USA threatened to boot Xander Schauffele from Ryder Cup team

Xander Schauffele’s father has extraordinarily claimed that his son’s place in the US Ryder Cup team was under threat due to a contract dispute just weeks before the defeat to Europe at Marco Simone.

Schauffele’s father Stefan has told The Times that the world No.6’s spot in Zach Johnson’s side was in doubt over a dispute with the PGA of America regarding a player participation agreement that is signed before the biennial contest.

Patrick Cantlay, Schauffele’s closest friend in the US locker room, was in the eye of a storm in Rome over a report that alleged he was refusing to wear a cap as a protest for not being paid at the Ryder Cup.

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It was claimed that a divide in the US camp was centred around Cantlay, who, alongside Schauffele, had reportedly ostracised himself from his other teammates in the locker room.

Cantlay and Schauffele were two of the players missing from the US scouting mission in Rome in the build-up to the contest. Throughout the weekend, Cantlay repeatedly denied all the claims made against him.

But it has now emerged from Schauffele’s father that the duo both wanted amendments made to a player participation and benefit agreement contract that had been drawn up by the PGA of America before the match.

It is reported by the Times that these amendments included denying a Netflix camera crew entry into the US locker room.

Team USA players were not set to be boosted financially by the streaming service and, after a team vote instigated by captain Johnson, it was decided unanimously that the camera crew would not be granted access during Ryder Cup week. This was said to protect the “sanctity and sacredness” of the US team room.

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Schauffele’s father has now slammed the “shameful” actions of the PGA of America, the governing body that controls the US Ryder Cup team, over the contract stand-off with his son.

“The PGA of America were not willing to even talk to us about [the amendments],” Stefan Schauffele claimed.

“It was very late in the schedule right before the team came here [to Rome] to practice because they had moved the deadline and they said, ‘If you don’t sign it by then, you’re off the team’, but they never gave us the contact information of their legal counsel.

“Saturday morning of Labour Day weekend [September 2], finally, the head of the PGA of America got wind of this, because it was not him that was blocking it, and put our lawyers in contact with the PGA of America’s general counsel, and then it took a few hours to hash it out and it was fine. Then I received a message that Xander was back on the team. That you can quote. That’s the extent of this and I think it’s shameful.”

bunkered.co.uk has approached the PGA of America for comment.