The night before the greatest round of his career, Xander Schauffele ate spaghetti and watched basketball. He was back at the rented home with Momo and Chewie, his two dogs, and his wife Maya. Before turning in, the crew, which also includes Xander’s uncle/manager, watched the NBA playoffs. Nico, his elder brother, was the cook. He had prepared chicken piccata.
People were giggling on the internet about his previous remarks, “It’s another Sunday.” Winning a tournament is just another outcome, explaining why he hadn’t triumphed since his seventh and most recent PGA TOUR victory, the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open. And that was the reason this extremely carefree example of SoCal cool hadn’t taken home a major. There was something missing from him.
“I doubt that I would ever consider it to be deficient. I saw it as someone who is putting in a lot of effort but still needs more experience.
The sense of all those near misses, including one last week, wears you out eventually. Today’s win was made extra sweeter by it.”following his final-round 65 to defeat Bryson DeChambeau (64), by a stroke, at Valhalla Golf Club on Sunday, Schauffele stated.
Let’s just say that your newest big champion is not well known, which is ironic given that he mostly earns his money from television.
“After hearing his press conference last night, I saw that many people on the internet seemed to be saying, “Oh, this is why he hasn’t won, because he’s so process-oriented,” to which he responded that it was just a result. But I don’t believe people realize that’s precisely how the greats of every sport saw it. They bide their time for the pieces to fall into place.”said Max Homa (69, 8 under)
“Honestly, I don’t believe a win would mean anything to him the way he does things. He knows that what he’s doing is correct. Simply said, I believe it would enhance his story. I believe that not everyone is aware of how incredible of a golfer he is.”Homa continued.
Of course, the typical fan began to have mixed feelings about the likelihood that Schauffele would perform. But that was before to the 6-footer he made for birdie at the par-5 18th hole, which DeChambeau had also birdied, straddling the left edge, circling, and dropping as he raised his arms in the air.
Schauffele destroyed the old stories with just one putt. He had already participated in four final groups on Sundays this season, one less than world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler’s record for most TOUR appearances—Scheffler having four wins to Schauffele’s none. A week prior at the Wells Fargo Championship, he had led going into the final round, but Rory McIlroy passed him and he ended in second place.
Additionally, Schauffele has the most consecutive top-20 results on the Tour with eight majors in a row, but no victories. In the opening round of the U.S. Open last summer, he scored 62, tied for the lowest score ever in a major, but slumped to a tie for 10th.
He shot a final-round 74 in the 2018 Open Championship to share the lead with other players, and a final-round 72 at the 2021 Masters to share the third place.
“Many guys would obsess about all these near misses, but I never saw it in him. After Rory defeated us last week, he shook my hand on 18 and said, “Dude, we’re gonna win one of these soon.” said Schauffele’s caddie, Austin Kaiser, who has been with him for all of it.
It turned out that soon was precisely one week away.
Schauffele’s dualism was evident from the beginning at Valhalla. He fired another first-round 62 within the ropes, the lowest score in PGA Championship history. He dismissed it when he was outside the ropes. There was just one round. After two consecutive 68s, the field gained momentum, and on Saturday night, he shared the lead at 15 under with Collin Morikawa. Schauffele spoke the words “I have to stay in my lane” on Saturday evening.
Remain in my space. It’s just another Sunday. Just the outcome. The world shrugged; perhaps this was how he had to be in order to avoid becoming distracted by the glittering trappings that might be in store for him, the Wanamaker Trophy in this case.
He simply possesses this amazing blend of extreme calmness and intensity. Where he sits is absurd; it’s nearly paradoxical. It’s quite intriguing and different. Every round, every shot, he’s very focused, but when things get a bit squirrely, he doesn’t let it get to him.
It was evident to everyone watching at Valhalla or Wells Fargo that he was having a terrific time. He only needed to see a couple putts fall early on Sunday, and he accomplished that with a birdie on the opening par-4. He said that he birdied the fourth as well. He claimed that he felt strengthened for the battle ahead after making two birdie putts at the sixth and seventh holes.
“I told myself over and over again to just weather the storm. I anticipated there would be some agression because birdies have to be made. It was not a tournament round where I could just relax and score two or three under par. It was just not going to be sufficient.”he said.
“I was aware that I needed to putt with some speed and use more aggressive lines while approaching pins.”Schauffele said.
It was simple to forget that Schauffele had already achieved significant success by winning the gold medal at the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020. His medal resides at his parents’ San Diego home, although it occasionally appears in public for picture sessions, as it did at last week’s Wells Fargo with gold medalist Justin Rose in 2016. In this way, Schauffele’s gold ended up traveling to Louisville with him. (Mom Ping-Yi and Dad Stefan Schauffele, who is described as a “golf and mental coach” on Xander’s website, weren’t at Valhalla.)
I have my backpack back at the house with his gold medal. We now have a large chunk of silver to insert into it as well.
Schauffele nearly ceased receiving credit for his achievement since the 2020 Olympics, although they were moved to 2021, were so long ago and there had been so many missed opportunities since then. However, those closest to him never gave up hope.
“He is rather laid back. It’s a pleasure to be around him. He’s a fierce competitor, in my opinion, and he has a fiery side below.” said Rickie Fowler (71, 3 under), who plays practice rounds with Schauffele at Panther National and Medalist back in South Florida.
Regarding Schauffele, others chant the same refrain: fantastic man, but aggressive. Chan Kim, who later earned a career on the Japan Golf Tour, was teamed with Schauffele when he made his professional debut in Japan in 2015. They developed a bond that would later turn into a mentor-mentee relationship. Kim, who is new to the PGA TOUR this year, contacted Schauffele early in the previous season while he was having trouble on the Korn Ferry Tour.
I sent him a video of myself swinging. He’s a really steady player who has a lot of potential for success, but he’s also one of the nicest friends you could have.
The one truly terrible error Schauffele made on Sunday was his bogey on the par-5 10th hole, where he mishandled his second shot out of the fairway bunker and ended up leaving the ball in the dense rough. But he made up for that error with birdies on Nos. 11 and 12.
After that, all he had to do was maintain his lead, as the horse racing community would say. At the seventeenth hole, he made a valiant effort to par, laying the groundwork for the dramatic finish. On number eighteen, his shot came to a strange stop just beyond the boundary of another fairway bunker, requiring him to adopt a weird stance with his feet deep behind the ball. Schauffele held onto a long iron, briefly considering the worst-case scenario of sinking the ball into the water and got everything exactly right.
He excels at making those erratic shots. We were certain that we would succeed. There he was playing T-ball. He made a terrific chip and shot, but the hardest putt to make to win a championship is a straight putt.
Following all of the laughing and hugs, Schauffele contacted his father, Stefan, who was in Hawaii, when the ball caught the left edge and fell. Xander was coached by Stefan, a former Olympic prospect in the heptathlon, who instilled in him their three-word philosophy at the age of nine: commit, execute, and accept. And Stefan was the one who the previous evening had texted him in German a line that Xander had asked him to translate: “A steady drip breaks the stone.” Stefan was the constant drip now, on the phone.
“He was disorganized. Over the phone, he was weeping. Although he’s called the ogre, my dad is really just a giant teddy bear.” Schauffele said.
Looks may be misleading, as Xander Schauffele pointed out at Valhalla.
