Family is complicated – you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them. Every now and then, we have seen family play a big part in sports. There have been countless episodes across sports wherein a player’s relative has made themself heard amid chaotic situations. Today, we explore Golfer Xander Schauffele’s standing with the US national team and his father Stephan’s opinion on the matter.

Stefan claims that his son’s spot in the squad was in jeopardy due to a dispute over giving Netflix access to the team room. He also accused the PGA of America of “strong-arming tactics.”

Schauffele’s Spot Was Uncertain

Xander Schauffele kicked off the Ryder Cup with a bang, compiling a 1-3-0 record last week. However, his spot on the team was up in the air until very recently, and everyone has someone else to blame. One source claimed that Patrick Cantlay caused the friction, citing his belief that golfers should be paid for playing in the Ryder Cup. Moreover, it was widely reported that Cantlay and Schauffele were denying Netflix any access to their team room. Cantlay has refuted these reports. 

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Cantlay strongly believes that he and Schauffele faced blame because they asked for a “player participation and benefit agreement.” The agreement was reportedly sent in June and was meant to be amended in three places, including the subject of Netflix access. While Stephan agreed that payment was a point of contention, He claimed it wasn’t discussed in Rome. Stephan said that Rome was “the wrong venue and time” for the conversation. Still, he agreed that a conversation was needed.

Stephan called for more transparency and said the PGA of America was profiting off American players without paying them. He claimed, “This would become a non-issue if all proceeds, net proceeds, from the Ryder Cup were to be donated to common charitable causes.” He said it was unacceptable that the organization asked players to donate their time while it made money.

Issue of Player Compensation

“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,” said Stephan. He added that if the PGA was a for-profit organization, the players deserved some share of those profits. He offered the organization the options of financial transparency with player compensation or putting the money to charitable causes.

“Imagine if the winners got $2 million and the losers get nothing. How good of a competition would we have now,” he added. He also said that the conversation about player compensation should exclude patriotism. These comments have ensured that this issue will persist long after the 2023 Ryder Cup post-mortem ends.

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