Xander Schauffele’s dad responds to LIV Golf rumours

In the blurred moments after nailing the six-footer that changed the direction of his career, Xander Schauffele had a phone call to make. 

As he waited to hoist the Wanamaker Trophy after his nerveless finish at Valhalla, Schauffele needed to speak to his father Stefan, the man who has been his career’s guiding force both as an agent and his lifelong swing coach.

“I had to hang up pretty quickly because he started to make me cry,” Schauffele said. “He was sitting on the phone bawling.”

It transpired that Stefan, ever-present on a journey that has included eight PGA Tour wins and now a major title, was over 4,000 miles away watching the drama unfold from a sports bar near his shipping container home in Hawaii.

• PGA Championship: 34 very random thoughts and takeaways from Valhalla

• How the 16 LIV Golf players fared at the PGA Championship

That’s where an emotional Stefan – known as “The Ogre” – was tracked down as the dust began to settle on his son’s famous win.

“I just started crying,” he told Golf.com after the winning moment on 18. “Finally it happened. Finally, that happened,” he said, inevitability replaced by wonder. I was just observing until he won — and then I let the emotions go. At that moment I was helpless. Give me the Kleenex box.”

So, as Schauffele’s family basked in his glory, it was time to wonder what this result could mean for the trajectory of the 30-year-old Amerian’s career. Will such a nerveless showing open the floodgates? Can Schauffele become a multiple major winner? And where will he choose to play his golf?

That final question has already been answered. Stefan has categorically shut down any suggestions that a rumoured move to LIV Golf could be more likely now his son has the safety blanket of a five-year major exemption.

• PGA Championship: 34 very random thoughts and takeaways from Valhalla

• How the 16 LIV Golf players fared at the PGA Championship

“No chance,” Stefan said when asked about that possiblity. “Xander is not chasing the money. Xander is about legacy. And as my opinion — just as his father — there was never a chance.

“What we told LIV in Saudi Arabia, with Xander beside me, was that if there is no path back to the PGA Tour and if there is no chance at World Ranking points we do not have anything to talk about. Even if you throw hundreds of millions of dollars at him. That word still stands.

“I am not called The Ogre without reason. I keep my word.”

Schauffele, meanwhile, has admitted he was fuelled by his narrative as golf’s nearly man on the biggest stages after his wire-to-wire win.

“Definitely a chip on the shoulder there,” he said. “You guys are asking the questions, probing, and I have to sit here and answer it. It’s a lot easier to answer it with this thing [Wanamaker Trophy] sitting next to me now.

“It’s just fuel, fuel to my fire. It always has been growing up, and it certainly was leading up to this.”

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.