The signature victory of Xander Schauffele's professional golf career came at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He is just the second golfer to win a Gold Medal since the sport returned to the Summer Games, and he has a good chance to take aim at another this summer in Paris.
The Scripps Ranch grad and former Aztec spoke with NBC 7 earlier this year during the Farmers Insurance Open about his hopes of a repeat.
"I'm going to try my very hardest and really give it a really good push," Schauffele said.
So far, he is well positioned to do so. The World Golf Rankings on June 17 will determine what four Americans will make the team. After his eighty place finish at the Masters, Schauffele is ranked third, with just one American (world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler) ahead of him.
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It is a clear goal of Schauffele's, but putting it out of mind gives him his best chance to achieve it.
"Just keeping my head down in that category is super important just week to week just because you get too far ahead of yourself and you might miss out on that team," he said.
The seven-time PGA Tour winner nearly missed out on the experience last time around. He nearly passed on the opportunity because of travel complications and restrictions related to COVID-19.
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Schauffele and his family are both happy he decided to go for it.
While fans were not allowed at the Tokyo games, Schauffele was able to celebrate the victory with his grandparents. His mom, Ping-Yi, was born in Taiwan but grew up in Japan. Her parents live in Tokyo. Schauffele was able to show them his Gold Medal following his win.
"It was super special having my grandparents there. That sort of made everything OK, the fact that there were no fans," Schauffele said. "Being able to show off the medal to my grandparents after sneaking them into the hotel was awesome."
The victory was also particularly meaningful to his father and longtime coach Stefan. The elder Schauffele was an Olympic hopeful as a decathlete in Germany. Those dreams ended because of an accident with a drunk driver when he was 20 years old that caused him to lose vision in his left eye.
Since returning home with the Gold Medal, Stefan has served as the proud caretaker for Schauffele's medal.
