TROON, Scotland — The tears had dried by the time Stefan Schauffele made his way from the 18th green at Royal Troon toward reporters waiting to speak to him in the aftermath of his son Xander’s impressive victory on Sunday.
Dad had missed his son’s major triumph in May at the PGA Championship, and there was some who wondered if that was by design. Although not a golf pro, Stefan Schauffele had served as his son’s coach and manager and now he wasn’t on the scene.
He was here Sunday to witness his son’s dominating back-nine performance in winning the British Open, turning a tight battle among several players into a rather easy stroll up the 18th, the iconic clubhouse that backs the green filled with spectators cheering behind the glass.
Those in the grandstands on both sides of the green did, too, even though their favorite son, Brit Justin Rose, was going to come up short. This was Xander’s day, again, and Stefan was going to enjoy it.
Asked if there was any liquid of substance in the flask he pulled from his pocket, Stefan cracked: “What do you think, we’re in Scotland!”
Of course.
The gregarious and often outspoken Stefan Schauffele was understandably giddy, his son having become the first player since Brooks Koepka in 2018 to win two major championships in a year.
MORE: Final payouts from the British Open
He did it with a surgical 6-under-par 65 including a back-nine 31. Six birdies, no bogeys. It was, quite simply, the kind of golf you dream of under such circumstances.
“At the very tip top,” Xander Schauffele said. “Best round I’ve played.”
A tee shot on the treacherous “Railway Hole” was the turning point, as Schauffele got a good bounce that avoided the gorse on the left side of the fairway and turned that into the key moment of his surge. The par-4 11th had been the hardest on the course, but Schauffele managed a birdie where nobody else could.
“Probably the best he ever played,” said Austin Kaiser, Schauffele’s longtime caddie. “He played great at the PGA but this was way more of a challenge today.”
It doesn’t take long to change a narrative.
Earlier this year, Schauffele was being chided for not getting it done on Sundays. He had played in the final group four times without winning, most notably at the Players Championship, where Scottie Scheffler prevailed, and at the Wells Fargo Championship, where Rory McIlroy claimed victory. Schauffele’s last victory had been nearly two years earlier at the Scottish Open.
But he prevailed at Valhalla, knocking in a six-footer for birdie at the 72nd hole to beat Bryson DeChambeau by a stroke.
That helped when things got tight Sunday, but the situations was considerably different.
The links course by the Firth of Clyde exacted quite a toll during Saturday’s rainy, windy conditions. While Sunday was dry, it was still quite windy, and hardly comfortable.
“It was hard. It was very difficult,” Schauffele said. “I think winning the first one helped me a lot today on the back nine. I had some feeling of calmness come through. It was very helpful on what has been one of the hardest back nines I've ever played in a tournament.
“I mean, it's a dream come true to win two majors in one year. It took me forever just to win one, and to have two now is something else.”
Schauffele’s birdie at the 11th tied him with Rose and saw him move ahead of the surprising Thriston Lawrence, the South African who had played his way into the final group with Billy Horschel after an early third-round 65.
Horschel shot 68 but it wasn’t enough. Masters champion Scheffler, right there after a birdie at the 8th hole, doubled the 9th hole when he four-putted from off the green. The game’s No. 1 player also made a double bogey at the 18th and finished tied for 7th.
As good as Scheffler’s year has been—six victories, including the Masters, the Players Championship and four signature events—Schauffele can claim a pretty strong one, too.
He’s got two wins, both majors, and is the only player to finish top 10 in each of the majors, with a tie for eighth at the Masters and a tie for seventh at the U.S. Open. He has 12 top-10s in 17 starts.
“He’s clearly one of the best golfers of his generation,” said Mark Fulcher, Justin Rose’s caddie who has been in the game for more than 20 years. “It’s taken a little bit of time for him to cross that finish line.
“He’s actually quite nice, too. You’d almost like him to be a bit of a wanker. But he really couldn’t be nicer. He’s a lovely fellow. It’s just nice to know that he’s top class.”
Rose also could not have been more gracious, as tough as the day was for him. He was clearly the favorite among the locals to get it done, and went through final qualifying to get here. Rose, 43, knows the chances are fleeting, and he played a tremendous tournament himself, a final-round 67 not enough.
“A guy at the top of his game, a guy that has all the attributes that make him a great player and a great champion,” Rose said of Schauffele. “He's obviously now learning that the winning is easy. He has a lot of horsepower, do you know what I mean? In the sense of he's good with a wedge, he's great with a putter, he hits the ball a long way, obviously his iron play is strong. So he's got a lot of weapons out there.
“I think probably one of his most unappreciated ones is his mentality. He's such a calm guy out there. I don't know what he's feeling, but he certainly makes it look very easy. He plays with a freedom, which kind of tells you as a competitor that he's probably not feeling a ton of the bad stuff. He's got a lot of runway ahead and a lot of exciting stuff ahead, I'm sure.”
Stefan Schauffele continued to conduct various interviews. He explained that while Xander was winning the PGA in May, he was working on the family compound in Hawaii and started to get all kind of wild communication.
He was getting divorced from Xander’s mom. He was no longer part of the team.
All untrue.
The older Schauffele said he “withdrew myself” from the day-to-day operation of his son’s career. Late last year, they had hired Chris Como to work with the golfer, and that paid off.
“He’s gaining weight, maintaining weight and worked had to put it on,” Stefan Schauffele said. “Very successful. He gained speed but he couldn’t unlock that speed until Chris Como came along. Chris is a mechanics guy and he was able to immediately answer what we were looking for for years. More confidence, more speed, more strength more health.”
Not that being healthy was on anyone’s mind Sunday evening. While contemplating whether the Claret Jug would actually fit in the Wanamaker Trophy, Stefan Schauffele was asked what beverage would be consumed from the old trophy given to the Champion Golfer of the Year.
“Red wine,” he said. “It’s a Claret Jug. If you put beer in it, that’s sacrilege. No beer.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Narrative Has Changed for Xander Schauffele, Now a Two-Time Major Champion.
