Xander Schauffele and the 2 choices he had to make to become a great champion

TRON, Scotland — You have to ask yourself certain questions when everything is there, so damn close, yet so out of reach. That was Xander Schauffele. For a long time. For seven years as a recurring character in other players’ winning scripts.

Talent wasn’t the issue. You don’t get 12 top 10s and two runner-ups in a 26-major span by sheer luck. You don’t spend most of your late 20s in the top 10 of the world because you’ve got a little game.

So Schauffele had to weigh what he wanted versus what he had. Those near-miss majors all ended the same way; with him, his father and coach Stefan Schauffele, and caddie Austin Kaiser having different versions of the same conversation. How could this happen again? What went wrong? Why? How? As Kaiser recalls, “Ultimately, you have to be realistic. What was it? Was it a bad decision? Or was it bad execution?”

Of all the psychological pitfalls inherent in golf, these are perhaps the most vexing for the man in the arena. He is, in reality, both the player and the manager and the owner of all results. There is no sharing of ultimate responsibility when the sport involves standing over a stationary ball and hitting it yourself. But the forces around you are there for a reason. Because you choose them to be. So when do you hold on? When do you make a change? Maybe a new caddie can bring a new voice, a new set of eyes? Maybe a recast reality to change results? Maybe a new swing coach can unlock some solutions? Maybe new ideas molded into old fundamentals?

There is no easy path, and in the most individual sports there are no easy choices.

But sometimes the right decisions are made at the right time.

And sometimes they take you to the 18th green at Royal Troon, and the Claret Jug, and to Xander Schauffele who is suddenly a two-time major winner.

Stefan Schauffele has long been one of the most recognizable personalities in professional golf. It’s the look — linen shirts, Panama hats, ponytails. It’s the background — a former German decathlete whose Olympic dreams were shattered as a young man when a drunk driver crashed into his car, nearly blinding him. It’s the unorthodox style — a self-taught golfer turned instructor who coached his son to the top of the game.

It was also the simple fact that Stefan Schauffele was always there. Every tournament. On the range. In the background. Coach. Father. There’s Xander. There’s Stefan.

Stefan, left, and Xander Schauffele embrace after Xander completes his final round at the Open Championship. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

The two had long been on a path that is common in this game: the parent coaching the child who, as life progresses, eventually becomes a parent. Xander Schauffele turned 30 last October. He has been married for three years. He has been playing professional golf for nine years.

Ultimately, the decision had to be made. Continue or introduce a new voice?

This year was the turning point. Schauffele reached out to Chris Como, whose coaching career includes Tiger Woods, Jason Day, Bryson DeChambeau, Tom Kim, Trevor Immelman and others. The goal wasn’t to rebuild Schauffele’s swing, but to maximize it. They wanted to add speed. They worked on getting Schauffele’s swing positions into better spots, finding a more reliable swing path and eliminating his tendency to flatten and guide the ball.

The move to Como was necessary, but it also had the following consequences.

And what about daddy?

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As such moments go, this was a change that could come with grace or create tension, the kind of tension that took on a life of its own. Rumors swirled early in the season that Schauffele had fired his father, despite both insisting it was a group decision. The move came after a winless 2023 season and a 1-3-0 Ryder Cup performance. It was easy to jump to conclusions.

In response to the growing curiosity, Stefan wanted Xander and Como to work together without distractions — “to breathe,” he said Sunday — and moved to Hawaii with his wife, Xander’s mother, Ping-Yi. It wasn’t a divorce, but it provided space for change.

So there Stefan Schauffele was watching the PGA Championship in May. Not next to Xander. But instead in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He watched from a distance as his son finally put the pieces together to win a first major. Xander called his father right after he walked off the last green. Stefan answered in tears.

This Sunday felt like the most fitting moment for Schauffele’s career to blossom. The entire family—father, mother, brother, wife—was in Scotland this week. Stefan stood behind the 18th hole when the winning putt fell. White shirt and brown pants contrasted with the green below and the gray sky above. He watched Xander become the first player since 2014 to win two majors in one year.

Tough choices were a means to an end. Stefan said Sunday that Como “was able to answer immediately what we were looking for years.”

An easy decision, when you look at it that way. All it took were those hard choices.

Austin Kaiser met Xander Schauffele in late 2012. Kaiser was 20 and had arrived at San Diego State as a transfer from Allan Hancock Community College in Santa Maria, California. Schauffele was a transfer from Long Beach State. Both came with dreams of playing professional golf.

Schauffele played three years and finished as an all-conference-caliber player. Kaiser? Not so much. A mediocre college career culminated when he made an eight on the 18th hole of the Western Intercollegiate in Pasatiempo—the final hole of the last tournament of his senior year’s regular season. Kaiser finished T-83 out of 91 players. He decided then and there that his pro career was over.

“I was realistic about my dreams,” he says now.

Kaiser decided to become a police officer. With a degree in criminal justice from San Diego State, he applied to the San Diego County Police Academy, figuring that golf was behind him.

Plans changed about a month before Kaiser was to take the lie detector test to get into the academy. Schauffele, now his best friend, called and asked for a favor. He needed a caddie for some upcoming events.

Open to adventure, Kaiser shot down the idea of ​​his then girlfriend, now his wife. She gave the green light. So the two, Schauffele and Kaiser, set off across the country in his Honda Accord. The car was packed with clothes, clubs and a hot plate.

They started on what was then the Golden State Tour (now the Asher Tour) and worked their way through qualifying school for the major tours, reaching the PGA Tour in 2017.

Then came the success. Four victories from 2017 to 2019.

Then came the big tournament success. Five top-six finishes in the same period.

Then came the expectations.

And then came the drought.

“Two and a half years without a win,” Kaiser said Sunday, thinking back and shaking his head slightly.

The biggest walk in golf for Xander Schauffele. photo.twitter.com/xYY9yv5D1B

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 21, 2024

As the wins stopped and the near misses started to pile up, questions arose, what was wrong? Who was to blame? Why couldn’t Xander Schauffele get it together? In golf, there’s never an easier answer than the caddie, so Kaiser heard the suggestions that Schauffele was too talented to be with an unproven caddie. He saw the reactions on social media. He knew there were outside voices in his player’s ear, saying maybe it was time for a change.

“It was like Harry Diamond now,” Kaiser recalled, describing the pressure Rory McIlroy’s longtime friend and caddie now feels. “But it was like, obviously, we’ve had success together.”

Kaiser, thinking of his mate’s best interest, wondered if they were the right match. Some doubt crept into his mind.

Ultimately, Schauffele and Kaiser had some difficult conversations. But Schauffele never brought Kaiser to the table for The conversation. “It’s like, hey, you’re on the chopping block,” Kaiser said. At times when other players could have seized the opportunity to shift blame, lighten their load or make a change to appease critics, Schauffele did the opposite.

He told Kaiser to get comfortable and approach the difficult thing in the right way.

“Some guys are afraid to caddie because they’re afraid of losing their jobs,” Kaiser said Sunday after the win, walking with his husband to a press conference. “Xander has always been the guy who says, Dude, there’s nothing you can do that’s going to make me fire you. He wants me to be free of caddies because he knows that’s when I’m the best at caddie-ing.”

Choosing not to change is often harder than deciding.

Schauffele arrived at the 11th hole on Sunday with the Open still open. Not so long ago, the man known as the best player without a major victory might have withered away or succumbed to a loose swing that was never fully corrected, never fully addressed.

The 11th, a 493-yard par 4 with an average score of 4.46, was Troon’s second-toughest hole of the final round. At 2-under on the day and two shots behind the lead, Schauffele was in the mix but had to make a move.

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Trusting his swing, Schauffele hit a drive to the left side of the hole. “Cut!” Kaiser said. Schauffele squinted, often the most body English he’s willing to give, and watched the ball land and go where it wanted to go. The bounces and jumps of left-hand golf.

Schauffele’s ball bypassed trouble and conspired with the gods to give him a chance. With tall, gnarled grass just a few yards away, Schauffele’s drive was in the rough, but still very much alive.

“If that ball lands in the gorse,” Kaiser said afterward, “we probably won’t win this golf tournament.”

Kaiser stood over the bag and gave Schauffele his number – 171 yards – and then gave his advice: “Hit a pitching wedge.”

So out came the pitching wedge.

A swing. Good path. Good plane.

Shot. The right club. The right line.

Up to 2 feet.

Schauffele’s birdie on the 11th hole was both the turning point of the day and the sum of the decisions needed to get him here.

He was the only Open champion, but there was so much more to it.

(Top photo of Austin Kaiser, left, and Xander Schauffele: Warren Little/Getty Images)