Xander Schauffele hugs his father, Stefan, from off the 18th inexperienced at the Open Championship on Sunday.
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TROON, Scotland — How did Stefan Schauffele’s wildest goals look?
Something like the scene on the 18th inexperienced at Royal Troon on Sunday.
There, in the distance, was Xander Schauffele, two photographs away from the discipline and his second main championship victory in three months firmly inside grasp. And there, on the again of the inexperienced surrounded by buddies and family members, was Stefan.
Even in a crowd of 10,000, Mr. Schauffele is difficult to overlook. The eponymous and decidedly extroverted father determine behind this 12 months’s two-time main champion stands all of 6-foot-3, a safari hat hanging from his head and an ensemble of old-western beige draped over his physique.
Over the years, Stefan has confirmed himself a colourful antagonist to his son’s staid, regular demeanor — the kind of prodigious talker each golf media member goals about, unafraid to dish explosive opinions about his son, his son’s career, or his son’s colleagues.
But as his son appeared earlier than the cavernous 18th-hole grandstand at the Open Championship, Stefan was lowered to silence. After a lifetime of dreaming, a long time of working towards, and lots of extra years of heartbreak, the second had lastly arrived. He stored his gaze ahead as Xander lastly appeared on the horizon, his eyes unmoving at the same time as the actuality started to comb by way of Team Schauffele, sending his daughter-in-law Maya and spouse Chen right into a match of livid applause.
In May, Mr. Schauffele missed Xander’s maiden main triumph in Louisville, overseeing work on the to-be-completed Schauffele household compound in Hawaii whereas sleeping in a transport container. Now, he was witnessing the mania in Troon in the flesh, and his focus was singular.
He held his gaze at Xander for each stride of his stroll up the 18th fairway, as if by watching he might make sure that this scene — this feeling — can be burned into his reminiscence without end.
And then, simply when it appeared like he wouldn’t break his stare till it was over, one thing unusual occurred. Stefan Schauffele began to cry.
EVEN IN THE AFTERMATH, Xander was unmoved.
As he waltzed up the 18th fairway with the victory secured, he hardly paused to soak up the scene, eradicating his hat for less than a beat earlier than striding, stone-faced, up onto the inexperienced. Later he would describe the scene on the 18th as “my moment.” Fitting, as a result of he’d dealt with it precisely how he handles all the things else: quiet, regular, intense.
And revealing too, as a result of nothing about the 71 holes that had preempted that stroll had been informal. If Schauffele’s victory at Valhalla in May was a shootout, his win at Royal Troon was trench warfare. Xander plodded his method round in the worst circumstances we’ve seen in professional golf in 2024 with out blinking, scrounging up a 54-hole rating of three beneath regardless of all method of ugly breaks. When the wind lastly died on Sunday afternoon, he feasted — pouring in 4 birdies on the again 9 to set himself two photographs away from the discipline. It was a classic main championship efficiency, nothing like the knee-knocker five-footer he wanted to win the PGA Championship in May, and all the things like the type of cold-blooded Sunday-at-a-major stuff we’ve grown used to seeing from dudes named Woods and Scheffler.
After he teed it up at the Masters in April with zero main victories, Schauffele leaves Royal Troon midway to the profession grand slam — and having bolstered one among golf’s core legal guidelines: the majors are available in bunches.
“I had this calm — a calm I didn’t have at the PGA,” he stated Sunday. “I think winning the first one helped me a lot today on the back nine.”
No kidding. About the most irritating moments of Schauffele’s Sunday got here in the seconds earlier than his post-tournament speech, an Open custom, when he learn feverishly from a cue card handed by the R&A with a bulleted listing of individuals to thank. When it got here time to handle the crowd, he forgot most of the listing, delivering an endearingly awkward champion golfer of the 12 months speech.
He stepped off the podium to raucous applause from the Scottish devoted anyway, the fact being that he couldn’t have stated something that his recreation hadn’t already told the folks of golf’s ancestral homeland. His recreation is crossing-oceans nice, shape-shifting nice, accomplishing-life-dreams nice. And that goes for 2 folks.
“I decided to take golf seriously when I was 13, maybe,” he stated afterward. “I sat down with my dad after I was possibly 15 and 16, and we began to essentially hash out some objectives and goals of what I’d love to do. I used to be on the sofa with my dad watching different guys win majors and win massive tournaments.
“My dad and I, we’ve definitely talked about this,” he stated. “We’ve watched that walk up 18 pretty much every year until I’ve played in the Open. It’s something that we’ve both dreamt of.”
BACK ON 18, Stefan Schauffele pulled a flask from his pocket.
“I’ll have to see if I can get my hands on any good wine,” he stated. “But if not…”
He pointed in direction of the flask.
“Slainte.”
As he staggered round the 18th at Royal Troon, the weight of the second settled upon Stefan. Xander was a two-time main champion. He was midway to the grand slam. His life had modified … once more. As he contemplated the potentialities, the elder Schauffele couldn’t assist however develop giddy.
“He’s only halfway there,” Stefan stated. “I would say the one with the greatest potential for the career grand slam.”
He paused as that final half got here out of his mouth.
“How about that?”
Stefan was again to bluster, however his eyes have been nonetheless purple from the again of the 18th inexperienced. The golf world’s consideration had been positioned in the foreground for that scene, the place Xander Schauffele was tapping in for a career-defining second main win, however the real story had been in the background.
That’s the place Stefan was, his stare lengthy and critical, as Xander confronted the tap-in putt to clinch his main championship goals. When his ball hit the backside of the gap, Stefan nodded slowly, his coronary heart gradual to consider what his mind was telling him.
But it was real, and this time, he had seen it with his personal eyes. And so, with his son celebrating on the inexperienced earlier than him, Stefan Schauffele reached beneath his sun shades and wept.
“What can I say?” he stated with a mild smile. “I always melt.”
You can attain the writer at james.colgan@golf.com.
