The Open 2019 – Xander Schauffele interview: ‘The most rewarding feeling in golf is performing under the gun’

Exclusive interview: Last year's Open runner-up reflects on the success and struggle of his short career thus far

It was only three short years ago that the doubts almost swept Xander Schauffele into purgatory. The slight, blue-eyed San Diego State graduate had watched on as his peers, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, stormed golf’s upper-ranks and fronted a new generation. Meanwhile, the world No 1743 was paddling against a sheer tide, missing nine of his first 12 cuts on the second-rung Web.com Tour and in danger of being washed back over the precipice.

“I’ve had doubts at every stage of my career,” Schauffele says candidly. “Coming out of college, you never really know how good you are, you’ve never played for money, you’ve put all your eggs in one basket and your whole life revolves around it. For a while, I didn’t think I was going to be good enough.”

As the saying goes, like life, golf can be a humbling sport and Schauffele has often had to come within touching distance of failure to rise above it. When he qualified for the 2017 US Open, just 72 hours before the event was due to begin, Schauffele was on the verge of losing his PGA Tour card. And yet, in his first round at a major championship, he shot a faultless six-under-par 66 – the first man in history to do so. He eventually finished fifth, went on to win his maiden event at the Greenbrier Classic three weeks later and followed it up by becoming the first rookie in history to win the Tour Championship, cooping over £8m in the process. He ended the year as world No 32.

“I hung in there,” he laughs, and with the virtue of hindsight, it’s been more chandelier than gallows. Since then, Schauffele has won another two Tour events, finished in the top-10 in four of the last seven majors and peaked at No 6 in the world.

He arrives in Northern Ireland this week as the youngest of American golf’s four young horsemen; having pulled back the land and skies between himself, Spieth, Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau – a quartet all born within a matter of months of one another. And, after finishing second only to defending champion Francesco Molinari at Carnoustie last year, Schauffele is the favourite amongst them to taste victory at Royal Portrush.

However, the way Schauffele chooses to manage his newfound status as a perennial contender is to almost ignore it, even going as far as tapping in those old feelings of angst. “I feel a little anxious for Portrush… I did play well last year,” he says, almost reassuring himself. “I feel anxious because I want it so badly. It’s the same every time I care about something. Once the tournament starts, though, they kick away.

“I expect a lot from myself but, over time, I’ve learned to tame that,” he explains. “I try to play the blue-eyed card and have zero expectations. That way, it’s not hard to stay patient. It’s cool to have come close to winning a major, I’ve contended in the final round and I think I’m more than capable [of winning more than one major], but golf is a weird game and you quickly learn it’s not good to expect anything.”

Raised in Scripps Ranch, a sun-blistered suburban corner of San Diego, Schauffele credits his “competitive nature” to his father, Stefan. A once German Olympic hopeful in the decathlon, Stefan’s dream was shattered by a head-on collision with a drunk driver that left him blind in his left eye. A 100-proof individualist with a likeness, at least in appearance, to the immutable Miguel Angel Jimenez, he had the tendency to bark thickly-accented orders from the kitchen table as he transferred his athlete’s underdog state of mind into his children.

Xander Schauffele signs autographs during a practice round in Portrush (Getty)

The symptoms didn’t take long to manifest. Carrying his dad’s European love of football, Schauffele discovered “how much he hated losing” and searched for a new canvas where he could “take the weight on his shoulders and lose on his own dime”.

Stefan had become fascinated with golf after stumbling on a high-tech simulator in Tokyo and became a scratch player in little over a year after joining the San Diego Golf Academy. He began to mould Xander with a martial and often combustible brush, likening the swing process to a javelin throw, and had him thrashing 300-yard drives before he turned 13.

When Schauffele played in junior tournaments, Stefan wouldn’t pander him like some of the other parents. Instead, he wouldn’t accompany Xander any further than the car park. At home, he watched raucously as Xander coughed and spluttered on his first sip of Cognac and smoke of a cigar, steadily drilling a sense of independence into his son.

Xander Schauffele’s father, Stefan, watches on during the final round of the US Open (Getty)

“My dad was always very hard on me when it came to sports,” Schauffele says. “He always used golf to teach me life lessons. That could be tricky at first” – the pair’s arguments have been written into lore. “But now I’m a little bit older, I’m nothing but grateful. He’s been a massive influence on me.”

On the surface, Schauffele might be steered towards a more stereotypical sweet-natured South Cali type of temperament than his father.

However, he is still underlined by the same chalk as every elite professional. He can sense how close he is to a first major victory, having twice come to within a breath of silverware. He wants to continue peeling back the ground between himself and Spieth and Thomas; players he continues to learn from and look up to, chasing the long road to parity

Xander Schauffele tees off during a practice round at Portrush (Getty)

“The only time I’m really having fun [when I play golf] is when I’m winning,” he says frankly. “Being in the mix is the best feeling in golf, to have that chance, to be under a tonne of pressure, there’s nothing more rewarding than pulling it off when you’re under the gun. As players, we live for that moment.

“If I can give myself a good look on Sunday, I’ll be happy. I think I’m a pretty good man in that position.”