Xander Schauffele has been struggling with a rib injury this season but has been motivated by the success of Scottie Scheffler and especially Rory McIlroy and is confident he can beat the latter to a maiden green jacket this week.
Schauffele, a PGA and Open champion, will tee it up in the Masters on Thursday for the first time as a major winner after he enjoyed a breakthrough summer, while McIlroy remained major less for a tenth straight year.
Scheffler meanwhile, arrives as the defending champion and world number one but McIlroy is the form player in the world, winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Players Championship this season while overtaking Schauffele to world number two in the process.
Schauffele though, feels like he is back to full fitness and believes he can contend with the two leading players in the world again.
“Just motivating. Yeah, like I said, there’s so many guys that have played at a really high level, and luckily I’ve learned that I can play at that level. Just motivating,” said Schauffele who has five top ten finishes in his last seven Masters appearances.
“More motivating than anything else. They’ve been playing incredible golf. Rory has been playing unbelievably well this year with a couple wins already and kind of breezing through what looks like hard golf courses.
“And it’s just what happens when you’re a really good player and you put things together. That’s sort of what happens.
“Luckily I was able to do that last year, and there’s no reason I can’t do it again.”
Schauffele is ranked as high as 22/1 in some bookmakers despite having the chance to win his third major title in four starts. A win at Augusta National this week would put the American one leg away from completing the career grand slam.
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