"I don't really care" - Xander Schauffele shrugs off one change coming to PGA Tour

Xander Schauffele says he's not bothered field sizes on the PGA Tour as he's proven he prides himself on making cuts "no matter what". 

Field sizes have been a hot topic in recent years and came into sharp focus last week ahead of the 2026 Players Championship where new PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp outlined his vision for the future of professional golf. 

Rolapp unveiled some of the workings of the Tiger Woods-chaired future competitions committee. 

The 53-year-old said promotion and relegation has been proposed and suggested the limited field signature events were soon to be a thing of the past. 

Instead, Rolapp wants to double the number of $20m prize purse tournaments and expand the field to around 120 players and include a 36-hole cut. 

Two-time major champion Schauffele told reporters ahead of this week's Valspar Championship that he's not too fussed about the size of fields. 

"I mean, I don't think it does anything to me," he said. "Yeah, I think it really doesn't do anything to me, honestly. 

"If it's 70 or 100 or 120 I don't really care what number it is, as long as I'm in 'em and I'm playing and I'm playing well, that's kind of all I care about. 

"So the opportunities are there, it's probably ... I don't know what the right number is. He's [Rolapp] talking to media, he's talking to TV and all these things on sort of what's the right number, what's fair for everyone and those things. 

"So like I said, there's lots to navigate to get that number right and it doesn't really make a difference to me if I'm playing against 70 guys or 100 guys or if there's a cut or not. 

"I think I've proven that I pride myself on making cuts no matter what the field looks like."

Rolapp was appointed as the chief executive of the PGA Tour last June. 

The former NFL executive said he wanted to enact changes quickly rather than make only gradual adjustments. 

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, who was once heavily involved in the Tour's politics before resigning from the policy board in November 2023, has been impressed with Rolapp. 

But he claimed last week that Rolapp was starting to acknowledge the difficulty of the task ahead. 

"I think he's got into this job and realized how difficult it is to turn this big ship around, and there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen and a lot of opinions," McIlroy said. "So he's obviously navigating that."

Schauffele met with Rolapp before the Genesis Invitational at Riviera.

The message for PGA Tour members appears to be: have patience. 

"He was very up front with sort of what he sort of the ideas, he said nothing's concrete," said Schauffele. 

"He sort of wants to honour what we have now and not just pancake the schedule just in one year. 

"It's going to be sort of like a rollout plan. So other than that I think he hasn't been too specific with sort of certain things just because I think there's just ... as I said, this is my 209th event, as I get older I'm starting to realise there's a lot more that goes into a tournament than I thought 200 events ago. 

He added: "He's asked us to be patient and I think we're appreciative that he's communicating well and kind of keeping things in front of us. 

"Other than that, no, I'm not going to sit and speculate. I did that for too many years. 

"[I am] just being patient, trusting that he's going to do the right thing by all the players and set the Tour up for a good future."