Jon Rahm praised Xander Schauffele’s putting technique ahead of the PGA Championship. However, Schauffele downplayed Rahm’s compliments, saying that his recent playing stats haven't been good.Schauffele, who kicked off his professional golf career in 2015, has since won nine events on the PGA Tour and four on the European Tour. He won the PGA Championship and the Open Championship in 2024 and placed T2 in the 2019 Masters Tournament. The San Diego-born golfer is yet to secure his first PGA Tour title of the year and will attempt to do so in the 2025 PGA Championship.During a pre-tournament press conference at the Quail Hollow Club, a journalist told Schauffele that LIV Golf star Jon Rahm had said he would like to putt like him this week. When asked what that meant to him, Schauffele replied (via ASAP Sports):“If you look at my statistics this week, they're terrible across the board. I had a few bad samples come through returning from injury.”“But I feel confident with my ability and what I can do. Yeah, I've played with Jon in San Diego at the Grand a few times. I do feel like -- even when he was back on the PGA TOUR, and we played East Lake a bunch of times together and just throughout the year. We got paired a ton,” he added.The 31-year-old golfer added that he always felt like he would play well and putt well against Jon Rahm.Notably, Xander Schauffele has competed in seven PGA Tour events this year and has had only one top-10 finish, T8 at the Masters. His worst performance so far was at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he finished at T40 with a four-over.Meanwhile, Rahm is a two-time major championship winner with 11 victories on the PGA Tour and 10 on the European Tour. He now plays on LIV Golf and has claimed two individual titles in the Saudi-backed league“It’s a really tough golf course”: Xander Schauffele speaks on the Quail Hollow Club ahead of the PGA ChampionshipDuring the pre-tournament press conference, defending PGA Champion Xander Schauffele was asked to share his opinion on the prestigious golf course at Quail Hollow Club. A journalist pointed out that fans and course architects may not necessarily like the course due to its simplicity, while golfers like it for the same reason.Schauffele replied (via ASAP Sports):“I think it’s a really rough course. I think everyone knows what they need to do. There’s no sort of trick to play this golf course. A lot of people will hit it to the same spot. A lot of people will miss it to the same spot as well.”Xander Schauffele added that the golf course is a “pretty fair property” and golfers can capitalize on it to play well when in a good position.Last year, the PGA Championship was held at Valhalla Golf Club, Kentucky, and Xander Schauffele dominated by scoring a total of 21-under 263. He was one stroke ahead of the runner-up, Bryson DeChambeau.