Xander Schauffele back on track for Paris after recovery from post-Open partying

Olympic champion Xander Schauffele admits it took him time to recover after over-celebrating Open Championship glory at Royal Troon.

Schauffele was imperious on the Ayrshire links earlier this month, especially the back nine on Sunday, to back up his US PGA victory in May and become the first player to win two majors in a year since Brooks Koepka in 2018.

The 30-year-old Californian headed to Portugal for a break after moving halfway to a career grand slam and partied ahead of his Olympic title defence, which gets underway at Le Golf National on Thursday.

Schauffele said: “I don’t really drink much alcohol. So three days in a row drinking was quite a feat for myself, and the recovery was also slow.

“I wear like an Oura ring or Whoop, whatever you want to call it, tracking my sleep every day. It took a while for me to get my scores back to where they normally are, put it that way.

“I was in Portugal with Collin (Morikawa, USA teammate) and we had a really nice time there. We played golf for three days and it was fun. We had our girls with us and some nice team bonding.

“It was really chill, as chill as I would have wanted it, especially after a really tough stretch.”

Schauffele had to wait for his breakthrough at the majors after going close to winning several times.

The world number two, however, emerged victorious at Tokyo three years ago when he became the first male American to win Olympic golfing gold since Charles Sands at Paris 1900.

It was particularly sweet for Schauffele as his father Stefan, a former decathlete, saw his dream of representing Germany in the Olympics destroyed by a 1986 car accident when a drunk driver hit his vehicle head-on.

Reflecting on Tokyo’s Covid-hit Games, he said: “It would have been really cool with fans, but it was really intimate that my dad was the only person there with me besides Austin (his caddie).

“When I came off the green and I was able to sort of share the medal with him, it was as cool as it gets for me, being something I could deliver to him that he’s always wanted.

“Golf was in the Olympics, then it was out of the Olympics. So a lot of the kids were watching Tiger (Woods), or if you’re a little bit older, Jack (Nicklaus) or Arnie (Palmer) – the older legends of the game.

“You’re watching them win majors but, for me, it’s very personal, the relationship my dad and I have with golf.

“A lot of it surrounds his teachings of when he was trying to be an Olympian.

“I grew up watching the majors but maybe in 30, 40 years, it (winning a gold medal) is something that’s really going to be special as it gets more traction. The normalcy of being in the Olympics.”

Schauffele is joined by fellow Americans Morikawa, world number one Scottie Scheffler and Wyndham Clark – all major champions and ranked inside the world’s top six – on a course that hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup.

US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau missed out on a spot after only being able to earn ranking points from the majors as LIV Golf events cannot award them.

“My goal was to qualify for this team, and that’s what I did,” said Schauffele.

“In terms of making it better, I haven’t put a whole lot of thought. Bryson has played well in the majors overall, and won the US Open in fashion.

“I’m not sure how to include or rank events and those things. That would be for someone else to figure out.”