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Xander Schauffele hasn’t forgotten nor given up on one of his biggest career goals, though he knows how difficult the climb will be.

Schauffele has said in the past that he wants to earn the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking someday, but even with World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler out of the field this week at The Sentry, it’s not as simple as Schauffele winning a few more tournaments.

The 2025 season begins with Scheffler leading No. 2 Schauffele by 6.3727 average points in the OWGR’s ranking system, which utilizes a two-year rolling period, emphasizes players’ most recent performances and factors in tournaments’ strength of field.

When speaking with reporters Tuesday ahead of The Sentry in Kapalua, Hawaii, Schauffele nodded to the dominant year Scheffler had to build such a massive lead in the OWGR. He agreed that he feels “under the radar” — ironic after a year in which he won his first two major championships.

“Yeah, just kind of cruising around right where I want to be,” Schauffele said. “It’s a wild time. Winning two majors and being further away, or closer to the 30th-ranked player than the first is — hat’s off to Scottie. He’s a beast.”

It’s not exactly accurate to say Schauffele is closer to No. 30 in the rankings to No. 1, but the margin is similar to the gap between Schauffele and World No. 22 Aaron Rai of England.

“He just kept winning. Even in sort of his downtime, he won another event, which pushed him even further away,” Schauffele said. “So it’s one of my goals that will just have to stay on the calendar for a few more years.”

Schauffele was referencing Scheffler’s victory at the Hero World Challenge in early December, which is not an official PGA Tour event but still counted for ranking points. It capped a historic year for Scheffler, who also won the Masters, the Players Championship and the Olympic gold medal.

But Scheffler is not in Hawaii this week as he recovers from surgery on his right hand. He was injured by a broken glass while preparing Christmas dinner and had shards of glass embedded in his palm.

“It’s a huge bummer. I hope he’s OK,” Schauffele said. “I heard he was going to be back for American Express (the tournament in the California desert Jan. 16-19), then you hear he has surgery. I didn’t feel, like, too comfortable texting him. It’s weird, because we’re competitors, but at the same time he’s such a nice guy, him and (wife Meredith).”

Saying he tries to focus on the process rather than the results, Schauffele admitted it will “take some time and some patience” to track down the No. 1 ranking. The PGA Championship and Open Championship winner was asked what area of his game he wants to improve to catch up to Scheffler.

“Around the greens, short game, that’s an area that’s not bad, it’s not nothing special that I do, just good enough. Those are some spots where I could improve, for sure.”

As for this week’s limited-field event, with no Scheffler or Rory McIlroy in the field, Schauffele is the odds-on favorite to win the season opener, at +550 on DraftKings and FanDuel Sportsbook.

–Field Level Media