.

That lasted all of one week at The Sentry at Kapalua, where he finished in the middle of the pack and then realized that nagging pain was more serious than he thought.

He isn’t sure if the injury stemmed from trying to gain more speed in his swing or something during a workout. He describes it as a perfect storm — it happened right when his trainer left the country to get his visa renewed. He didn’t get any soft tissue therapy, like usual. He figured it was not a big deal, until it became one.

He missed two tournaments at Torrey Pines in his hometown of San Diego. He watched way too much golf on TV to see what he was missing.

And now he has some catching up to do.

Bay Hill is loaded again as a signature event, the third time the top three players — Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Schauffele — are in the same field since the Tour Championship last