Americans love their father-son stories in sport and the Schauffele yarn is up there with the best of them.
Stefan, who grew up in Germany, was a decathlete back in the day, an aspiring Olympian who had his own dream crushed when hit by a drunk driver at the age of 20. He lost the sight in an eye and experienced trauma in his life.
“There was some depression and alcoholism,” he said in a recent interview. “That’s what led me to moving to America.”
He had a son and from the age of nine, Xander was a player. Stefan coached him and, from time to time, argued with him. Madly, on occasion.
Everything paid off. A golfing machine was forged and we saw it in all its formidable glory at Royal Troon this past week.
“Now he’s got this first major,” said Stefan after Valhalla, “it’s the first one of the four [nobody in Team Schauffele is shying away from the target of a Grand Slam].
“I’ve got a good feeling he’ll get the second one of the four this year. With him being as consistent as he is now, everybody is on notice.”
Prescient words. For a number of years, Schauffele was deemed golf’s nearly man, a supremely talented player who couldn’t back up his excellence with titles.
This is his time now. Two majors in a single year is an other-worldly achievement in this era of the game, a period so full of established winners and thrusting young things who are utterly unafraid of winning.
Schauffele said he had a chip on his shoulder about some of the negativity thrown at him. He used it as fuel.
What’s he going to use for motivation now that he’s an acclaimed double major winner? “If you look hard enough, you can always find it,” he said.
“It’s something, when you feel like you need an extra kick in the butt, there’s several easy ways to motivate yourself.
“There’s still a lot of things that I’d like to do in my career, and this is a very big leap towards that. The fire is still burning, maybe brighter than ever.”
He has the Olympics in Paris next, a gold medal to defend from his glory in Tokyo, another dream to chase before returning to the majors circuit next year.
That is terrain he will travel as a two-time champion and an increasing force to be reckoned with in the ferocious environment of elite golf.
Small in stature, for sure. But Schauffele is a colossus now.