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Xander Schauffele was under the radar after his father spoke to the media about the controversy regarding Ryder Cup players being paid or not. His father claimed that the 30-year-old golfer was almost out of the United States team for not signing the player benefit agreement timely.
However, the Olympic gold medalist remained quite silent on the issue until recently. He spoke to Today's Golfer and expressed his disappointment with his father speaking and revealing things to the media. He emphasized the fact that the contract came late and they wanted to make a few legal adjustments.
As quoted by Golf Monthly, Xander Shauffele said,
"I was pretty unhappy that he was talking to the media. We've already hashed that one out. That stuff didn't need to be said. You know, I would say there was some miscommunication originally, but it came late and we just wanted to adjust a few things legally in the framework before we signed it (the contract)."
Xander Shauffele added that "at no point" his place in the United States Ryder Cup team was in danger.
He further spoke about the rumors that spread during the 44th edition of the prestigious biennial event in Rome. The rumors claimed that the United States locker room was split into two halves and one of them included Patrick Cantlay and Olympic medalist Schauffele.
The 30-year-old American cleared that those rumors were totally false and everyone in the team was united. He added that all the members of the United States team locker room laughed at the rumors.
"I'm not sure how or why any of that was printed. If I'm going to set the record completely straight, there was zero fracturing in our team room. To say that we didn't eat with our teammates was pretty funny. Everyone in our locker room had a pretty good laugh at that part," Shauffele said.
"It's a bit contradictory when they call it 'our Tour'" - Xander Schauffele explains his stand on the PGA Tour-PIF merger deal
The partnership between the DP World Tour, the Public Investment Fund (LIV Golf's funders), and the PGA Tour created a lot of havoc in the golfing fraternity. The commissioner of the Northern American Golf Tour, Jay Monahan, had been constantly criticized for hiding the decision from the players on the Tour.
Xander Schauffele too spoke about the issue and expressed that he "wouldn't mind" new people leading the PGA Tour. He added that he does not trust the leadership after what happened (the merger deal). While speaking to TG and as quoted by Golf Monthly, he said,
"It's a bit contradictory when they call it 'our Tour’'and things can happen without us even knowing. It's hard. I'm sure there are reasons for what happened, but at the same time, it puts us in a really hard spot to trust the leadership that did some stuff in the dark and is supposed to have our best interests at heart."
Xander Schauffele added that he was still in the dark about the planned merger deal. But he hoped that things would go in the right direction and the PGA Tour would continue to grow.
