“It’s been a tough year, so far, or even really tough two, three, four years.” Those words from Matthias Schwab earlier this month revealed a side of professional golf fans hardly see. The Austrian golfer revealed how the last few years were tough, how he just wanted to enjoy golf as a game and how injuries and coaching changes derailed his game. Now weeks after that confession, he has taken a difficult but much needed decision.

In a rather emotional statement shared on Instagram, he opened up about the mental and emotional struggles that have followed him through the years.

“For some time now, I have been struggling a lot mentally and emotionally. The past few years have been difficult on the golf course, and these struggles have increasingly begun to affect my life away from the game as well. After a lot of reflection, I have decided to take time away from professional golf to focus on life off the golf course. For the foreseeable future, I won’t be competing in any tournaments and will instead focus on personal matters and priorities outside of golf.”

He also admitted that he doesn’t know what his return window will look like, but he is taking things one step at a time.

“I don’t know what the timeline for a return will look like, but I will take things one step at a time and see where this road leads. Thank you for all the support and understanding.” But long before his struggles started, he had a rather promising start.

At just 17 years of age, he reached the final of the 2012 Amateur Championship and established himself as one of the brightest young talents. He then continued to impress everyone at Vanderbilt University, where he became a two-time All-American. After turning professional in 2017, Matthias Schwab quickly tasted the highs of professional golf.

He made his way from the Hotel Planner Tour to the DP World Tour and then to the PGA Tour in 2022. He earned €3,360,394.66 in official money across 156 events on the DP World Tour. On the other side of the Atlantic, he won $2,073,821 in official money from the 38 cuts he made in 76 starts. While it all looked good on paper, this was all because of his early success. In recent years, his career arc has only been declining.

For instance, he played only two events on the PGA Tour in 2025 and 2024 and missed the cut in both. The story on the DP World Tour is the same. He made the cut in only 7 DP World Tour events in 2025, despite playing 30 events. This season, he was back playing the Hotel Planner Tour, but he was not successful there, either.

The 31-year-old had made the cut only at the Italian Challenge Open and the Jonsson Workwear Durban Open. This was from the nine events he played so far. Because of the constant struggle, the Austrian professional who once reached 78th in OWGR has plummeted to 1177th.

He isn’t the only one who has gone through this rough mental patch, though. Like him, many other golfers have come forward to share their stories. Bubba Watson, for instance, has been very vocal about his challenges. He revealed that he doesn’t like enclosed spaces, elevators, heights, and other things that triggered his mental issues. He also admitted having anxieties, doubts, and more.

Even Wyndham Clark revealed his take on the mental struggles after fans directed negative comments at him during the final round of the US Open 2026. He said that dealing with what happened at Oakmont was way more challenging for him than the fan behavior at Shinnecock Hills.

Stories like these show that even elite golfers are not immune to mental health struggles. Matthias Schwab’s decision to step away reflects the growing recognition that prioritizing personal well-being is sometimes the most important choice an athlete can make.