TROON, Scotland – Harry’s Bar & Restaurant in West Palm Beach, Florida, is a popular spot among professional golf royalty thanks to its proximity to many of the game’s biggest names, not to mention a life-changing beef Wellington.
Last fall, the upscale steakhouse was where Xander Schauffele began the transformation from solid player with a monsoon of potential to major champion, although that official metamorphosis was still seven months away. Schauffele, who was ranked sixth in the world at the time, was 0-for-27 in Grand Slam starts and while he’d come close to breaking through at the game’s biggest and best events, there was something missing. It was that major record that prompted Schauffele to join swing coach Chris Como for dinner.
Schauffele had finished tied for 10th at both the Masters and the U.S. Open, and posted top-20 showings at the PGA Championship and Open Championship, but he went to Como to find the missing piece.
“Xander was looking for someone to bounce ideas off of and help him with his game,” Como explained. “He was already really good, so from my perspective how do you help someone like that get a little better. That could mean a lot to a player at that level, but it could also go the wrong way.”
Schauffele’s swing coach had always been his father, Stefan, so the decision to look for answers elsewhere was likely not easy. But with Stefan Schauffele’s blessing, he embarked on a quest to find the answer to professional golf’s ultimate question – How do I win majors?
Como, who has worked with many of the game’s best players, including Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau, took a predictably analytical approach to the question with what he called, “subtle changes” to Schauffele’s position at the top of his backswing as well as a new transition into the downswing. The answers came surprisingly fast with top-10 finishes in his first three starts of 2024, but it was at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March where he started to see real progress.
A runner-up showing at The Players, where he led through 54 holes but was derailed by a pair of late bogeys on Sunday, as well as another top-10 finish at the Masters were encouraging. But it was at the PGA Championship where the new-and-improved Xander emerged with a closing 65 to hold off DeChambeau with a walk-off birdie at the 72nd hole.
“The answer that we couldn’t find, ourselves, has been answered with the help of Chris Como, to be fair,” Stefan Schauffele said Sunday at a windy and wet Royal Troon. “He was very quickly able to answer what we, for two or three years, couldn’t answer. It was wrist position and a release pattern that Como has studied for a long time and Xander and I, with our old methods, couldn’t find. That freed him up tremendously.”
Como defers credit to Schauffele, suggesting his role in the transformation to major champion was little more than tour guide.
“At the end of the day, he was going to win majors, but having a slightly better understanding of his golf swing can be helpful,” Como said. “He’s able to just swing in a way that fits him really well and can free him up off the tee.”
It’s easy enough to quantify how much more “free” Schauffele feels off the tee. His ball speed jumped from 179.30 mph last season, which ranked 34th on the PGA Tour, to 183.14 mph this year, which is 10th on Tour; as has his strokes gained: off the tee (11th) and driving distance (37th).
At Royal Troon, which beautifully combined The Open’s longest hole (No. 6) and it’s shortest (No. 8), that formula held with Schauffele picking up 3.41 shots on the field off the tee. But his performance at the year’s final major was so much more than a driving display.
He was second in strokes gained: approach, 15th in strokes gained: around the green and, perhaps most telling, 20th in strokes gained: putting, an underappreciated strength of his game.
“He made that long birdie putt [a 16-footer at No. 13] and I texted [Schauffele’s putting coach Derek Ueyda] and said, ‘I haven’t told you how much I love you,’” Como laughed.
Schauffele’s dominant closing nine is a textbook example of how you win a major championship. After enduring the worst of Saturday’s tempest, he pulled into the lead with birdies at Nos. 6 and 7, but it was a scorching inward nine, Royal Troon’s difficult nine, that set the stage for his two-stroke victory.
Scottie Scheffler, who finished tied for seventh after a poor week on the greens, is still the front-runner to win the Tour’s Player of the Year award, but Schauffele’s performance in the majors could lead some to second guess that vote. Yet after his journey from really good to great, it won’t take the Jack Nicklaus Trophy to validate his decision.
What began with a delicious dinner at Harry’s in South Florida has resulted in one of the most impressive major seasons in recent history with Schauffele collecting two Grand Slam titles and finishing inside the top 10 in the other two. When pressed for why Como was the answer to Xander’s major question, Stefan Schauffele was quick to tell.
“He could explain why Xander had a bit of a loose, sloppy top position at times,” Stefan Schauffele said. “Xander is hyper-flexible, so am I, and that creates some tricky situations in the golf swing; over swinging, laying it off, all sorts of things. Chris had the answer.”
But if Como provided the roadmap, rich with data and quantifiable theories, it was Xander Schauffele who took the lessons and made them legend. He posted the round-of-the-day Sunday at The Open when most of the contenders were fading, and on Saturday, when the conditions were maximum links, he posted an exceedingly rare under-par round (69).
“I’ve kind of embraced this sort of SoCal, laid-back kid, but there’s obviously a fire burning deep within, or you wouldn’t have a couple majors sitting by your side,” Schauffele said as he glanced at the claret jug.
As Schauffele posed for pictures with his new and ancient prize, his father watched from just off the 18th green. Stefan Schauffele wasn’t at Valhalla when his son won the PGA Championship, and it was obvious he wanted to savor the moment.
“In all sports, that is the coolest trophy on earth. I mean they’re not even hiding the fact that we’re going to drink tonight. It’s no secret what we’re going to drink out of it tonight,” Stefan Schauffele laughed, before being asked what he planned to drink from the famed jug, “Wine, I would think. Or if not [he pulled a flask from his pocket], sláinte.”