Open champ doesn't know where his trophies are as honest Xander Schauffele admits it's 'dogs or nothing'
Xander Schauffele has no trophies in the house and would rather a photo of his dog on the wall than him wearing a Green Jacket.
And the American star laughed that opening the door to getting lip from bagman Austin Kaiser was a big error.
Schauffele says the time for career reflection will come at the end as he attempts to go back-to-back at The Open. There's no memorabilia around his San Diego home and he admits he's not even sure where his Gold Medal is from the 2020 Olympics.
Schauffele smiled when the fact he drank tequila out of the Jug post-Troon was recalled and said: 'I'm embarrassed to say that, yeah. The lid, it barely opens. I had a little tequila there in Portugal. I've had wine out of it, but not too much. I don't drink a whole lot. I definitely drank more after a few championships last year.
'I'm not Irish, I know the celebrations go a little bit deeper here than maybe what I'm even accustomed to or used to. In my fashion, I had a cigar. I had my family. I had a few phone calls. Austin was with us as well. It was a nice celebration for us.
'Then we're going to the Olympics shortly after. It just seems like whenever we play these tournaments, you're onto the next right away. Luckily I was able to go to Portugal, enjoy it a little bit with my wife and some friends and that was about it. I was with my wife at a beach. I was pretty happy there. Wasn't really thinking much about winning a tournament the week before. It was just like: Wow, this is really nice. It kind of reminds me of San Diego actually.
'Hopefully, I have another 10, 15 years in me where I can be competitive. At some point I'm sure I'll look back on my career, but I don't have any trophies at my house.
'My parents' house probably in a bank vault, I think that's where one of the trophies was when they travel. I actually have no idea where that [Olympic medal] is, to be completely honest.
'What am I going to do with it? I don't really invite people over to my house. Am I just going to go look at it myself? That's the way I feel about it.
'I don't want to walk into a trophy room like look how great I am. My wife hung up some pictures of me in my gym of like me winning the Olympic medal and she put it so high up I can't reach it. I have to get a ladder now and it bothers me.
'Like if anything, put up like me in a Masters jacket, like that would p*ss me off, you know what I mean? Something like that is more motivating than like, all right, that's not great. I don't want to look at that. A photo of my dogs or nothing, a clock maybe. I'm always late, so maybe a clock would be good for me.
'I feel like my life hasn't changed at all. When I go to a normal golf course, I would see the same people, and I treat them the same and they treat me the same. If I went out more, I think, my life would probably be a little different. I feel like I'd maybe get noticed more. 'Between my home, my wife, my dogs, some family, some close friends, the grocery store, it sounds really boring. I like my life, but it really hasn't changed whatsoever.'
Schauffele has shown the cool demeanour to handle the conditions of an Open and said: 'I'm not going to be the guy throwing his shoulder out fist pumping, but I get fired up when I'm out there. It's a fine line, I think. If you're a fiery, emotional person, you shouldn't try not to be an emotional person. 'Obviously if you're sitting there snapping three or four clubs, maybe you've crossed the line. But if you want to slam a club, if you want to throw out a swear word, something where it's going to kind of flush yourself out, get back to neutral then go on and birdie a couple holes, you can use that energy.'
Kaiser helps, but he smiled: 'I regret this at times, but I told Austin he'll never get fired for something he says to me. That was a mistake! I feel like I should have maybe reworded that back then. But I told him, I won't ever fire you because you thought it was this and I thought it was that and if I was right, that's not going to be the difference maker.
'Austin is a great guy, a great caddie. He's one of my best friends. I think, if you can keep your caddie as a constant, it's an advantage.'
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