TROON, Scotland—Xander Schauffele can often come across as Jeff Spicoli with a better short game, just a super mellow Southern California dude who appears to be perennially blissed-out. But don’t let Schauffele’s sunny vibes fool you: bro is a cold-blooded killer.
On Sunday at the 152nd Open Championship, at the tail end of a brutal weather week that crushed the spirits and frayed the nerves of the best players in the world, Schauffele produced a round for the ages. With his frazzled pursuers all retreating on the back nine, Schauffele pulled off a series of fearless shots and clutch putts to roar home in 31 for a two-stroke victory that didn’t feel that close. His bogeyless 65, the best score of the day by two strokes, will go down as one of the greatest final rounds in the history of this ancient championship, alongside Hogan’s 68 at Carnoustie, Lawrie’s 67 at Carnoustie, Mickelson’s 66 at Muirfield, Watson’s 65 at Turnberry, Ballesteros’ 65 at Lytham, Norman’s 64 at St. George’s, Cam Smith’s 64 at St Andrews and Stenson’s 63 at Troon.
“Best round I’ve ever played,” Schauffele said.
Justin Rose’s caddie Mark Futcher, in his fourth decade as a professional caddie, said he had never witnessed a finer performance. “When you see a round that good you take your hat off,” sighed Fooch. “He didn’t put a foot wrong. It was nice to be able to watch it and not have to buy a ticket because it was fantastic.”
Schauffele, 30, has been a glittering prospect since at least 2021 when he won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. But even as the PGA Tour wins piled up—seven at the outset of the 2024 season—there were whispers that maybe he was too nice to win the big one. After all, the most decorated champions of the last few decades have tended to be mean cusses like Nick Faldo, Brooks Koepka or Vijay Singh, or radiate seething intensity a la Tiger Woods and Angel Cabrera.
Strangely, Schauffele’s breakthrough win two months ago at the PGA Championship didn’t fully satisfy the cynics in the press room and on Twitter. Valhalla was a cupcake and the resulting birdiefest made it feel like a mid-level Tour event. The goalposts shifted and the question became: did Xander have the fortitude to win a real major, a gritty grindfest in punishing conditions on a big-time course? The wicked weather of the second and third rounds of this Open made Royal Troon the ultimate test. Many would-be contenders skulked off the course on Saturday night bitching about the course setup or their tee time draw; Schauffele was the only one grinning. In a window into his greatness, he said, “I’m lucky. I love playing golf, and I love my job, and I love playing over here. For me it’s all fun, and I just try to have as much fun as possible even on a day like today.”
His relentless cheerfulness is perhaps the game’s most underrated weapon. Schauffele says it’s been “a long time” since he let himself become visibly angry on the golf course. Earlier in his career he ran some numbers on his scores when he succumbed to flashes of anger and he realized he was costing himself shots. “My mistakes kept compounding,” he says. So now, “It’s all about the next shot,” he says. “I know it’s cliche and people try to talk about it, but you really can make yourself happy if you try to hit a good shot as your next one versus just snowballing the wrong way.” A corollary to this is that Schauffele purposely avoids any big displays of emotion. “I know how I need to be to perform at a high level,” he says. “The same way I don’t get really angry, I also don’t let myself get too over the moon. If I’m sitting there snapping a club, that would be the same as me running around fist-pumping. It would take too long for me to adjust before my next shot to hit a good one.”
“You’d almost like him to be a bit of a wanker but he really couldn’t be nicer.”
Mark Fulcher
But even as Schauffele la-di-da’s his way to birdies, he is not entirely fooling the competition. “He has an inner fire that burns really hot,” says Billy Horschel, who had a share of the lead as late at the seventh hole but bogeyed Nos. 8 and 10 to get run over by Schauffele. “He wants to be great. He’s not afraid of the moment. I know he had some close chances over the years and things didn’t go his way but he didn’t back away—he learned how to fight harder. Now we’re seeing that killer mentality come out, even though he never stops smiling.”
Adds Adam Scott, who tied for 10th, “He gives off that cool persona for sure, and I think that’s a good lesson (for other players). But I wouldn’t say he doesn’t work hard at the game. I think he works incredibly hard at it. Xander is pretty cruisy. But when you’re really prepared I think that’s how you can be when you’re playing. I think he is being himself. That’s why he’s getting good results.”
That’s an understatement—Schauffele is the first player since Koepka in 2018 to win two major championships in a season. Xander said in the champion’s press conference that his longstanding goal is to achieve the career Grand Slam and suddenly he seems more likely to get there than two contemporaries who have long overshadowed him, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
What makes Schauffele so dangerous is that he doesn’t have a weakness; in the Tour’s stroke gained stats he is presently 5th in approach play, 10th in putting and 12th off the tee. “He has a lot of horsepower, do you know what I mean?” says Rose, who bogeyed the 12th hole to fall out of a tie with Schauffele and then watched his playing partner birdie 13, 14 and 16. “In the sense of he’s good with a wedge, he’s great with a putter, he hits the ball a long way, obviously his iron play is strong. So he’s got a lot of weapons out there… He’s got a lot of runway ahead and a lot of exciting stuff ahead, I’m sure.”
Around his native San Diego, Schauffele is beloved for supporting animal charities—his only real social media presence is cuddling the family dogs on his wife’s Instagram—and for headlining an annual fundraiser to support Goat Hill Park. Good guy wins. “You’d almost like him to be a bit of a wanker but he really couldn’t be nicer,” says Futcher. “He’s a lovely fellow.”
That’s one way to describe Schauffele. After his thrilling performance at Troon, here’s another: champion golfer of the year.
Top Photo Caption: Xander Schauffele is the seventh American major victor in a row. It’s the longest streak since 1974-1977 when 13 consecutive majors were won by Americans. (GETTY IMAGES/Harry How)
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