Xander Schauffele ignores narrative, wins PGA Championship

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Xander Schauffele ate Italian meals and watched basketball the night time earlier than the largest spherical of his profession. He was again on the rental home along with his spouse, Maya, and their two canine, Chewie and Momo. His older brother Nico, who does the cooking, had made rooster piccata, and the staff, which additionally consists of Xander’s uncle/supervisor, watched the NBA playoffs earlier than handing over.

On-line, individuals had been clucking about his earlier feedback – “It’s one other Sunday. Successful a event is simply one other end result” – saying they defined why he had not received because the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open, his seventh and nonetheless his most up-to-date PGA TOUR victory. And it was why this overly laid-back exemplar of SoCal chill hadn’t received a significant. He lacked one thing.

“I do not suppose I might ever have a look at it as missing,” Schauffele mentioned after taking pictures a final-round 65 to win the PGA Championship by a shot over Bryson DeChambeau (64) at Valhalla Golf Membership on Sunday. “I checked out it as somebody that’s making an attempt actually laborious and desires extra expertise.

“All these shut requires me,” he added, “even final week, that kind of feeling, it will get to you in some unspecified time in the future. It simply makes this even sweeter.”

Suffice it to say your latest main champion shouldn’t be very nicely understood, which is humorous contemplating he makes his dwelling largely on TV.

“I listened to his press convention final night time,” mentioned Max Homa (69, 8 underneath), “and I really feel like lots of people on-line had been saying, ‘Oh, this is the reason he hasn’t received, as a result of he is so process-oriented,’ and he mentioned it is only a end result. However I do not suppose individuals perceive that the greats of each sport, that’s precisely how they checked out it. They anticipate the dominoes to fall their method.

“I believe (a victory) would imply truthfully little or no to him … for the way he goes about issues,” Homa continued. “He understands that he is doing the appropriate issues. I simply suppose it could assist the narrative of him. I believe individuals do not grasp simply how phenomenal a golfer he’s.”

Effectively, certain, the common fan was beginning to really feel half in, half out on the concept Schauffele would ship. However that was earlier than his 6-footer for birdie straddled the left edge, circled, and dropped as he thrust his arms into the air on the par-5 18th, which DeChambeau had additionally birdied.

With that one putt, Schauffele laid waste to the outdated narratives. He had beforehand performed within the closing group on Sunday 4 instances this season, one shy of world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler for many on TOUR, however Scheffler had 4 victories whereas Schauffele had none. He had held the final-round lead every week earlier on the Wells Fargo Championship however been overtaken by Rory McIlroy and completed second.

What’s extra, Schauffele had eight straight top-20 finishes within the majors, essentially the most on TOUR, however no wins. He shot 62, tied for the bottom rating ever in a significant, within the first spherical eventually summer season’s U.S. Open, however pale to a tie for tenth.

He shot a final-round 74 to tie for second on the 2018 Open Championship, and a final-round 72 to tie for third on the 2021 Masters.

“Numerous guys would dwell on all these shut calls, however I didn’t see it from him,” mentioned Schauffele’s caddie, Austin Kaiser, who has been with him for all of it. “Final week he shook my hand on 18 after Rory beat us and he goes, ‘We’re gonna win considered one of these quickly, dude.’”

Quickly turned out to be precisely every week away.

The duality of Schauffele was on show early at Valhalla. Contained in the ropes, he shot one other first-round 62, the bottom spherical in PGA Championship historical past. Exterior the ropes, he shrugged it off. It was just one spherical. A few 68s let the sector again into it, and by Saturday night time, he was tied with Collin Morikawa at 15 underneath. “I’ve acquired to remain in my lane,” Schauffele mentioned Saturday night time.

Keep in my lane. Simply one other Sunday. Only a end result. The world shrugged; perhaps this was how he needed to be in order not be blinded by the sparkly trappings doubtlessly awaiting him, on this case the Wanamaker Trophy.

“He is simply acquired this unimaginable mixture of tremendous chill but additionally being actually intense,” mentioned Chris Como, the coach with whom Schauffele has been working since late final yr. “It is nearly like a paradox; it is loopy the place he sits. It is actually fascinating and distinctive. He is so engaged each spherical, each shot, however then additionally (when) issues get somewhat squirrely, it does not bend him out of form in any respect.”

At greater than 7,600 yards, Valhalla was at all times going to favor an extended hitter, particularly within the rain. Schauffele has at all times had pop off the tee, and he started working with Como on the finish of final yr to make his misses with the driving force higher. Como was impressed with many elements of his new pupil, considered one of which was how a lot Schauffele already knew about what his physique was doing through the swing.

Anybody who watched at Valhalla, or at Wells Fargo, may see that he was hitting it nice. What he wanted was to see a number of putts fall early Sunday, and he acquired that with a birdie on the par-4 first gap. He birdied the fourth, as nicely, and when he holed an important par-saver on the sixth and one other birdie putt on the seventh, he mentioned, he felt fortified for the struggle forward.

“I simply stored telling myself that – simply climate the storm,” he mentioned. “I knew that birdies needed to be made, so there was some aggression. It wasn’t like a event spherical the place I may type of sit again and shoot 2- or 3-under. It simply wasn’t going to be sufficient.

“I knew that I wanted to have some tempo on my putts, some extra aggressive strains coming into pins.”

It was simple to overlook that Schauffele had already received an enormous one, claiming the gold medal on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. His medal lives at his dad and mom’ home in San Diego, but it surely makes public appearances for photograph shoots, most just lately with 2016 gold medalist Justin Rose eventually week’s Wells Fargo. That’s how Schauffele’s gold wound up making the journey to Louisville with him. (Dad Stefan Schauffele, who’s listed on Xander’s web site as “golf and psychological coach,” and Mother Ping-Yi weren’t at Valhalla.)

The place was Schauffele’s gold medal on Sunday?

“It’s in my backpack again on the home,” brother Nico mentioned with fun. “Now we’ve acquired an enormous piece of silver to place it in.”

The actual fact is, the 2020 Olympics, though they had been pushed to 2021, had been so way back, and there had been so many misplaced alternatives since then, that Schauffele had nearly stopped getting credit score for his efficiency. However these closest to him by no means misplaced the religion.

“He’s fairly chill,” mentioned Rickie Fowler (71, 3 underneath), who performs observe rounds with Schauffele at Panther Nationwide and Medalist again in South Florida. “I actually get pleasure from being round him. I really feel like he’s acquired that fiery aspect beneath, and he’s a rattling good competitor.”

Others sing the identical chorus about Schauffele: nice man, however fierce. When Schauffele made his 2015 skilled debut in Japan, he was paired with Chan Kim, who then made his dwelling on the Japan Golf Tour. They struck up a friendship that will change into considered one of mentor and mentee. Kim, a PGA TOUR rookie this season, was struggling on the Korn Ferry Tour early final season when he reached out to Schauffele.

“He had me ship him video of my swing,” Kim mentioned. “As a participant, he’s so extremely constant and in place to win a lot, however as an individual, he’s most likely the perfect man you possibly can have as a good friend.”

Schauffele’s solely egregious mistake Sunday was his bogey on the par-5 tenth gap, the place he went for an excessive amount of along with his second shot out of the green bunker and left his ball within the thick tough. He atoned for that glitch, although, with birdies on Nos. 11 and 12.

From there it was a matter of conserving his nostril out entrance, because the horse-racing crowd would possibly say. He acquired up and down for a hard-fought par on the seventeenth gap, setting the stage for the drama on the final. His drive on 18 stopped in an ungainly spot simply exterior the sting of one other fairway bunker, necessitating a wild stance through which his toes had been nicely under the ball. With solely a fleeting thought for the worst-case situation – a shank into the water – Schauffele gripped down on an extended iron … and caught it completely.

“He’s good at hitting these wonky pictures,” Kaiser mentioned. “There was little doubt we had been going to hit it. He was enjoying T-ball there. He hit an ideal shot and an ideal chip, however a straight putt is the toughest you possibly can must win a event.”

After the ball caught the left edge and dropped, and in any case the cuddling and laughing, Schauffele known as his father, Stefan, who was in Hawaii. It was Stefan, a former Olympic hopeful in heptathlon, who had coached Xander, instilling in him from the age of 9 their three-word mantra – Commit; Execute; Settle for. And it was Stefan who had texted him, in German, a phrase the night time earlier than that Xander had wanted him to translate: “A gradual drip breaks the stone.” Solely now, on the cellphone, Stefan himself was the regular drip.

“He was a multitude,” Schauffele mentioned. “He was crying on the cellphone. … My dad is definitely — he is known as the ogre, however he is an enormous teddy bear.”

As Xander Schauffele reminded at Valhalla, appearances may be deceiving.