Xander Schauffele hugs his father, Stefan, from off the 18th inexperienced on the Open Championship on Sunday.
Andrew Redington/Getty Photographs
TROON, Scotland — How did Stefan Schauffele’s wildest goals look?
One thing just like the scene on the 18th inexperienced at Royal Troon on Sunday.
There, within the distance, was Xander Schauffele, two pictures away from the sphere and his second main championship victory in three months firmly inside grasp. And there, on the again of the inexperienced surrounded by associates and family members, was Stefan.
Even in a crowd of 10,000, Mr. Schauffele is tough 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 time, 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 occupation, or his son’s colleagues.
However 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, many years of working towards, and plenty of extra years of heartbreak, the second had lastly arrived. He saved his gaze ahead as Xander lastly appeared on the horizon, his eyes unmoving at the same time as the truth started to comb via Group Schauffele, sending his daughter-in-law Maya and spouse Chen right into a match of livid applause.
In Could, 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 within 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 — could be burned into his reminiscence endlessly.
After which, 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 under a beat earlier than striding, stone-faced, up onto the inexperienced. Later he would describe the scene on the 18th as “my second.” Becoming, 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 in regards to the 71 holes that had preempted that stroll had been informal. If Schauffele’s victory at Valhalla in Could was a shootout, his win at Royal Troon was trench warfare. Xander plodded his method round within the worst circumstances we’ve seen in professional golf in 2024 with out blinking, scrounging up a 54-hole rating of three underneath 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 pictures away from the sphere. It was a classic main championship efficiency, nothing just like the knee-knocker five-footer he wanted to win the PGA Championship in Could, and all the things just like the sort 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 on 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 peaceful I didn’t have on the PGA,” he stated Sunday. “I believe successful the primary one helped me so much in the present day on the again 9.”
No kidding. About probably the most tense moments of Schauffele’s Sunday got here within 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 record of individuals to thank. When it got here time to deal with the group, he forgot many of the record, delivering an endearingly awkward champion golfer of the 12 months speech.
He stepped off the rostrum to raucous applause from the Scottish trustworthy anyway, the reality being that he couldn’t have stated something that his recreation hadn’t already instructed 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 made a decision to take golf significantly once I was 13, perhaps,” he stated afterward. “I sat down with my dad once I was perhaps 15 and 16, and we began to essentially hash out some targets 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 undoubtedly talked about this,” he stated. “We’ve watched that stroll up 18 just about yearly till I’ve performed within the Open. It’s one thing that we’ve each dreamt of.”
BACK ON 18, Stefan Schauffele pulled a flask from his pocket.
“I’ll need to see if I can get my palms on any good wine,” he stated. “But when not…”
He pointed in the direction of the flask.
“Slainte.”
As he staggered across the 18th at Royal Troon, the load 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 probabilities, the elder Schauffele couldn’t assist however develop giddy.
“He’s solely midway there,” Stefan stated. “I’d say the one with the best potential for the profession 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 had been nonetheless purple from the again of the 18th inexperienced. The golf world’s consideration had been positioned within the foreground for that scene, the place Xander Schauffele was tapping in for a career-defining second main win, however the true story had been within 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 underside of the opening, Stefan nodded slowly, his coronary heart sluggish to consider what his mind was telling him.
However it was actual, and this time, he had seen it together with his personal eyes. And so, together with his son celebrating on the inexperienced earlier than him, Stefan Schauffele reached underneath his sun shades and wept.
“What can I say?” he stated with a mild smile. “I all the time soften.”
You’ll be able to attain the writer at james.colgan@golf.com.
