“Conversations with Champions, presented by Sentry” is a weekly series from Golfweek in collaboration with The Caddie Network, where we take you behind the scenes for a chat with the winning caddie from the most recent PGA Tour event. This week: Austin Kaiser, caddie for Xander Schauffele at the 2022 Travelers Championship.
It had been a while for Xander Schauffele.
Oh, he teamed up with Patrick Cantlay to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. And he brought home the gold medal from the Olympics. But it had been more than three years since Schauffele won an individual stroke-play event on the PGA Tour.
That skid is now over, thanks to his two-shot win Sunday at TPC River Highlands.
“We’ve been waiting for this day for three years,” Austin Kaiser told John Rathouz from The Caddie Network. “We won the Olympics, which in our mind is a win but it’s not an official PGA Tour win but it’s definitely a monkey off the back.
“I could see the stress just leave him that moment he made that final putt, so it was good just being a part of it honestly.”
Schauffele was solid with his wedges and short irons all week, Kaiser said.
“We got on the plane ride home and he goes ‘Man, we shouldn’t win at this course but we did’ and I was like ‘Well, your wedges and short irons were just amazing,’” Kaiser said.
But it was putting that really made the difference. Check out the video to learn more about a new putting routine implemented by Kaiser and Schauffele.
Schauffele’s improved putting might make him more of a force in bigger tournaments in the future.
“We play it pretty safe and conservative, that’s why we play well in majors,” Kaiser said.
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