At the ZOZO Championship, for Xander Schauffele, it is more about traveling back home than just winning the lucrative purse of the tournament. The 2-time major winner’s mother, Chen Ping Yi, is Taiwanese; however, he spent her formative years in Japan, and to this day, Schuaffele has many family members in the country. While in the Land of the Rising Sun for the PGA Tour event, he’s also enjoying quality family time, and making unforgettable memories.

One such is reliving their past and meeting with their Japanese family. Before the ZOZO Championship, Schauffele with his father, Stefan Schuaffele, and his mother sat with the PGA Tour to talk about his strict upbringing, his Japanese roots, and surprisingly, how he does not call his parents, mom, and dad. Chen Ping Yi started talking about their relationship and expressed that they were more like “good friends” than parents.

Well, maybe that’s why Yi said, “Xander doesn’t call us mom and dad. He calls Stefan ‘ogre’ and he calls me ‘hamster’.” Through this adorable interview, Schauffele revealed why he had given his parents these nicknames. For his half-german & half-French father, the 9-time PGA Tour winner explained that he was a ‘big and brash dude’ at times. On the other hand, his mother is “very little and adorable” and “for some reason, one day I just called her a hamster,” said the 31-year-old.

Since then, Yi confirmed that he has called her a hamster and not mom anymore, and Xander Schauffele laughingly reiterated, “No, it’s just hamster.” While the 2-time major winner jokingly refers to his mother as a hamster, she playfully returns the favor by comparing him to another animal.

Xander Schauffele was one mischievous child

Although Xander Schauffele’s parents revealed that they were a little strict with their two children, the star was even then a mischievous child. As a secondborn, he accepted that he was actually to no good. However, his mother chimed in about Schauffele’s childhood and expressed that he was smart and knew how to avoid getting into trouble, learning from his older brother.

While he loved soccer growing up, another passion for Schauffele was climbing up. His mother endearingly said, “Oh my god, he was like a monkey.” Chen Ping Yi recounted that every time she would go pick him up from school, he would be hanging on the monkey bar. Talking about his monkey phase, Schauffele agreed that he did stupid stuff.

And to follow his love for climbing up anything, he would also climb random light poles. He said, “Just to hide. Because no one would ever look up a light pole to see, like 15 feet up in the air to see if I was there,” then he would wait for their surprising reaction before heading down. His childhood was a mix of adventure, tough love, and a healthy dose of humor, which have taken him so far in life.