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Xander Schauffele  

Professional Golfer; PGA Tour

Alexander Victor Schauffele, commonly known as Xander Schauffele is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour.

Schauffele was born in La Jolla, California to a German/French naturalized immigrant father and a Taiwanese/Japanese naturalized immigrant mother. Schauffele's father has been his only swing coach throughout his golf career. The Schauffele 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.

Two of Schauffele's great-grandfathers played soccer at the European premier level. Johann Hoffmann played for his Austria national soccer team and won multiple Austrian (SK Rapid Wien), Bohemian (DSV Saaz), and French (FC Sochaux; Racing Straßburg) national titles. Besides playing soccer for the German Bundesliga club 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.[3] After graduating from high school, Schauffele played his freshman year in college for Long Beach State University, where he garnered the 2012 Big West Conference Freshman of the Year as well as the 2012 First Team All-Big West awards.

For his sophomore year, Schauffele transferred to San Diego State University, where eventually he would play out his college career. 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).

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. 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. He went on to win second stage at Oak Valley GC in Beaumont, California and ultimately earned his Web.com Tour card in the finals in Florida in a tie for 40th.

In 2016, Schauffele played a full season on the Web.com Tour. He finished 26th on the regular-season money list, missing a PGA Tour card for 2017 by less than $100, 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).

In his first round at the 2017 U.S. Open held at Erin Hills, Schauffele recorded a bogey free 6-under-par 66. This marked the first time in U.S. Open history for a player to shoot a bogey-free round of 66 or better in his national championship debut. Furthermore, Schauffele is one of only 15 players to ever reach 10 under par at a U.S. Open.[11] After his opening 66, he shot rounds of 73-70-69 to finish in a tie for fifth place, earning him an exemption into the 2018 U.S. Open.

On July 9, 2017, Schauffele recorded his first PGA Tour victory at the Greenbrier Classic. He started the final round three shots behind leader Sebastián Muñoz, who had led since the first round. Schauffele shot a 3-under-par 67, which included two birdies in his final three holes, to win by one stroke over Robert Streb. With the win, he earned exemptions into the Open Championship, via the Open Qualifying Series, the PGA Championship and the 2018 Masters Tournament.

Schauffele began the 2017 FedEx Cup Playoffs 33rd in the FedEx Cup standings. Entering the third and penultimate leg of the playoffs, the BMW Championship, he was 32nd, needing to move up at least two spots to advance to the Tour Championship. Schauffele played the final six holes of the tournament in 6 under par with a birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie-par-birdie finish and rose to 26th.

At the Tour Championship, Schauffele birdied the 72nd hole to win by one stroke over Justin Thomas, becoming the first rookie ever to win the Tour Championship. Schauffele's win also marked the first time a rookie has won any FedEx Cup playoff event. 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 4 positions. In addition to the $1,575,000 he received by winning the Tour Championship, he received an additional $2,000,000 for his 3rd place finish in the FedEx Cup, although the latter isn't counted as official earnings. The win also moved Schauffele to 32nd in the Official World Golf Ranking, up 267 spots from his 2016 year-end finish of No. 299, and gave him a three-year PGA Tour exemption through the 2019–20 season. Schauffele was voted "Rookie of the Year 2017" by his peers on October 2, 2017. He is the fourth member of the high school class of 2011 to earn PGA Tour Rookie of the Year honors, joining Jordan Spieth (2013), Daniel Berger (2015) and Emiliano Grillo (2016).

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