Xander Schauffele Is Still Riding High As He Prepares for Gold-Medal Defense in Paris

The new British Open champion took time to celebrate his career-making season, but Olympic golf may be more special to him than many of his peers. He's ready to play for another gold medal.

Schauffele won the British Open in his final event before Paris. / Jack Gruber-USA TODAY Sports

SAINT QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — There was always going to be some beverages consumed out of the Claret Jug. Xander Schauffele made that clear after winning the British Open at Royal Troon—and so did his dad, Stefan, who thought it blasphemy to put beer in the old cup.

Whatever the libations, they were consumed in great quantity—too much so, in fact, according to the Champion Golfer of the Year.

“I don't really drink much alcohol. So three days in a row drinking was quite a feat for myself, and the recovery...that was also slow.’’ Schauffele said Tuesday.

“I wear like an Oura ring or WHOOP and for me, tracking my sleep every day. Took a while for me to get my scores back to where they normally are, put it that way.’’

Schauffele might be excused if he indulged a bit too much.

It’s been a year to celebrate for the first player to win two major championships in the same year since Brooks Koepka did so in 2019.

Schauffele, 30, had gone nearly two years since winning on the PGA Tour but has won twice in a big way this year, making a 72nd-hole birdie at Valhalla to nip Bryson DeChambeau at the PGA Championship, then shooting a final-round 66, with no bogeys, at Royal Troon to win by two shots.

It made for a satisfying, celebratory week afterward in Portugal with his wife, Maya. They were joined by Collin Morikawa and his wife, Kat, for relaxation and a little bit of golf in preparation for the Olympic Golf Tournament.

Schauffele was at Le Golf National on Tuesday to prepare for the tournament he won three years ago in Japan, the highlight of his career at that point, which now includes nine PGA Tour wins.

In 30 major championship starts, Schauffele now has 15 top-10 finishes, an impressive run that was getting frustrating in some ways. Earlier this year, Schauffele had been in the final group of a tournament on four occasions without winning any of them.

But a switch to coach Chris Como late last year—Schauffele had worked almost exclusively under his father—ended up being the missing piece that made the difference.

“It feels subtle,’’ he said. “I think since I've been working with Chris, there's been a few answers that he's had. My dad and I have talked about it. There's some answers that we need—or some questions we had that we didn't really have some answers to, and Chris has got a really good background in biomechanics and has been coaching for a very long time. All really good coaches, I've seen a lot of different things, and they are more likely to have an answer.

“My dad has only coached me—he was a teaching pro but he wasn't teaching any pros, really, for that matter, more kids. My dad loves working with kids. That's why my dad is the "I don't know how far I can take you" type. That's why he had that feeling. That's why it's really cool that we were able to make it as far as we made it.

“But I think it feels subtle, the changes. Even when I wasn't winning, I just said, I was going to keep putting myself in position until I got comfortable. I was very uncomfortable still at the PGA but surprisingly more comfortable at the Open. I look back now on all the majors that I played in, the ones I won and all the ones I lost, and I think they all played a part in my success.’’

Schauffele, perhaps more than others, holds the Olympics in high regard. His dad once dreamed of competing at a decathlete before an injury thwarted his dreams.

That quest and their talks about it gave Xander a different perspective, one that has been missing for some in golf because an Olympic medal is not the pinnacle for golfers. The majors are still the biggest prize in the game, although with time, the Olympics are gaining more stature.

“It is a good question but it's tricky,’’ Schauffele said. “Golf was in the Olympics (in the early 1900s) and then it was out of the Olympics. So I think a lot of the kids were watching Tiger (Woods), or if you're a little bit older, you're watching Jack (Nicklaus) or Arnie (Palmer), the older legends of the game. You're watching them win majors.

“It's kind of different. For me it's very personal, my relationship with my dad, the relationship my dad and I have with golf ... his teachings of when he was trying to be an Olympian.

“Then the majors are sort of what I grew up watching. They are two very different things to me. I think the gold medal, it's been marinating nicely. Maybe in 30, 40 years, it's something that's really going to be special as it gets more traction and it kind of gets back into the eyes or into the normalcy of being in the Olympics.’’