FARMINGDALE, N.Y. \u2014 Xander Schauffele was\u00a0away from golf\u00a0long enough that he understood why U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley\u00a0and some teammates\u00a0texted him to check in when he skipped a tournament in Napa, California, that they were all playing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, how you doing?\u201d they wondered.<\/p>\n
Schauffele feels much better now \u2014 and is ready to return to the sport after life took precedence over the past several weeks. The fourth-ranked player in the world is a dad now, and after a trying year,\u00a0the Ryder Cup\u00a0this weekend at Bethpage Black is a chance to end the season on a winning note.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good to prepare at home on what was limited sleep but sort of a much clearer head than in-season,\u201d Schauffele said Tuesday. \u201cSurprisingly playing kind of nice. I know I surprised myself when I came out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becoming a father after his wife, Maya, gave birth to the couple’s first child on Aug. 29 will almost certainly be what Schauffele remembers 2025 for. Not the rib injury that kept him out for two months or the inability to find his groove professionally.<\/p>\n
Schauffele finished in the top 10 at the Masters and the British Open but missed the Tour Championship for the first time in his career. At his last event, the BMW Championship in mid-August, the 31-year-old wished for three months off and a reset button.<\/p>\n
Staying home provided a welcome respite. Taking care of Victor \u2014 \u201cThat\u2019s my middle name (and) no, I didn\u2019t name him after Viktor Hovland,\u201d Xander said \u2014 put the focus on family.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously didn\u2019t do a whole lot of golf for a bit, having him and trying to be a good teammate to my wife,\u201d Schauffele said. \u201cIt\u2019s been cool to sort of learn what it\u2019s like to be a dad, and I look forward to everything that comes with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schauffele kissed his young son on the forehead and left for Long Island before he could get too emotional. Getting back in the locker room with teammates brought some fun back to golf and shifted him back into competition mode.<\/p>\n
And although he has not won a tournament this year, Schauffele is a two-time major champion, and U.S. teammates aren’t worried about him flipping the switch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good to have him back,\u201d Justin Thomas said. \u201cHe\u2019s just chirping all the time. He\u2019s excited. He\u2019s rested \u2014 well, I guess somewhat rested with the baby situation at home. But he\u2019s excited and ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas, something of an elder statesman with the most experience among Americans going into his fourth Ryder Cup, added, \u201cYou\u2019re always going to get the same Xander no matter what, and that\u2019s the one that we all know and love and sometimes hate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps not hate, but Schauffele five weeks ago felt the \u201cneed to get as far away from golf as possible.\u201d He does not share the same feeling now, knowing the chance to bring the Ryder Cup home would do wonders for his mindset.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing (is) as warm and fuzzy as winning one of these things,\u201d Schauffele said. \u201cOur team knows it\u2019s a process and what we need to do to get it done. It would help me forget a lot about what happened in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FARMINGDALE, N.Y. \u2014 Xander Schauffele was\u00a0away from golf\u00a0long enough that he understood why U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-165422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}