PGA Tour player blog: After the British Open, Olympic gold is next, says Xander Schauffele

I decided to take golf seriously when I was about 13 years old. And when I was maybe 15 or 16, I sat down with my dad and we started to hash out some goals and dreams of what I’d like to do in the sport.

During those times, I was on the couch with my dad a lot, watching other guys win Majors and big tournaments. We’ve definitely talked about winning The Open Championship and we’ve watched that walk up the 18th hole pretty much every year until I played in my first Open in 2017. It’s definitely something that we’ve both dreamt of.

The walk up No. 18 on Sunday truly is the coolest, with the yellow leaderboards and the fans and the standing ovation that the champion receives. It really is one of the coolest feelings I’ve ever had in my life. I got chills walking down and quickly had to zap myself back into focus because the tournament wasn’t over yet.

I made sure I walked up the final green with Austin (Kaiser, his caddie) by my side. He’s one of my best friends. I’m the one hitting the shots, but at the end of the day, it’s a team thing. I was marching, and I was just trying to focus. In my head, I was like, ‘you’re about to have your moment here and no one better to share it than Austin because he deserves it as well’.

I feel very honoured. Hearing your name called with “Open Champion” right after is something I’ve dreamt of for a very long time. I feel speechless just looking at the Claret Jug and if I sat in a room by myself with it, I would just stare at it and gaze, and really try to take it all in.

At the end of the day, it is just a result, and I really do believe that. Sometimes things go your way, and sometimes they don’t. In the final round at Troon, I felt like I really controlled a lot of it. I kind of grabbed on to the lead, and there was no chance I was going to let go of it.

For the most part, all those tough losses in the past, or those moments where I let myself slip up and dream too early on that back nine, I was able to reel myself in and make sure that didn’t happen.

It was a hard week. I think winning the PGA Championship helped me a lot. I had some feeling of calmness come through. It was very helpful on what has been one of the hardest back nines I’ve ever played in a tournament. It’s amazing to win two Majors in one year. It took me forever just to win one, and to have two now is something else.

I’ve talked about my first time playing any sort of links style golf was when I was at Bandon Dunes, and I immediately loved it then. I’m a competitor and I like to challenge myself. If you tell me I can’t do something, I’m going to try and do it.

This final round 65 ranks at the very top. It’s the best round I’ve played. There’s calmness and super stressful moments when you’re trying to win a Major. I felt them in the past, the ones I didn’t win, and I let them get to me. I felt like I did a pretty good job of weathering the storm when I needed to.

I must thank the fans as well. I’ve been in Scotland for two weeks, playing in the Genesis Scottish Open before arriving for The Open and they have made it feel like a second home for me, and I can’t wait to come back. I think it’s essential to be in this part of the world before The Open. Just the time zone itself is a big thing to overcome. Then when you move along to the fescue and the deep bunkers and the finer sand, and then you talk about the wind, and then the greens being slower, literally everything is completely different than what we do over in the US.

To me, winning the Scottish Open in 2022 was big because it meant my game could travel. So to double that up and win a major in Scotland is even cooler.

It’ll be a short break for me now to recharge my batteries and I’m looking forward to the Paris Olympic Games next with the aim of winning another gold medal.

Note: Fans can watch Xander Schauffele and other players on the PGA Tour on Mola and DAZN.