By Kent Gray
It’s an inevitable line of questioning set to be faced by pretty much every drawcard rolled into the media centre ahead of this week’s $5 million Saudi International: Are you impressed with what you’ve seen so far? How important is it for you to travel to “emerging” golf markets such as Saudi? Have you always wanted to be a “global” player?

It’s all code, of course, for welcome to the epicentre of the seismic powerplay currently shaking the professional game at its very foundations. Are you sitting comfortably?

Xander Schauffele navigated the potentially curly cut-and-paste posers, with all the thinly-veiled sport-specific and geopolitical undertones, by offering an answer rich in personal context and mercifully short on ‘growing the game’ platitudes on Tuesday.

“Yeah, my upbringing was very international, so my dad always promised — he couldn’t really afford to send me around as a kid. He always told me that golf would be my way to travel and explore the world, so here I am doing it,” said the reigning Olympic Games champion.

It’s something you love to do?

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t love it.” 

RELATED: Why a pair of Asian Tour teens deserve your attention at this week’s Saudi International

Critics of this week’s event might point to a love of appearance fees too but the 28-year-old insists he’s at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club as part of a childhood pledge to his father. The world No.8 didn’t mind being asked if his maiden appearance in King Abdullah Economic City was also partly because he felt a responsibility given his upbringing and as a champion of Olympic ideals. 

“I’m the son of two immigrants. Very confused upbringing, half French, half German father; Taiwanese, grew-up-in-Japan mother, and I was born in the U.S., and my brother was born in Germany. Very, very international background.

“So I always consider myself a global player and my dad and I always talked about how he wanted me to play around the world. These are opportunities for me to do that, so I’m sticking to my guns.”

That’s all fine and dandy but there is no escaping the elephant in the room, especially after the Asian Tour upped the ante further with the unveiling of its new 10-event International Series, including tournaments in traditional DP World Tour locales, on Tuesday.

RELATED: Asian Tour’s new ‘marquee’ series to include stops in England, Middle East as LIV Golf boosts investment to $300 million

Are you surprised by all the negativity surrounding the Asian Tour season-opener, with players requiring releases from the PGA and DP World Tour alliance as the powerplay for professional golf heats up?  

“It’s not really a surprise. I would say that there’s been negative talk around coming here to the Asian Tour. There’s so many things going on, a lot of distractions this week with sort of all the talks with the two tours and whatnot. I’m just trying to keep my head down and handle business as I always do.” 

With the politics batted off, Schauffele moved on to matters more personal. Like his stalled form on the PGA Tour where he hasn’t won since the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions, notwithstanding his gold medal triumph in Tokyo last August after his 3-1-0 record as the U.S. won the Ryder Cup back 19-9 in Wisconsin.

“Yeah, fishing [for answers], just like every golfer,” Schauffele said, setting up another fascinating insight into the psyche of a player trying to improve a game already good enough to get him inside the world’s top-10.

“I’ve just been trying to get better at certain things, and it’s sort of led my game to be a little worse in certain areas. As soon as you try and make your weaknesses your strengths, your strengths become weaknesses. It’s funny how the game works, and I’m just trying to get back to how I play.”

Nothing specific then?

“Not really. I’ve tried to clean up some wedge work, and I’ve just slowly learned that the best wedge player in the world will never be the best driver for certain reasons. I think it’s a bonus that I understand those things now. It’s just tricky to try and do it all, I guess.

“I’ve got to realise what I had was good enough before, and if I can kind of sort of slowly get better at it, I tried to do a hard set, I guess, on trying to be a better wedge player, and it sort of leaked into my driving game and my long iron ability. I’m still young and trying to figure it out slowly.”

Schauffele landed in Jeddah, via Los Angeles and Dubai, boasting a decent if unspectacular start to 2022: T12 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and T34 at last week’s Farmers Insurance Open. Despite the mini title drought, the American remains firmly in the best player without a major conversation. 

“It’s something I don’t think about. I’ve heard it before. I’m off of all social media and all those things for a good reason. I try to keep as much — being a recluse is one thing and not being on social media is part of that,” said Schauffele who is off at 7.40am (Jeddah time) in the first round alongside Kevin Na and recently crowned SMBC Singapore Open champion Sadom Kaewkanjana.

“I do enjoy spending time away from golf when I’m not doing it. Yeah, it’s definitely a goal of mine to not be the best player to not win a major. Hopefully my name does not stay in that arena [for long].”