Continued dripping of water will wear away the stone. A German proverb roughly translated into English means: A steady drop of water rolls the stone. It appears in different languages and literary forms, but this repetition stuck with Xander Schauffele as a boy.
Schauffele’s father Stefan repeated this until it became embedded in his vocabulary. From the beginning of Schauffele’s relationship with golf, motivational fables and philosophical aphorisms were instilled in his psyche. That’s how his father thinks and talks. It became the way his son thought and spoke, and how Schauffele put together the mind and game that won him two major championships in one summer.
Schauffele’s growth was slow and gradual, stabilized by his father, who doubled as his swing coach from junior golf to the PGA Tour.
The nature of Schauffele’s climbing is exactly what critics have pointed to as the potential downfall of his career. Would you be able to win if you learned how to hide? If you were raised to accept being the underdog, would it bother you to always be in the top 10 and never win a trophy?
Schauffele didn’t want to say it at the time, but he’ll admit it now. The PGA Tour victory came, but as he became a supporting player in the major leagues, those questions rang through his mind as the close calls piled up. Always on the leaderboard, but never at the top.
Then he did it. Double. In 2024, Schauffele ended a story that had been festering for years. He won the PGA and the Open Championship, and suddenly went from being the best player to ever win a title to being two trophies away from completing the career Grand Slam.
It was always in his subconscious, but he had to remember. There had to be a process called steady drip. The question was whether he would continue to insist and whether he would be believed.
“I’m probably more confident this year than ever before. Maybe it took a while to get to that point,” says Schauffele. “Everyone must believe in themselves and imagine themselves victorious. I don’t think you’ll really see it until you truly do it and it’s actually real. You could say that, but I actually felt prepared to win.”
This is considered revelatory for Schauffele. That’s an acknowledgment of something other than brute strength for the 31-year-old, who walks the course with a confident swagger. Unwavering consistency was always what Schauffele intended to get to the top, and it showed over the course of his game. Judging by advanced statistics, he was already the most consistent player in golf. But in 2024, he made a bogey or better on just 9.4% of his holes, surpassing Tiger Woods’ all-time best from his 2000 season and setting a new PGA Tour record.
“I’ve grown up this year, but for the most part, I’ve been preparing for that moment my whole life,” Schauffele says.
Stefan could see what was coming before Schauffele. A year ago, while celebrating Christmas in San Diego, a father/coach sat down with his son/guardian and had a one-on-one conversation. The year-end transition always feels pivotal for Stefan. It’s time to take responsibility. To create purpose.
He looked at Schauffele and declared: days before the pair were to travel to Hawaii for the opening tournament of 2024. “The team is ready for you to win a major.”
Then he stepped away and became a dad.
For the next stage of his life, Stefan decided to move as far away from his younger son as possible. So he stopped mid-sentence when he saw a pod of whales jumping in the Pacific Ocean.
Stefan stands on farmland in Kauai, Hawaii, working to build a family compound. Known on the PGA Tour as “The Ogre,” he deliberately timed his away trips, always wearing a fedora, black sunglasses and a linen polo shirt.
For a year and a half, Stefan lived for months away from his wife and Xander’s mother, Ping-Yi, in a 20-foot shipping container with no electricity, hot water or bathroom. He recently moved to a second property with an actual home so she can visit more often, and has set up a warehouse to allow merchants to travel in and out of mainland Hawaii to support projects.
Stefan is preparing the land so that the roots of tubers such as taro, araimo and satoimo can grow. He will plant avocado trees to provide oil. In two or three years, everything will be ready for the Schauffeles, a perfect time for the grandchildren to play with the animals. Yes, there will be livestock. There are Shetland ponies and miniature Highland cattle. Xander and his older brother Nico won’t be able to see it until it’s done.
Stefan Schauffele (left) took on two roles in Xander’s life: father and coach. Things change in 2024. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
I have a vision. There is a process. It started with Xander’s decision to step down as coach, and he wished he would leave sooner. He knew there would come a time when he would no longer be able to meet his son’s needs in his field of expertise. The question of how to make the transition was more difficult.
That’s why Stefan was closer to Tokyo than to Louisville, Kentucky, when Xander lifted his first major championship trophy. He resigned himself to watching the moment on television from one of Hawaii’s most remote islands.
“I can’t explain how close (Xander and I) are,” he says. “That’s stupid. To create separation, we literally had to do what we’re doing now.”
Stephen, an accomplished decathlete in his prime, fostered his son’s competitive drive the only way he knew how. “He basically treated me like a young pro from a very young age,” Xander said.
My father viewed golf as an all-round game, just like any of his 10 sports. Stefan took great pride in his will to win, and used unusual tactics to elicit that will from his son. He knew which tactics should not be practiced in most parent-child relationships.
“I had to find a way to have Xander fight me by opposing me openly and strongly, but not physically. I worked hard and sometimes used unfair methods. “I used to cheat at table tennis until he got so angry that he started rebelling against me at a pretty young age.” said Stefan.
Because of their bond of mutual respect, persistence became part of Xander’s nature. It was a precursor to the father-son on-course relationship and Xander’s rise to the top.
As a child, Stephen asked his son if he wanted to be like Fred Couples or Tiger Woods. Do you want to play the game by feel or study its intricacies? Xander chose the latter. He wanted to know everything about the mechanics of his swing. Stefan explained the concept to him, but he had to prove the basis of his knowledge with evidence. Xander acted with the kind of stubbornness that Stefan felt was necessary. In turn, Xander heard his father’s philosophy on attitude and body language. It all tied back to the central principle.
Are you going to get annoyed if you miss a 3-foot putt while playing alone on a golf course in the woods, Stephen would ask his son? “The answer is no. Everything that appears on TV is fake. It’s all an act. We got rid of all the smoke and fakes,” Schauffele said.
“Golf is a long career,” he continued. “You can almost guarantee that a person who bluffs will eventually suffer some kind of defeat because of his ego.”
Xander Schauffele’s PGA Championship victory made even the stoic Schauffele smile. (Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
The same theme stuck in Xander’s mind through college golf, the Web.com Tour and the PGA Tour.
In qualifying for the 2017 US Open, PGA Tour rookie Schauffele was paired with Steve Stricker. Steve Stricker competed for a spot in the national championship in his hometown of Erin Hills, Wisconsin. He watched as the 50-year-old turned a slow start into a highlight reel by stringing together a string of birdies in the back half of 36 holes. It was a perfect microcosm of an old German proverb. Stefan’s strategy hiding in the shadows has come to fruition. Schauffele finally saw it for himself.
Schauffele also qualified for the US Open and finished tied for fifth in his first major start. Three weeks later, he won his first PGA Tour event.
“Stricker didn’t panic when things didn’t go his way. He maintained the course and suddenly took the lead in the competition by making 8 or 9 birdies. Where did that come from? For me, I don’t think my career is very different from that mindset,” says Schauffele.
Schauffele was never a “man.” He’s one of 16 players to win The Open and another major in a year, and he still hasn’t. When peers were asked to nominate PGA Tour Player of the Year, 91% chose Scottie Scheffler.
It was a phenomenal year by anyone’s standards, but he was still overshadowed by Scheffler, a potential generational talent.
But Schauffele’s game wasn’t designed to make him “the man.” Continuity means evolution. And evolution isn’t always glamorous.
When Schauffele seemed to plateau, always staying in the top five on the leaderboard, he could have stopped there. Instead, he kept pushing, as he had always been taught.
Sometimes momentum, the art of never being satisfied, requires difficult decisions. In late 2023, Schaupeles added top professional golf instructor Chris Como to his seemingly unbreakable inner circle. Personal trainer David Sundberg and physiotherapist Marnus Marais also joined. Stefan stepped back. He literally retreated into the jungle.
Schauffele’s new team and improved process in 2024 helped him gain 10 yards off the tee. This means shorter iron shots, more birdies, and ultimately big wins. But in reality, Schauffele was able to keep working until that epiphany occurred. That’s what got him there.
“If you get too close, it’s finite. I’m trying to improve my quarter shots in certain parts of the game,” says Schauffele. “It may not seem like much on paper, but it can make a huge difference over the course of a year.”
Schaufele’s lost self-belief was discovered in his process.
“I think mentally, dealing with everything that’s led up to this year. To fail and fail and have everyone potentially say you’re one of the best to never win a major. At least in this day and age, all of that has finally become just that. It’s kind of relaxing,” says Schauffele.
Now he is entering new territory. Schauffeles evaluates progress compared to the previous year. Since his first appearance on tour in 2017, Schauffele has barely retreated from the Official World Golf Rankings. He essentially held steady or improved his position. But now he is in second place.
Heading into this week’s The Sentry, the 2025 PGA Tour season opener in Kapalua, Hawaii, Schaupele has his chance as the world’s No. 2 player. Scheffler is out with a hand injury 84 weeks after his streak as world No. 1 reached a seemingly unattainable peak. Stefan will take a break from camp on Kauai to temporarily serve as Schaupele’s head coach and stay close to his son in Hawaii. But the relationship, as intended, is different. Schaupele is playing the best golf of his life. He is in control.
“It’s crazy. I was really excited to go to practice. I was really excited to go see my trainer. “I’m really excited to be able to go to Hawaii,” says Schauffele. “I think this is my eighth or ninth year on tour. And I still feel that way.”
If there was ever a time to continue, it is now. Schauffele is ready for this. He is ready to continue digging the stone.
(Image: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photo: Ben Jared / PGA Tour, Tom Shaw / R&A via Getty Images)
