Xander Schauffele defends 'fair' US Open conditions at Oakmont: 'Everyone had to play the same course'
Plenty of golfers had their fair share of displeasure at this past weekend's U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania.
Shane Lowry outwardly proclaimed, "f--- this place" after missing a putt, and on Sunday, despite J.J. Spaun's late charge to take home his first major, only three people finished under par in the final round.
One of those three players was Xander Schauffele, whose +6 overall was tied for 12th in the tournament. The conditions were brutal from the jump, but the two-time major champ thought the course was "very fair."
"Everyone had to play the same course," Schauffele told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.
Schauffele admitted there were "weird breaks" that occurred throughout the weekend when golfers toed the line with danger. However, "You don't have to hit it in the bunkers or the rough – you can just hit it in the fairways."
"I thought the course was fair. I thought it was more playable because it rained a little, and the fairways and greens were more forgiving," he added. "You had to golf extremely well, which is what you're supposed to do to win a U.S. Open. You saw J.J. take control out of that rain delay, which is what you're supposed to do to win and be a major champ there."
Schauffele will be one of several major champs at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, this weekend for the Travelers Championship, where the last seven winning scores have been -22, -23, -19, -13, -19, -17, and -17, a polar opposite to U.S. Open scores.
The 2024 PGA and Open champion won the Travelers in 2022, and while everybody wants to shoot lower, Schauffele said having both types of golf is a good balance.
"A mixture of both is nice. It's healthy. I've never shied away from the U.S. Open challenge, and I've never shied away from -25 winning a tournament," Schauffele said. "If you had to play Oakmont in U.S. Open conditions every week for 20 weeks, you'd wear yourself out, and vice versa. If you had to play a course where 25-under is winning for 20 weeks, you'd also wear yourself out. I think having a split and a little variety is nice for us."
This year's Travelers has exactly what Schauffele wants as he aims to catch fire ahead of The Open, the FedEx Cup, and the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in what's been a "weird" season for him.
"They definitely have done some things to make TPC River Highlands more difficult," Schauffele said. "Used to be lower rough, fairways used to be wider, they changed a couple holes to make it more difficult and less scoring-friendly… You're rewarded for really good shots, but there's water on a lot of holes, there's deep rough on some short-sided pins, a guy next to you can be shooting low, but you can be at even par not feeling great. I wouldn't call it a layup – you still have to be playing really good golf."
However, it will be a stark difference from what went down in western Pennsylvania.
"It'll be weird to be able to make seven or eight birdies in a round versus at Oakmont."
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