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Xander Elated. Justin Jet-lagged and Jealous. Both Loved Olympics.

By Kathlene Bissell

KAWAGOE, JAPAN - AUGUST 01: (L-R) C.T. Pan of Team Chinese Taipei celebrates with the bronze medal, Xander Schauffele of Team United States with the gold medal and Rory Sabbatini of Team Slovakia with the silver medal during the medal ceremony after the final round of the Men's Individual Stroke Play on day nine of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Kasumigaseki Country Club on August 01, 2021 in Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
KAWAGOE, JAPAN - AUGUST 01: (L-R) C.T. Pan of Team Chinese Taipei celebrates with the bronze medal, Xander Schauffele of Team United States with the gold medal and Rory Sabbatini of Team Slovakia with the silver medal during the medal ceremony after the final round of the Men's Individual Stroke Play on day nine of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Kasumigaseki Country Club on August 01, 2021 in Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /
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Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas just arrived in Memphis by way of Tokyo.  Both of them loved the experience of playing Olympic golf, Schauffele perhaps more than Thomas since he walked away with a gold medal.

“I’m very jealous of anybody who’s won any other major or tournaments that I haven’t, but that might have been the most jealous of someone I’ve been,” Thomas admitted about Schauffele’s first place prize during his press conference for the FedEx St. Jude. “That gold medal is so sick, it’s so cool, it’s so unique.”

Schauffele agrees with Thomas’ sentiment but confessed that there was a time when he considered not going to the event.  Until today, only his wife knew that.

“Being able to take the podium afterwards really made me understand and realize sort of how special it actually is,” he explained.  “The flag’s being raised, playing your
national anthem. It really was something spectacular and obviously nothing like it.”

It wasn’t just special for him.  Schauffele’s father, Stefan, was a promising decathlete until a drunk driver and auto accident got in his way, leaving him blind in one eye and sidelining him from his Olympic dream.  Little did he know that 40 years later, his son would bring home the gold.

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Schauffele said he began to comprehend the enormity of the medal when he showed it to his grandparents.  In fact, he is finding that the reactions of everyone who sees it are making him appreciate his accomplishment more.  He was focused on the fact that he had the lead and won with it.  That was important to him. Others, like his family members, were just amazed to see an Olympic medal in person because, face it, very few people do.

“My dad slept with it the first night, so I didn’t even have it with me the day I won it,” Schauffele explained.

Schauffele said his dad wanted to take the medal back to San Diego to show all his friends, but Schauffele told him he needed to bring it to the FedEx St. Jude for player, caddie and media show and tell, although he didn’t call it that.

“I’m sure everyone ( at the Memphis tournament) wanted to see the gold medal here. Sort of my moment in the sun with it,” he said.

What impressed both Thomas and Schauffele were the other athletes, how amazingly fit and strong they were.  Schauffele called them extreme athletes, and it’s a great description. They are extreme in their skill set.

He said he got caught up in watching ping pong because he likes to play it, but after watching them, he thought there was no way he would ever be able to win a point from any of them.

Because Thomas was in the Olympic Village, he could go to workout there, which led to an interesting experience where they were making fun of him because he wasn’t doing what they were doing.

KAWAGOE, JAPAN – JULY 29: Justin Thomas of Team United States plays his shot from the first tee during the first round of the Men’s Individual Stroke Play on day six of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Kasumigaseki Country Club on July 29, 2021 in Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
KAWAGOE, JAPAN – JULY 29: Justin Thomas of Team United States plays his shot from the first tee during the first round of the Men’s Individual Stroke Play on day six of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Kasumigaseki Country Club on July 29, 2021 in Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images) /

“Everyone’s lifting all this weight, and I’m taking my bands and probably doing a bunch of stuff that doesn’t really require a lot of muscular strength, but it’s all golf functional-type things,” he said.

He said both the men and women bordered on being superhuman.

“It’s freak-of-nature type stuff in terms of the weight that’s being lifted and the mobility and the flexibility,” he added.

But he also noted that while swinging a golf club doesn’t require traditional Olympic strength, it is a skill set all its own.  He was sure many of the strongest and fastest would have a tough time playing golf as well as he does.  That was certainly proven true a few years ago when Michael Phelps took up golf.

This week, Thomas, Schauffele and Jordan Spieth are sharing a house, and so Thomas already got a first-hand glimpse of the gold.

“As soon as I saw him, I wanted to see it,” Thomas confessed.

He said because he had seen Justin Rose’s gold medal and because he was closer friends with Schauffele than he had been with Rose at the time, he felt slightly more comfortable asking to see it.

For now, Thomas, at least, has turned the page and is focused on this week and on the FedEx Playoffs and the Tour Championship.   While he did win The Players, which many consider a near major, and which all of Ponte Vedra and many who have won it consider a major,  he hasn’t reached his goals for the year.  There’s precious little time left, and he’s now ready to take up the challenge of potentially winning the FedEx Cup.

“I don’t have a hard time getting myself ready for this event or getting myself up for the Playoffs and the TOUR Championship,” he insisted.

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