Xander Schauffele

Schauffele qualified for the end of season Tour Championship by moving up to 26th in the standings, from 33rd at the start of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

He went on to win second stage at Oak Valley GC in Beaumont, California, and ultimately, narrowly, earned his Web.com Tour card in the finals in Florida in a tie for 45th.

There he birdied the 72nd hole to claim his second tour victory, by one stroke over Justin Thomas, and become the first rookie to win the Tour Championship.

It was also the first time a rookie had won any FedEx Cup playoff event.

Alexander Victor Schauffele (born October 25, 1993) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour, having won seven times since turning professional in 2015.

Schauffele was born on October 25, 1993, in San Diego, California, to a French/German naturalized immigrant father and a Taiwanese naturalized immigrant mother who grew up in Japan.

His father has been his only swing coach throughout his golf career.

Schauffele’s teaching philosophy relies heavily on basic ball flight laws and golf club mechanics – as a result Schauffele had not seen his own swing until about age 18.

Schauffele went to Scripps Ranch High School.

Two of Schauffele's great-grandfathers played soccer at the European premier level.

Johann Hoffmann played for the Austria national football team and won multiple Austrian (SK Rapid Wien), Bohemian (DSV Saaz), and French (FC Sochaux; Racing Strasbourg) national titles.

After playing football for VfB Stuttgart, Richard Schauffele excelled in track and field, garnering over 40 titles in discus, javelin and shot put for 2 clubs, the Stuttgarter Kickers and the Cannstatter Ruder-Club.

Schauffele was the individual winner of the 2011 California State High School Championship (California Interscholastic Federation, CIF), playing for Scripps Ranch High School.

After graduating from high school, Schauffele played his freshman year in college at California State University Long Beach, where he garnered the 2012 Big West Conference Freshman of the Year as well as the 2012 First Team All-Big West awards.

Schauffele defeated Beau Hossler to win the 2014 California State Amateur Championship at La Costa Resort and Spa.

Later that summer, the two long time rivals met again in a final at Chicago's Beverly Country Club for the 2014 Western Amateur where Schauffele lost to Hossler in the final match in dramatic fashion.

Schauffele accumulated a collegiate record that features 3 wins, 4 runners-up, 19 top-fives and 27 top-tens in a total of 50 tournaments.

Prior to his sophomore year, Schauffele transferred to San Diego State University, where eventually he would play out his college career and graduate in 2015.

During his three years at SDSU, Schauffele was a Ping and Golfweek Third Team All-American.

Scholastically, he was twice awarded the Mountain West Conference All-Academic Team Award.

At SDSU, he holds the records for all-time lowest tournament score against par (−17); all-time career scoring average (71.50); as well as the seasonal records for par-5 performance (4.5135); birdies (171) and eagles (9).

He was ranked in the top 10 of the World Amateur Golf Ranking at the time he turned professional in 2015.

After turning professional in June 2015, Schauffele entered the 2015 Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament in fall.

He was runner up in first stage at Southern Dunes GC in Maricopa, Arizona.

In 2016, Schauffele played a full season (23 events) on the Web.com Tour.

He finished 26th on the regular-season money list, missing a PGA Tour card for 2017 by less than $1000.00, but went on to earn a card through the Web.com Tour Finals by finishing 15th on the Finals money list (excluding the 25 regular-season graduates).

Schauffele made his PGA Tour debut at the CareerBuilder Challenge in La Quinta, California.

In June 2017, at the 2017 U.S. Open held at Erin Hills, Schauffele recorded a bogey-free 6-under-par 66 – it was the first time a player has returned a bogey-free round of 66 or better in their first appearance in U.S. Open.

He subsequently became one of only 15 players to ever reach 10 under par at a U.S. Open.

During 2017, Schauffele rose to 32nd in the Official World Golf Ranking, up 267 spots from his 2016 year-end position of 299.

He was voted "Rookie of the Year 2017" by his peers.

Schauffele's best major finish is tied second at both the 2018 Open Championship and the 2019 Masters.

He eventually finished in a tie for fifth place, earning him an exemption into the 2018 championship.

Three weeks later, in July, Schauffele recorded his first PGA Tour victory, at the Greenbrier Classic.

With the win, he earned exemptions into the Open Championship, via the Open Qualifying Series, the PGA Championship and the 2018 Masters Tournament.

At the beginning of 2018, Schauffele switched equipment manufacturers, signing an endorsement deal with Callaway, having previously been sponsored by TaylorMade.

In May, he finished T2 at the 2018 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass with a score of 14 under par.

In the Open Championship at Carnoustie, he tied for second with a score of six-under-par.

The win moved Schauffele to third place in the final FedEx Cup standings, bettering the previous best mark by a rookie held by Jordan Spieth by four positions, and gave him a three-year exemption on the PGA Tour, through the 2019–20 season.

Schauffele won the Olympic gold medal at the men's individual golf event of the 2020 Summer Olympics.