Xander Schauffele is skipping this week’s Procore Championship, where 10 of his U.S. Ryder Cup teammates will be using the opportunity to get some competitive reps at the PGA Tour’s first fall tour in advance of the biennial event in two weeks.
Schauffele’s absence is unfortunate but not without reason. There is no discord or disruption intended. He’s got a family matter he has yet to publicly disclose, and there’s no guarantee that a stroke-play event in Northern California is the proper prep for a match-play tournament three time zones away on Long Island, anyway.
Still, there was hope that Schauffele could play, mostly because he will join Keegan Bradley’s team while facing as many questions as any player on the squad, not because he is missing out on this opportunity but due to his relatively uneven form over the course of this season.
This week 11 members of the European team will compete at the DP World Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth—Sepp Straka is skipping due to the recent birth of a child—while 10 U.S. players will be at Silverado Country Club in Napa. Bryson DeChambeau is ineligible to compete due to his LIV Golf League status, but he's expected to be at a team dinner on Tuesday night. (He was in the area as a spectator at the Walker Cup over the weekend).
Bradley acknowledged last month when playing at the FedEx St. Jude Championship that he had asked those who might be part of the team to commit to the Napa event, although he didn't require it.
Scottie Scheffler quickly got on board, and that was a strong signal that he believed it was important to play between the Tour Championship and the Ryder Cup.
“I think when you look at the last Ryder Cup, I think that was maybe a bit too much time off for us,” Scheffler said at the BMW Championship. “I think now with the way the schedule is, I think there's like four weeks after the Tour Championship before the Ryder Cup, and that's plenty of time to get rest while still staying competitive. It's important for me to get out and get some competitive reps before the Ryder Cup. I felt like last time was maybe a bit too much time off.”
That was a talking point in the aftermath of the 16 ½ to 11 ½ defeat two years ago in Europe. The break between the competitions was cited among the reasons for the poor U.S. performance, especially since the Europeans played at Wentworth two weeks prior to the Ryder Cup.
At the beginning of this year, Schauffele’s status for the Ryder Cup was not among worries for the U.S. captain. Coming off of two major championship wins and with a known foursomes pairing with Patrick Cantlay, Schauffele, 31, was easy to pencil in for potentially four team matches at Bethpage Black.
But a rib cage injury that lingered from the end of 2024 and led to more than six weeks away earlier this year left him scrambling to catch up all season.
Although he never missed a cut, Schauffele never really contended, either, and for the first time in his career, failed to qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship.
He had just three top-10s in 16 events, although two came at the Masters and the British Open. There is obviously still plenty of game there, and Schauffele’s experience at three Presidents Cups and two Ryder Cups was never going to be cast aside.
“Xander is one of the most humble, mentally tough golfers that I've ever come across,” Bradley said when the full team was announced two weeks ago. “He's universally loved across the world of golf but especially in our team room. He's the third-ranked player in the world, and he's our glue guy. He does everything we ask him to do. He's a leader. But more importantly he's just a really great guy.”
Schauffele is 4-4 in his two Ryder Cup appearances but went only 1-3 in Rome, where he found himself amid a good bit of chatter over the “pay for play issue,” mostly due to numerous comments by his father, Stefan, about it in various media outlets throughout the week.
The vaunted pairing with Cantlay also didn’t work out. They went 0-2 in foursomes and Schauffele also lost a fourball match with Collin Morikawa before winning his singles match against Nicolai Højgaard.
At this first Ryder Cup in 2021, Schauffele went 3-1, winning all of his team matches (two foursomes with Cantlay) before losing to Rory McIlroy in singles during the U.S. win.
(Schauffele went 4-1 last year at the Presidents Cup and split with Cantlay in foursomes 1-1).
What does it all mean?
It is unlikely that Bradley will split up Schauffele and Cantlay, especially in foursomes (alternate shot). The format is tricky enough and used infrequently enough that it important to have familiarity.
This week might offer an opportunity to have others practice foursomes with a partner, but it's also more likely a chance to form some pairings and test some competitive nerves.
For Schauffele, the Ryder Cup will be six weeks between tournament starts and the hope for the Americans is that one of their best players finds his way before getting to Bethpage.
Larry Nelson and the Ryder Cup
In a nice gesture that Larry Nelson truly seems to appreciate, Keegan Bradley has named the three-time major champion a Ryder Cup ambassador.
With little fanfare, and apparently more information to come, Bradley extended the offer to Nelson while he was in Atlanta for the Tour Championship and met the three-time Ryder Cup player at a function, surprising him with the news.
Nelson, 77, was at one time believed to be in line to be a U.S. captain but was never chosen by the PGA of America.
And given his success in the event as well as his Ryder Cup record, he was always viewed as an unfortunate slight.
Nelson went 9-3-1 in three Ryder Cup appearances in 1979, 1981 and 1987 in addition to winning three major championships—including the PGA twice.
At the 1979 Ryder Cup, Nelson went 5-0 in a U.S victory, including a singles victory over Seve Ballesteros in the first Ryder Cup that featured all of Europe along with Great Britain & Ireland.
He was on a winning team again in 1981 but on the first losing side on American in soil in 1987 when he went 1-1-2 with a singles tie against Sam Torrance.
"To be named as a Ryder Cup ambassador and to get to go and meet the team, meet the guys, talk to the guys ... it really means a lot to me,” Nelson told PGA Tour Sirius XM radio. “I was really excited about watching it. And now I’m more excited about watching it in person.”
Nelson’s story is remarkable and terribly underplayed for what he accomplished. He won those three majors including the 1983 U.S. Open at Oakmont—after having served in Vietnam and never even playing golf before age 21.
He won 10 PGA Tour events before capturing another 19 titles on PGA Tour Champions.
Nelson was believed to be in the running for captaincies in 1995 (Lanny Wadkins) and 1997 (Tom Kite) and again in 2014 when it went to Tom Watson for a second time. All of those Ryder Cups were U.S. defeats.
Bradley has five assistants, including former U.S. Ryder Cup captain and Presidents Cup captain Jim Furyk, as well as next year’s Presidents Cup captain, Brandt Snedeker.
But it is a nice touch to bring Nelson along. He will undoubtedly have some good stories to tell.
FedEx Fall Update
After a two-week break following the Tour Championship, the PGA Tour resumes with its fall schedule, branded the FedEx Fall, which is an opportunity for players who finished outside of the top 50 in FedEx Cup points to either earn spots in two signature events in 2026 or keep their status via the top 100 in FedEx Cup points, or earn conditional status by finishing in the top 125.
The Procore Championship is the first of seven such events, and it will have the strongest field due to the 10 U.S. Ryder Cup players who have entered.
This is the first time that the Tour is going to just 100 fully exempt players, so there should be some intensity to these tournaments, especially for players who did not finish among the top 70 and thus did not make the FedEx Cup playoffs.
After the Procore, there will be another break next week followed by the Ryder Cup. Then it is the Sanderson Farms (Oct. 2-5), the Baycurrent Classic (formerly the ZOZO in Japan, Oct. 9-12), Bank of Utah Championship (Oct. 23-26), Worldwide Technology Championship (Nov. 6-9), the Butterfield Bermuda Championship (Nov. 13-16) and the RSM Classic (Nov. 20-23).
The seven events are one less than last year’s fall—the event in Las Vegas is not on the schedule—and it's possible this year will be the last time the fall series follows this format.
Although CEO Brian Rolapp has not given any specifics, he made clear at the Tour Championship that significant changes are coming. The fall is ripe for a revamp, whether it's diminished events or something completely different.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as One U.S. Ryder Cup Player Won't Tee Up With His 10 Teammates This Week.