PGA Tour ace went from 'crying in motels' to special texts from Tiger Woods

US PGA champion, Xander Schauffele, opened up about crying alone in motel rooms due to the intense self-inflicted pressure leading to his Valhalla victory.

Last month, Schauffele ended his major championship jinx by outshining Bryson DeChambeau to claim the prestigious Wanamaker Trophy. The golf ace, born in San Diego, displayed nerves of steel on the final round of May's tournament where he scored a magnificent birdie putt at the 72nd hole to clinch the competition by merely one stroke.

This ultimate victory had been a long time coming for Schauffele who'd previously faced narrow misfortunes in major tournaments throughout his career. Furthermore, the golfer had not managed a win on the PGA Tour for almost a two-year period before ultimately striking gold in Kentucky.

Despite being one of the planet's supreme golfers, Schauffele's journey to clinching a major wasn't a direct shot it was fraught with building pressure from each missed opportunity. "I've cried in frustration in dark corners of motel rooms to myself early on," Schauffele admitted.

He said: "I had some serious feelings of performance anxiety. My caddie Austin [Kaiser, a friend from college] and my family dropped everything to try and help me. I felt the weight of that on me, plus I was performing poorly. I wasn't sure if this would work out. That's where my head was at."

It was quite the turnaround for the 30-year-old, who admitted that after his heroics in Vahalla, a certain Tiger Woods was hitting up his phone and wanting to exchange messages.

Just a week prior to his victory, Schauffele narrowly lost the PGA Tour title at the Wells Fargo Championship after Rory McIlroy stole his leading position in the concluding moments. But proving his grit, he staged a commendable return victory at Valhalla just a week later.

In a heart-stopping moment, the 30 year old saw his decisive birdie putt hanging precariously on the edge before tipping into the hole, marking a significant milestone in his career. Recollecting that nerve-wracking stroke, he confessed: "It was a career-defining putt, and those thoughts were flying through my head: how much I've wanted and dreamt about this since I was a kid."

Schauffele added: "I can live with someone beating me if I played well, but when you start racking up those moments when you're in the hunt and it gets away, it irritates you. People keep asking you about it and the chip on your shoulder grows, but nobody was putting more pressure on me to win than myself."

Observing the golf ball wiggle to the edge and fall into the hole in the last go offered him immense joy - a sentiment clearly mirrored on his relieved face. This triumph not only granted personal satisfaction to Schauffele but also pushed him to a career peak of the world's second-best golfer, outshone only by the year's other significant victor, Scottie Scheffler.

After a two-week hiatus, Schauffele is poised to make his return to the golf course this week. He's set to compete in the seventh signature event on the 2024 PGA Tour schedule at The Memorial.

This will then pave the way for the season's third major a week later, with Schauffele and his fellow golfers heading to Pinehurst for the US Open.