LOUISVILLE, Ky. – “It had to be this way, baby!”
That’s what Chris Como was shouting at the friends and family of Xander Schauffele as they all floated toward the scoring tent to make this 106th PGA Championship official.
Como, who signed on as Schauffele’s swing coach last fall, hasn’t even been an official part of the team that long, but already he knew the torment, and the torrent of pressure, that his prized pupil had experienced.
Schauffele hadn’t won anywhere in 22 months. Over the past two months alone he’d failed to close out The Players and Wells Fargo Championship. This was his ninth tournament with at least a share of the lead heading into the final round, and he’d converted just two of those previous chances.
“He knows he’s playing amazing,” said his caddie, Austin Kaiser. “He just needed everything to fall into place.”
It was frustrating, maddening, confounding. Here was a 30-year-old who was excellent at everything, and excellent everywhere. But something was missing. As proficient as he was in every aspect of his game, there was no metric for heart or grit or timeliness. Never had he self-immolated when in position to win. But never had he gone out and seized the moment, either.
That’s part of what drove Schauffele into a different direction with his game late last year. Schauffele had always used his father, Stefan, as his main instructor, even though, as a former aspiring Olympic decathlete, he never had any formal training in the game. Nicknamed the “Ogre,” Stefan is a larger-than-life figure who was a constant presence at tournaments, usually decked out in capris, a short-sleeve button-down, straw hat and sunglasses, a cigar sometimes dangling from his mouth. What he lacked in coaching accolades he made up for in immaculate vibes.
Under his tutelage, Schauffele had morphed from a solid college player to arguably the best active player without a major, but last fall he felt his head bumping against the ceiling. To consistently challenge Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm – to win more – he needed to make a change. And that meant turning to someone other than his father – a point his old man had been stressing for years.
“Just like any good dad would, he just wanted to set (his) kid up for a successful future. He really meant that,” Schauffele said. “Now that I’m working with Chris, he feels like he can take his hands off the wheel. He trusts him a lot. I trust him a lot.”
Added Como: “I have picked, and will continue to pick, his dad’s brain about everything. I don’t even look at it as ‘switching.’ He’s still and will always play a huge role in his game and his life, but it’s more a collaborative effort to help him realize these dreams. The swing is what his dad built. This is a continuation.”
Como’s primary focus was turning Schauffele’s above-average driver into a lethal weapon. From a technical standpoint, Como tried to get Schauffele’s shoulders steeper, and his backswing less laid off at the top, transitioning into a spot from which he could be more aggressive through the shot. Those moves, coupled with more intensity in the gym, were designed to make Schauffele longer and faster.
Last year, Schauffele ranked 34th on Tour in ball speed, averaging 179 mph. Now, he’s all the way up to No. 9, at 183 mph, which is no small feat for a player who’s generously listed at 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds. That increase in speed translates, roughly, to about 10 yards in distance, allowing Schauffele to revamp his course strategy with more aggressive lines over doglegs and bunkers. In just a few short months, he’s added a massive asset to what was already one of the sport’s most complete games.
“He’s just so well-rounded,” Como said. “So even if something is a little bit off, something else can keep everything going, and that’s why he’s so consistent.”
There was no disputing Schauffele’s consistency; he’s been a fixture in the top 10 in the world, he’s annually among the top performers on Tour, and he’s a staple on every U.S. cup team. But he had come up short, again and again, in the game’s legacy-defining events. By age 30 he had already posted six top-5s, and his 12 top-10s in majors were the sixth-most all-time before a player won his first.
“I don’t think I ever looked at is as lacking,” he said of his résumé. “I looked at it as someone that is trying really hard and needs more experience.”
The first half of this year only underscored how close he was to hitting the big time. Among his five top-5s this season, he led on the back nine of The Players before stalling out down the stretch and, last week, coughed up a four-shot halfway lead at Quail Hollow.
“As frustrating as it is, he always comes home and is able to turn that off,” said his wife, Maya. “As his partner I get all the best parts. He’s really good at leaving that and being able to balance different parts of his life. So I know it’s frustrating for him, but he does a really good job of not making it noticeable to me. It just goes to show how mentally tough and a patient person he is.”
Como looked even deeper. “It just takes an inner knowingness that you’re doing exactly what’s within your control and stick with it,” he said. “It’s easy to poke at yourself, to listen to the external narratives, but at the end of the day, you’re just playing golf, keep doing that – and eventually this type of thing is going to happen.”
What happened, exactly, was this virtuoso performance at Valhalla.
On Thursday, Schauffele became the first player to record a pair of 62s in a major. On Friday, while the tournament was buzzing because of Scottie Scheffler’s early-morning arrest, he hung tough and grabbed another 36-hole lead. On Saturday, even when the leaderboard began bunching up behind him, he made back-to-back birdies to end his round and take a share of the lead into the night. It was the first time since Tiger Woods, in summer 2000, that a player led or co-led after six straight tournament rounds in consecutive weeks.
“It’s just remembering that your time is gonna come,” Kaiser said. “You hit it too good, you’re too strong mentally. It’s gonna come.”
In fact, that’s what Schauffele told him on the final green last week in Charlotte, when he’d played too conservatively, stumbled through a Sunday 71 and gotten lapped by McIlroy.
“He shook my hand on 18 on Sunday,” Kaiser said, “and he goes, ‘We’re gonna get one soon, kid.’”
All he had to wait was another week – and for an even bigger prize.
In the final group again, Schauffele displayed none of the timidness that had plagued so many previous Sundays.
During what was already a record-setting week of scoring at a rain-softened layout, Schauffele rolled in a 30-footer for birdie on the opening green and set the tone for a wild day. “Be calm, be patient,” he told himself, even when he was still six birdies away from his goal of 22 under. He made a slick save out of the bunker on 2. He perfectly judged his wedge out of the thick rough on 4. He rolled in a 15-foot par save on 6, then sank another clutch putt for birdie on the par-5 seventh. When he added a birdie on 9, he was two shots clear – and halfway home.
Even after an ugly bogey on the par-5 10th, the easiest hole of the day, he responded with a pair of perfect mid-irons that never left the flag and led to consecutive birdies.
“He showed grit, and that’s who he is as a person,” Kaiser said. “He never gives up.”
But, fittingly for him, this major wouldn’t come easily, either. Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland were charging up behind him. Mud on the right side of Schauffele’s ball in the 16th fairway forced him into a conservative approach. His blistered tee shot on 17 was a touch too low, catching the lip of the bunker and plopping back into a dodgy lie. Then came 18, when he was now tied with DeChambeau and needing a birdie on the closing par 5. Schauffele hit what he thought was a peeler fade, but his drive, aided by adrenaline, came to rest in the first cut, awkwardly just on the outside of the bunker.
“I just kept telling myself, Man, someone out there is making me earn this right now,” Schauffele said. “I was like, If you want to be a major champion, this is the kind of stuff you have to deal with.”
The ball was significantly above his feet, and Schauffele was initially worried about shanking the shot with a half-baseball swing. But he hit a seed with his choked-down 4-iron, the ball finishing just shy of the left bunker, an ideal angle to attack the back hole location.
After a crisp chip to 6 feet, Schauffele studied the putt himself.
“It was his moment,” Kaiser said.
Schauffele’s putt dove toward the left lip but caught just enough of it, spinning down into the cup for a closing birdie. His reaction wasn’t so much a lusty celebration as it was relieved satisfaction.
He raised his arms, closed his eyes and … smiled.
Behind the green, Como hugged Schauffele’s brother, his wife, his friends from New York who had flown in to see the crowning of the game’s next star.
“It had to be this way, baby!” Como yelled to them, his eyes wet with tears.
It had to be that Schauffele shot the lowest score in relation to par (21 under) in major championship history.
It had to be that he closed with a 6-under 65, the second-best Sunday score by a winner in tournament history.
It had to be that he became the first in nearly 20 years to birdie the 72nd hole to win the PGA by one.
So stout, so clutch, so timely.
Finally.
“He’s got so much heart the way he plays, you know,” Como said. “Obviously he’s been close so many times, and just to get this one … it’s really special to me.”
The only member of his team that was missing on this day was Schauffele’s father, who was vacationing in Hawaii. As he waited to be introduced at the trophy presentation, Schauffele quickly phoned him.
Stefan had been on his mind plenty this week, the mentor and swing coach who helped mold a champion. Since the age of 9, it’s been engrained in Xander to “commit, execute, accept,” even if that has only gotten harder to do as the major losses piled up and the scrutiny intensified and the pressure mounted. But now his dad was on the other end of the phone, sobbing, because the lesson had finally paid off.
“It made me pretty emotional,” Schauffele said. “I told him I had to hang up, because I couldn’t show up looking the way I was.”
With thousands still lining the 18th hole, Schauffele dried his eyes, took a deep breath and composed himself. His moment had arrived. He headed down the hill for the trophy he’s been waiting too many years to kiss.
Source Agencies
