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Former PGA Tour and DP World Tour pro Matthias Schwab has announced he is taking an indefinite break from pro golf in order to prioritize his mental health.
The 31-year-old has been suffering with a loss of form on the golf course over the past few seasons and admitted in a social media post announcing the news that he had been "struggling a lot mentally and emotionally" as a result.
Schwab lost his DP World Tour card last year and has been playing on the HotelPlanner Tour in 2026. However, he has missed eight of 11 cuts - including at the Austrian Alpine Open in May.
The former World No. 78 has also fallen down to World No. 1,177 as a result of just one top-25 in the past two years.
The Austrian went on to say his on-course troubles had been affecting his life outside of the ropes as well and he has decided now is the right time to put his clubs down.
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In his Instagram post, Schwab wrote: "Hi everyone, 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.
"I’m incredibly lucky and thankful to have a family, team, partners, and fans around me to support me on this path.
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"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."
A number of high-profile names from around the game subsequently wished Schwab well in the comments, including Max Kieffer, Adrian Meronk and Christiaan Bezuidenhout.
Expert putting coach Phil Kenyon also publicly shared his support for Schwab's decision, writing: "All the best Matthias. Enjoy the break. I’m sure you have a lot of golf in you still. But if you decide not to, there is life after golf. Find your peace, good luck."
After turning pro in 2017, Schwab went on to enjoy his best season in 2019, finishing inside the top-20 on the Race To Dubai rankings.
In the seasons after, he continued to impress without entering the winner's circle and ended up competing in more than 50 PGA Tour events during 2022 and 2023.
While he fared reasonably well in his first year on the historic US circuit, 2023 was much tougher for Schwab with 18 missed cuts in 30 starts.
It was a slump he has yet to really recover from, with an interview earlier this year on the HotelPlanner Tour pointing towards Schwab losing his love for the game.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
He said: "It's been a tough year, so far, or even really tough two, three, four years.
"But my game actually feels decent, I play well in practice, but the scores don't show it at all. Maybe this week is the perfect week for something to click, so I'm kind of hoping for that.
"I'm trying to have fun playing golf and not see it as a job or an obligation, but just as a fun passion.
"I got too much into the technical stuff, the mechanics, and not trusting the feel enough. I was starting to practice more, spending way more time on the range or on the putting green, just grinding over little things that I never used to do.
"The feel kind of went away at some stage and it just fed into some mental stuff. That kind of took away the excitement of just going out and playing, so I'm working a lot on just trusting my feel, going out and hitting shots and not thinking much about technique.
"I'm just trying to have fun playing again, rather than making it complicated and technical and all that stuff.
"It's been a bit of a process, let's put it that way, over the past few years to get out of it and just see how much fun it's supposed to be really."