LOUISVILLE, Ky. – “It had to be this way, honey!”
That’s what Chris Como shouted to Xander Schauffele’s friends and family as they all floated to the scoring tent to make this 106e PGA Championship official.
Como, who signed on as Schauffele’s swing coach last fall, hasn’t even been officially on the team for long, but he already knew the torment and onslaught of pressure his prized student had experienced.
Schauffele had not won anywhere in 22 months. He had failed to close out the Players and Wells Fargo Championship in the past two months alone. This was his ninth tournament with at least a share of the lead heading into the final round, and he had converted only two of those previous chances.
“He knows he’s playing great,” said his caddie, Austin Kaiser. “He just needed everything to fall into place.”
It was frustrating, maddening, confusing. Here was a thirty-year-old who was excellent at everything, and excellent at everything. But something was missing. As skilled as he was in every aspect of his game, there was no measure of heart, grit or timeliness. Never had he set himself on fire when he was in a position to win. But he had also never gone out and seized the moment.
That’s part of what pushed Schauffele’s game in a different direction late last year. Schauffele had always used his father, Stefan, as his main instructor, even though as a former aspiring Olympic decathlete he had never had any formal training in the game. Stefan, nicknamed the “Ogre,” is a larger-than-life figure who was a constant presence at tournaments, usually decked out in capris, a short-sleeved button-down, a straw hat and sunglasses, sometimes with a cigar dangling from his mouth. What he lacked in coaching accolades, he made up for in impeccable atmosphere.
Under his tutelage, Schauffele had gone from a solid college player to perhaps the best active player without a major, but last fall he felt his head hit the ceiling. To consistently challenge Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm – to win more – he had to make a change. And that meant turning to someone other than his father – a point his old man had been emphasizing for years.
“Just like any good father would, he wanted to give (his) child a successful future. He really meant that,” Schauffele said. “Now that I work with Chris, he feels like he can take his hands off the wheel. He trusts him very much. I trust him very much.”
Como added: “I have picked his father’s brain on everything and will continue to do so. I don’t even consider it ‘switching’. He will still play a big role in his game and his life, but it is more of a collective effort to help him achieve these dreams. The swing is what his father built. This is a sequel.”
Como’s primary focus was to turn 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 relaxed at the top, transitioning him to a spot from which he could be more aggressive on the shot. Those moves, coupled with more intensity in the gym, were designed to make Schauffele taller and faster.
Last year Schauffele ranked 34the on Tour in ball speed, an average of 300 km/h. Now he’s all the way up to No. 9, running 190 mph, no small feat for a player who stands over 6-foot-4 and weighs 175 pounds. That increase in speed roughly translates into a distance of about 10 meters, allowing Schauffele to revamp his course strategy with more aggressive lines over doglegs and bunkers. In just a few months, he has added a huge asset to what was already one of the sport’s most complete games.
“He’s just so versatile,” Como said. “So even if something isn’t right, something else can keep everything going, and that’s why he’s so consistent.”
Schauffele’s consistency was undeniable; he is a fixture in the top 10 in the world, he is one of the top performers on Tour every year and he is a fixture on every American Cup team. But he had fallen short time and time again in the events that defined the game’s history. By age 30, he had already posted six top-5s, and his twelve top-10s in majors were the sixth-most all-time before a player won his first.
“I don’t think I’ve ever looked at it so poorly,” he said of his resume. “I saw it as someone who is trying very hard and needs more experience.”
The first half of this year only underlined how close he was to major success. Among his five top-5s this season, he led The Players’ back nine before retiring and last week coughed up a four-shot lead at the halfway mark at Quail Hollow.
“As frustrating as it is, he always comes home and can turn that off,” says his wife, Maya. “As his partner, I get the best parts. He’s very good at putting that behind him and balancing 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 shows how mentally strong and patient he is.”
Como looked even deeper. “You just have to know internally that you are doing exactly what is within your control and stick to it,” he said. “It’s easy to attack yourself, listen to the external stories, but at the end of the day, we’re just playing golf, keep doing that – and eventually things like this will happen.”
What exactly happened was this virtuoso performance in Valhalla.
On Thursday, Schauffele became the first player to do so recording a pair of 62s in major keys. On Friday, with the tournament buzzing due to Scottie Scheffler’s early morning arrest, he held on to take another 36-hole lead. On Saturday, even as the leaderboard began to rally 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 the summer of 2000, that a player was in the lead or co-lead after six consecutive tournament rounds in consecutive weeks.
“It’s just remembering that your time is coming,” Kaiser said. “You hit it too well, you’re too mentally strong. It will come.”
That’s what Schauffele told him on the final green in Charlotte last week, when he had played too conservatively, stumbled through a Sunday 71 and was lapped by McIlroy.
“He shook my hand on the 18th Sunday,” Kaiser said, “and he said, ‘We’re getting one soon, son.’”
All he had to wait was another week – and for an even bigger prize.
In the final group, Schauffele again showed none of the shyness that had plagued so many previous Sundays.
During what was already a record-breaking week of scoring on a rain-softened layout, Schauffele rolled in a 30-foot birdie on the opening green and set the tone for a wild day. “Be calm, be patient,” he told himself, even as he was six birdies away from his goal of 22 under. He made a smooth save from the bunker on 2. He judged his wedge perfectly from 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 a nasty bogey on the par-5 10ethe easiest hole of the day, he responded with a pair of perfect mid-irons that never left the flag and led to back-to-back birdies.
“He showed perseverance, and that’s who he is as a person,” Kaiser said. “He never gives up.”
But fittingly for him, this major wouldn’t be easy either. Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland charged after him. Mud on the right side of Schauffele’s ball in the boxe Fairway forced him to take a conservative approach. His scorched tee shot on 17 was just a little too low, hit the edge of the bunker and flopped back into a dodgy lie. Then came 18, when he was now level with DeChambeau and needed a birdie on the closing par 5. Schauffele hit what he thought was a peeler, but his drive, aided by adrenaline, ground to a halt on the first cut , awkwardly just on the outside of the bunker.
“I kept saying to myself: Man, someone out there is making me earn this now” said Schauffele. “I was like, If you want to be a great champion, these are the kinds of things you have to deal with.”
The ball was significantly above his feet and Schauffele was initially concerned about the half-baseball swing shot. But he hit a seed with his choked 4-iron, with the ball ending just short of the left bunker, an ideal angle to attack the location of the back hole.
After a sharp chip to six feet, Schauffele studied the putt himself.
“It was his moment,” Kaiser said.
Schauffele’s putt dived toward the left lip, but caught just enough of it and spun down into the cup for a closing birdie. His reaction wasn’t so much lustful celebration as relieved satisfaction.
He raised his arms, closed his eyes and… smiled.
Behind the putting green, Como hugged Schauffele’s brother, his wife and his friends from New York who had flown in to watch the coronation of the game’s next star.
“It was meant to be, baby!” Como shouted at them, his eyes wet with tears.
It had to be that Schauffele scored the lowest score to par (21 under) in major championship history.
It was meant to be that he finished 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 almost twenty years to birdie the 72NL hole to win the PGA by one.
So cool, so sleek, so current.
Finally.
“He has so much heart in the way he plays, you know,” Como said. “Obviously he’s been close so many times, and just to get this one… it’s very special to me.”
The only member of his team missing on this day was Schauffele’s father, who was on vacation in Hawaii. While waiting for his introduction at the trophy presentation, Schauffele quickly called him.
He’d been thinking a lot this week about Stefan, the mentor and swing coach who helped mold a champion. Since the age of 9, it has been ingrained in Xander to “enter, execute, and accept,” even though that has only become more difficult as major losses piled up, scrutiny intensified, and pressure mounted. But now his father was on the other end of the line, sobbing because the lesson had finally paid off.
“It made me quite emotional,” Schauffele said. “I told him I had to hang up because I couldn’t show up as I was.”
While thousands still line the 18e In the hole, Schauffele dried his eyes, took a deep breath and calmed himself. His moment had arrived. He walked down the hill looking for the trophy he’s been waiting too long to kiss.
