'Shameful' - Xander Schauffele's Father Reveals His Son Nearly Kicked Off US Ryder Cup Team
Xander Schauffele’s father says a contractual dispute almost cost his son's place on the 2023 US Ryder Cup team.
In an interview with The Times, Stefan Schauffele said that the crux of the issue had been the terms of a participation contract, with one of the points of contention being proposed access to the US team locker room to Netflix, which the players did not stand to directly benefit from financially.
Schauffele Sr says that the PGA of America used “strong arm tactics” over the dispute, which was eventually resolved just weeks before the action got underway at Marco Simone.
During the match, one report stated that Schauffle’s teammate and close friend Patrick Cantlay was leading a split in a “fractured” US Ryder Cup team over the lack of payment for players, which found he and Schauffele using a separate area of the locker room and that they were the main people who didn't want Netflix to film in the US team room for the upcoming Full Swing season 2.
The report was later dismissed by Cantlay as “complete lies” and “totally unfounded”. However, according to Schauffele's father, his son and Cantlay had asked for a player participation and benefit agreement to be amended in three places, with one of the concerns over the proposed access to Netflix. Eventually, the issue was put to a vote among the US team by captain Zach Johnson, and the players voted unanimously to deny Netflix access to the locker room.
While that was resolved shortly before the US team’s scouting mission to Marco Simone in early September, Schauffele's father Stefan claimed the PGA of America was reluctant to talk about the issue as the match drew closer.
He told The Times: “The PGA of America were not willing to even talk to us about [the three amendments]. It was very late in the schedule right before the team came here [to Rome] to practice because they had moved the deadline and they said, ‘If you don’t sign it by then, you’re off the team’, but they never gave us the contact information of their legal counsel.
“Saturday morning of Labour Day weekend [2 September], finally, the head of the PGA of America got wind of this, because it was not him that was blocking it, and put our lawyers in contact with the PGA of America’s general counsel, and then it took a few hours to hash it out and it was fine. Then I received a message that Xander was back on the team. That you can quote. That’s the extent of this and I think it’s shameful.”
Schauffele Sr also added that the discussion of payment did not come up during the match “because it’s the wrong venue and time” but said: “I think we have to have a meaningful conversation about it.
"This is a long game, maybe in two or three Ryder Cups when the parties have decided to come to the table, instead of leaving the elephant standing around in the middle of the golf course. It’s all about improving this product, instead of being secretive and non-communicative."
Currently, each US player reportedly receives $200,000 from the PGA of America to donate to a charitable cause, while it gives 20% of its revenue from the TV contract to the PGA Tour, which goes into the pension plan for its members, but Schauffele argued that’s not fair.
He explained: “The PGA [of America] uses this money, and the PGA Tour gets 20% that goes into the retirement of every member. The 12 players supposedly need to eat it and their intellectual property gets abused for the benefit of 200 other people. That’s not right.”
A statement provided to Golf Monthly from the PGA of America read: "As always, we are not going to comment on private conversations with our Ryder Cup Team Members."
