Stator Tropfen Herd den Stein. Roughly translated into English, the German proverb has the following meanings: A steady drip caves down the stone. Although it appears in other languages and literary forms, this repetition stuck with Xander Schauffele as a boy.
It's a phrase that Schauffele's father, Stefan, repeated over and over again until it permeated his vocabulary. From the beginning of Schauffele's relationship with golf, motivational fables and philosophical aphorisms were instilled in his psyche. That's the way his father thinks and speaks. It became how his son thought, how he spoke, and how Schauffele built the mentality and game that helped him win two major championships in one summer.
Schauffele's development was slow and gradual, fully supported by his father, who served as his swing coach from pre-junior golf to the PGA Tour.
The nature of Schauffele's climb was exactly what critics pointed to as the potential downfall of his career. If you were taught to be undercover, would you win? If you were raised to accept being the underdog, would it hurt to be consistently in the top 10 but never lift a trophy?
Schauffele didn't want to say it at the time, but he would admit it now. A series of close calls left him on the sidelines at majors, despite winning on the PGA Tour. Always on the leaderboard, but never at the top.
Then he did it. Twice. In 2024, Schauffele put an end to years of nagging saga. He won the PGA Championship and the British Open Championship and suddenly went from being unwinnable to being two trophies away from a career Grand Slam.
It was always in his subconscious, but he had to be reminded. There was supposed to be a constant drip process. The question was whether he would persist and whether he would believe.
“Maybe this year I'm more confident in myself than ever before. Maybe it took me a while to get to that point,” Schauffele said. “Everyone should believe in themselves, everyone should imagine that they're winning. Until you really try it and it's really real, you don't really understand it. I don't think I can say that, but for me I actually felt like I was ready to win.”
It was a revelation for Schauffele, an acknowledgment of something other than the 31-year-old's determined strength as he strode around the course with confidence. Unwavering consistency was always intended to be Schauffele's ticket to the top, and it showed in how the game played out. Judging by advanced statistics, he was already the most consistent player in golf. But in 2024, he hit only 9.4 percent of his holes worse than bogey, setting a new PGA Tour record, surpassing Tiger Woods' all-time record from the 2000 season.
“I've grown this year, but mostly it's like I've been preparing my whole life for that moment,” Schauffele says.
Stefan could see what was going to happen before Schauffele. A year ago, while celebrating Christmas in San Diego, the father/coach had a one-on-one conversation with his son/pupil. Year-end transfers always feel important to Stefan. It's time to take responsibility. To create purpose.
A few days before the two went to Hawaii for the opening tournament of 2024, he looked at Schauffele and declared, “The team is ready for you to win a major.”
Then he walked away and became just a father.
For the next stage of his life, Stefan decided to live as far away from his second son as possible. That's why you stop mid-sentence when you see a pod of whales appear in the Pacific Ocean.
Stephen is standing on a farm on Kauai, Hawaii, working on building his family's property. “The Ogre,” as he is known on the PGA Tour, always wears a fedora, black shades, and a linen polo shirt, and purposely times his outings.
For a year and a half, Stefan lived in a 20-foot shipping container without electricity, hot water or a bathroom, many months apart from his wife and Zander's mother, Pinyi. He recently moved to a second property that includes an actual home so she can visit more often and a warehouse that allows merchants from mainland Hawaii to come and go to help with the project.
Stefan prepares the land for growing tubers such as taro, alai-mo, and taro. He plans to plant avocado trees for oil supply. Everything will be ready for the Schaffeles within a few years, making it the perfect time for their grandchildren to play with the animals. Yes, there will be farm animals such as Shetland ponies and miniature Highland cows. Xander and his brother Nico were not allowed to see it until it was completed.
Stefan Schauffele (left) played two roles in Xander's life: father and coach. That changed in 2024. (Andrew Reddington/Getty Images)
I have a vision. There is a process. It started with Xander's decision to quit coaching, but he had hoped to quit sooner. He knew there would come a time when his expertise would no longer be able to meet his son's needs. The question of how to transition was even more difficult.
That's why when Xander hoisted his first major championship trophy, Stephen resigned to watch the moment on television from a remote island in Hawaii, closer to Tokyo than Louisville, Kentucky.
“I can't explain how close[Xander and I]are,” he says. “That's stupid. We literally had to do what we're doing now to create separation.”
Stefan, who was an excellent decathlon athlete during his heyday, knew the only way to foster his son's competitiveness. “He basically treated me like a young professional from a really young age,” Zander says.
His father saw golf as an interdisciplinary sport, similar to 10 different sports. Stefan took great pride in his will to win and used unusual tactics to coax that will out of his son, something he knows should not be practiced in most parent-child relationships. Ta.
“I had to find a way for Xander to disagree with me publicly, but not physically, but strongly. I worked hard at it, sometimes using unfair methods. . I used to cheat at table tennis until he got very angry and started confronting me from a fairly young age, ”says Stefan.
With a bond of mutual respect, tenacity became part of Xander's nature. It was the beginning of a father-son on-course relationship and a journey to the top of Zander.
As a boy, Stephen asked his son if he wanted to be like Fred Couples or Tiger Woods. Do you play the game by feel or do you study the intricacies of the game? Xander chose the latter. He wanted to know everything about the mechanics of his swing. Stefan would explain concepts to him, but he would have to prove the basis of his knowledge with evidence. Xander acted with the kind of stubbornness that Stefan felt was necessary. Xander, on the other hand, listened to his father's philosophy regarding attitude and body language. It all connected back to a core principle.
If you were playing alone on a golf course in the middle of the woods and missed a three-foot putt, would you throw a tantrum? asks Stefan to his son. “The answer is no. When you do it on TV, it's all fake. It's all acting. We cut out all the acting and fakery,” Schauffele said.
“Golf is a long career,” he continued. “Anyone who shows off is almost certain to eventually suffer some defeat from their own ego.”
Xander Schauffele's PGA Championship win made even the stoic Schauffele smile. (Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
The same theme was drilled into Zander's mind through college golf, the Web.com Tour, and the PGA Tour.
In qualifying for the 2017 U.S. Open, PGA Tour newcomer Schauffele was paired with Steve Stricker, the latter competing for a spot in the U.S. Championship at his hometown of Erin Hills in Wisconsin. He watched as the 50-year-old put together a string of birdies in the latter part of 36 holes, turning a slow start into a highlight reel. It was the perfect epitome of the old German proverb. Stefan's hidden strategy has become a reality. Schauffele had finally seen it for himself.
Schauffele also qualified for the U.S. Open, finishing tied for fifth in his first major appearance. Three weeks later, he won his first PGA Tour event.
“Stricker didn't panic when things didn't go his way. He stayed the course and suddenly had eight or nine birdies and was leading the tournament. Where did that come from? For me, I don't feel like my career is that different from that kind of thinking,” Schauffele says.
Schauffele was never “that guy.” He is one of 16 players to have won the British Open and another major within a year, but he has yet to win one. When I asked my colleagues to name the PGA Tour Player of the Year, 91% said Scottie Scheffler.
It was an incredible year by anyone's standards, but the influence of Scheffler, who has the potential to transcend generations, still looms large.
But Schauffele's game wasn't designed for him to be “that guy.” Persistence means evolution. And evolution isn't always flashy.
When Schauffele seemed stuck, constantly hovering around the top five on the leaderboard, he could have stopped there. Instead, he continued to push, as he had always been taught to do.
Sometimes that push, the art of never being satisfied, requires difficult decisions. In late 2023, Schauffeles hired Chris Como, a top professional golf instructor, to join his inner circle, which to outsiders seemed impossible to break. Personal trainer David Sandberg and physical therapist Marnus Marais also participated. Stefan stepped back. He literally retreated into the jungle.
In 2024, Schauffele's new team and improved process allowed him to gain 10 yards off the tee. This means shorter iron shots, more birdies, and bigger wins as a result. But in reality, Schauffele was able to keep things on track until that epiphany occurred. That's what led him there.
“When you're this close, it's very finite. You're trying to improve a quarter of your shots in a certain part of your game,” Schauffele says. “It doesn’t seem like a big deal on paper, but after a year it can make a huge difference.”
The confidence Schauffele lacked was found in the process.
“Mentally, he could be one of the best players to ever deal with everything leading up to this year, fail and fail, and never win a major, at least in this modern era. But I think all of those things were ultimately the right thing to do.''In a way, it's calming,'' Schauffele says.
Now he's entering new territory. Schauffeles evaluates progress in terms of year-over-year comparisons. Since first appearing on the tour in 2017, Schauffele has barely lapsed in the Official World Golf Rankings. He has basically maintained or improved his position steadily. But now he's No. 2.
Schauffele has a chance as he enters the 2025 PGA Tour season opener, The Sentry, in Kapalua, Hawaii this week as the No. 2 player in the world. Eighty-four weeks into the world No. 1 streak that took Scheffler to a seemingly unattainable peak, he is sidelined with a hand injury. Stefan will take time off from camp on Kauai to temporarily serve as Schauffele's manager and remain in Hawaii to be closer to his son. However, as intended, the relationship is different. Schauffele is playing the best golf of his life. He is in control.
“It's crazy. I'm really excited to practice. I'm really excited to go see my trainer. I'm really excited to go to Hawaii,” Schauffele said. “I think it's my eighth or ninth year on tour. And I still feel that way.”
If there's ever a time to keep going, it's now. Schauffele is ready for that. He is ready to continue digging stones.
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb/The Athletic, Photos: Ben Jared/PGA Tour, Tom Shaw/R&A via Getty Images)
