Schauffele announces himself to the golf world
TOWN OF ERIN - Xander Schauffele knows what it’s like to watch a round of golf, chase the pros for autographs then look back to his father and ask, “So, who was that?”
He did that as a child, and now at the 117th U.S. Open, the 23-year-old PGA Tour rookie’s first, he’s been on the other side of the ropes for those interactions. When kids ask their dads who he is, the answer is likely to vary between, “I don’t know” and some butchered variation of his last name.
In fact, TV crews spent part of the day going around Erin Hills with Schauffele’s name written out, asking spectators to take a crack at pronouncing it. For the record, it’s pronounced SHAW-felee.
“Schauffele’s a pretty weird name to remember,” he said with a laugh on Friday.
Following a strong showing over his first two rounds at Erin Hills, though, Schauffele’s days of
relative anonymity could be numbered.
The La Jolla, Calif. native and graduate of San Diego State made history on Thursday by becoming the first player in U.S. Open history to shoot a bogey-free round of 66 or better in his debut, finishing the day with a 6-under 66, one shot off the lead. On Friday, he rose as high as 7-under before a double-bogey on 13 and a string of solid approaches followed by missed birdie putts to head into the weekend squarely in contention at 5-under.
“If someone told me I’d be sitting 5-under, however many back in my first U.S. Open I’d say I’d probably take it,” Schauffele said. “So I feel good.”
Schauffele’s strong showing may be surprising to casual fans, but he’s known in the golf world. He’s been on a steady rise over the past few years, including handling some
pressure-packed situations to even make it to Erin Hills.
Born into a family of athletes — his father, Stefan, who has been his main swing coach over the years, attempted to make the German Olympic team in decathlon and his paternal great-grandfathers, Johann Hoffman (soccer) and Richard Schauffele (soccer and track) excelled in their days — Xander started playing golf at age 9. In high school, he won the 2010 California state title and during college he won the 2014 California State Amateur.
Following college — he spent one year at Long Beach State before transferring to San Diego State — Schauffele qualified for the Web.com Tour. He finished 26th in that tour’s regular season, one spot away from earning his PGA Tour card. However, he tied for ninth in the Web.com Tour finals at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Classic on Sept. 25, 2016, to secure his PGA Tour card for 2016-’17.
In 17 events heading into the U.S. Open, Schauffele has made 10 cuts and recorded three top-25 finishes, including one top 10 at the Sanderson Farms Championship this past October. On June 5 he emerged out of a 5for-2 playoff at the Memphis qualifier to earn his spot in the U.S. Open.
The fact that he probably shouldn’t be here yet — not to mention being in contention — has Schauffele loose heading into the weekend.
“I think me being a little naive has almost prepared me for this situation,” he said. “Just coming in blue-eyed, really. (Thursday) was a bonus round for me. I qualified for this a couple Mondays ago. I have a limited
schedule as a rookie on the PGA Tour, so I have nothing to lose coming out here.”
While Schauffele made a name for himself on Thursday and Friday — and hopefully got more people pronouncing it correctly — he had to share some of the spotlight with Cameron Champ, a 22year-old, hard-swinging amateur in his group.
Champ, whose 339.20yard average driving distance is the best in the field, followed a 2-under performance on Thursday with a 3-under on Friday to join Schauffele at 5under. A rising senior at Texas A&M, Champ’s score was the lowest among the 14 amateurs in the field, with only Scottie Scheffler (1-under) joining him in breaking par.
“This is kind of the first time I’ve been in kind of the spotlight,” said Champ, who recorded five birdies on Friday, including one on 18 where his ball rolled around the cup and in to finish his round. “I’ve known what my game is capable of, with my distance and my
wedge game. So it’s just nice to see it come along at the right time.”
With Schauffele playing well on Thursday and Champ bombing drives and scoring consistently — not to mention their third groupmate Trey Mullinax breaking par at 1-under — each golfer pushed the other to be at his best. All three individual beat the field average for fairways hit and combined they hit 67 of 84 fairways (79.8%).
“When you have two guys hitting in front of you left and right it’s definitely not the greatest visualization you can have when you hit a tee shot,” Schauffele said. “First off, I usually hit in the fairway. If one of them is first off, you know, we were all just hitting the fairway all day.”
The result was one of the day’s most surprisingly successful groups. Now the test, especially for Schauffele and Champ who are squarely in the mix, will be following up their strong introduction with more reasons for people to remember their names.