Xander Schauffele hopes to bounce back in PGA Championship after faltering in last outing

It was not the way Xander Schauffele wanted to enter his next major after enjoying his best major.

Two weeks after tying for second in the British Open, the 24-year-old San Diegan joined the PGA Tour’s elite in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational last week.

It did not go well.

In a 71-player field that didn’t face a weekend cut, Schauffele finished 68th, lost to winner Justin Thomas by 27 shots, and left the grounds at Firestone Country Club with a bad-tasting 78 on Sunday.

“That 78 was a punch in the face,” Schauffele said. “I needed to get back to square.”

Standing outside the clubhouse Tuesday at Bellerive Country Club, after a long day of rain-delayed practice for the PGA Championship, Schauffele laughed about how others have asked about last week’s meltdown.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Schauffele said of his feigned memory loss. “You tell me.”

More seriously, he was coming off a great performance in nearly winning his first major and — for a player who has always done well at managing his expectations — he probably didn’t manage that well at Firestone.

“I was starting to get really [ticked] off, for some reason,” Schauffele said. “I wasn’t happy with how I was playing. The expectation that is building … the more you play well, the more you get confidence. And then once you start to play bad, you get bad. I needed a reality check.”

Schauffele said he probably would have been better off missing the cut in the Bridgestone.

Xander Schauffele during a practice round at Bellerive Country Club on Monday in St. Louis.

(Stuart Franklin / Getty Images)

“It would have been a blessing,” he said, “but, obviously I sound bratty saying that. It’s the WGC. We get to play four rounds. Boo-hoo for me.”

Schauffele was concerned enough about his play that he made the last-minute call to bring his team together, including his physical therapist and San Diego-based putting coach, Derek Uyeda.

There is more on the line this week for Schauffele than a major title. He also is contending for a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team that will take on Europe next month in Paris. He stands in 11th place, and the top eight players after the PGA automatically qualify.

There will be four captain’s picks by Jim Furyk, and Schauffele said he has done zero lobbying.

“I’m not going to seek him out. I would feel uncomfortable doing that,” Schauffele said. “That’s how I was brought up. Screw the politics; you get on the team by playing. How you handle yourself in certain situations will speak to your character.”

Weather, greens cause concern

The weather and the conditions of the greens will play a huge role in this PGA Championship, and they are intertwined.

Intermittent heavy rains Tuesday continued to soften Bellerive, and the forecast is for thunderstorms on Saturday and Sunday that could delay play.

High humidity and temperatures around 90 will keep the entire course damp, and the greens will be affected.

The upside: Balls will stop like a tossed dart, which is especially fortunate considering the large greens.

The downside: The surfaces may get chewed up rather quickly. Or as commentator and former tour player Arron Oberholser so vividly describes it: waffle irons.

“I don’t think they’re going to be the smoothest greens that we play on,” Tiger Woods said, “but everyone’s got to play them. We’re going to have some putts where we hit good putts and they’re going to wobble off line. Then again, you can actually put some pretty good heat behind it as well and take out some break. And these greens do have a little bit of movement.”

Golf courses around the Midwest are experiencing the same trouble. Carlos Arraya, the director of agronomy at Bellerive, said the area had virtually no spring. St. Louis went from its second-coldest April to the hottest and driest June since 1953.

“We’ve focused on the things we could control, and we felt we’ve done a really good job,” Arraya told Golf Channel.

tod.leonard@sduniontribune.com