Xander Schauffele Reveals When He Hopes To Return After Spell Out With Rib Injury

Xander Schauffele has targeted a return to action in March’s Arnold Palmer Invitational after suffering a right rib injury.

Schauffele spoke to Adam Schupak at Golfweek about his ambition to return at the Bay Hill tournament following a frustrating start to the season for the World No.2.

Schauffele has only played once on the PGA Tour this season – a T30 in the first PGA Tour event of the year, The Sentry. He then featured for New York GC in the TGL days later before withdrawing from The American Express. He also wasn’t listed in the field for the Farmers Insurance Open or a scheduled second TGL appearance.

At the time, his team cited a “medical issue” for his absence and days later, Golf Channel reporter Todd Lewis confirmed Schauffele had been suffering from the right rib injury since “late last year.”

There was still no sign of Schauffele by the end of January with the PGA Tour signature event the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and he was again not available for this week’s Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines.

However, there is now light at the end of the tunnel. Schauffele told Schupak: “Taking the Genesis off gives me three weeks leading into Bay Hill. I want to get as many reps under the belt before the Masters. It would be nice to get the competitive blood flowing a few times before going into a really big event and also have the Players coming up."

Schauffele also admitted that he had underestimated how much the injury had been bothering him. He added: “I need a little more TLC, especially at 31 versus 25 and make sure everything is oiled correctly. I thought I’d be fine and kept going and played through it at Sentry and at the first TGL match. I was pretty much tapped. I knew it was getting significantly worse and needed time off."

This time last year at the Genesis Invitational, Schauffele racked up his fourth top-10 finish of the year with a T4 at Riviera Country Club to help set up the best year of his career, which included winning two Majors, and he will be hoping his imminent return to action will ensure he can make up for lost time in pursuit of more glory as the year progresses.