Q&A: Hear from Xander Schauffele’s swing coach, Chris Como

Editor’s note: This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Xander Schauffele isn’t just the defending champion for this week’s men’s Olympic golf competition. He also arrived in Paris fresh off his second major championship of the year. It has been a career year for Schauffele, who won his long-awaited first major title in May at the PGA Championship, then added The Open Championship earlier this month.

His success has come after he began working with swing coach Chris Como late last year. Como appeared on this week’s edition of the “Talk of the TOUR” podcast to discuss his work with the 2021 gold medalist, and to give an inside look at Schauffele’s season. The full podcast can be watched here.

PGATOUR.COM: Xander is the reigning gold medal winner and also a winner of two major championships this year. What’s it been like to see his season up close, to watch a guy achieve a dream he’s been chasing for so long?

Chris Como: It's crazy, right? It's so weird. Life is crazy. It's like things never happen as fast as you expect them to. And they also seem to happen faster than you expect them to at the same time, right? It's never exactly on the timeline you sort of expect.

I feel very blessed to be able to go along on this ride with him and his team. He's had this incredible team for a long time. You know, his dad, Stefan, has coached him and still is such a huge part of it and did a great job in developing him. His caddie, Austin Kaiser, their relationship's great, and he's one of the best caddies in the world. Derek Uyeda has been his putting coach forever. During The Open, I kept texting Derek. I was like, “I love you.” (Schauffele) made a bunch of key putts. Xander is one of the most consistent best putters out there. He's gotten some incredible (clubhead) speed with his trainer, David Sundberg, just really getting his body in top top shape in the gym.

And then Marnus Marais is one of the best physical therapists in the world.

PGATOUR.COM: The PGA win came just a week after what could have been a really disheartening loss for Xander at the Wells Fargo. He was leading Rory for much of that front nine there, but then Rory goes 8-under for eight holes to lap him. How did he bounce back to win the PGA the very next week, and what does it say about him?

Como: Just so much resiliency, right? He clearly wasn't disheartened. He knew he was playing good. It wasn't just (Wells Fargo). He also had (THE PLAYERS, where he finished second to Scottie Scheffler), so like within a short span of time there's two tournaments that were right there and it didn't quite go his way. But it didn't change anything with his process, didn't change anything with his work ethic, his belief. He just went out the next week and just kept doing what he does, knowing that, look, if I do this from a sort of a statistical perspective, they're going to eventually fall my way. It's hard to know exactly which week that is, but I'm just going to focus on the things that I can take care of.

PGATOUR.COM: And then he closed out The Open by taking command of that tournament on the final nine. How does Xander know compare to the player you started working with at the end of 2023?

Como: He's the same guy. He’s going into it with the same work ethic, the same attitude. Once you win a couple of majors, there's probably just that added level of like, okay, I have done this. But I think deep down inside, he knew eventually he was going to win a major. He had the belief that he could.

In general, his swing day-to-day is in a place where he just feels very comfortable. But golf has its own ebb and flows when it comes to your swing and how you feel and all that. That's just sort of the nature of a career of a golfer. But who he is, I mean, think he's been this person for a long, long time. And that's a testimony to the way his family has raised him and the team he's put around himself and just his overall perspective and the overall attitude he goes into his profession.

He's the same dude.

PGATOUR.COM: You guys started working together at the end of 2023. How did that come about?

Como: We've known each other for a long time. We have a mutual friend named Carter Pool who, I used to work with quite a bit. We've always been super friendly. I’ve known his dad for a while. I think his dad just is kind of transitioning to a different phase where he's in Hawaii and just enjoying life. And, you know, he just reached out to me just to be like, “Hey, look, let's chat golf swing. I’d like to get some of your thoughts.” And then it just kind of slowly evolved into a deeper and a more formal relationship.

PGATOUR.COM: When a guy like that, one of the top players in the world calls you and asks for help, how do determine your plan for their swing?

Como: Yeah, I I listen, right? Ask a lot of questions. I try to get a lot of information. I try to really understand the history of their game, their swing. Early on with him, I asked him to get me as many swings of yourself from as far back as you can. I've had conversations with his dad. Just try to take it all in, right? Because he was already clearly very good. And it's like, yes, you want to get better, but how do you get better in a way that hopefully you don't get worse? Because you can get worse. That's a very real thing when you try to do any sort of swing change or whatever it is.

So for me, it's sort of front-end due diligence, being super patient with how I go about it, collecting as much data as I can. Data is not just like, force plates or 3D motion capture. It's also like what are the shots you hate hitting, what are some of the misses that, you know, you actually don't mind missing, whatever it is, or you don't mind hitting.

And from all that, at least the front end of the game plan emerges. And then it becomes, how do you start with something that hopefully kills as many birds with one stone or makes as much of an impact in the way that you want to, with us doing as little as possible? And then you're constantly updating. You're constantly getting more more information as you go along. So he's talking about how we've had a fairly slow drip approach.

(We’ve made) some pretty significant changes but we haven't tried to just do it all at one time and along the way we've tried to really kind of take in information to see if we need to call an audible.

PGATOUR.COM: What's the oldest swing you looked at?

Como: Gosh, it probably was some time in college. I don't think he sent me anything from junior days. I would love to see. I love seeing people’s swings from when they were a junior.

PGATOUR.COM: And how would you describe the changes you guys have made?

Como: (The club is) a little bit more across the line at the top. The way he works his shoulders and his pelvis is a little bit different going back. And then from there, the club transition is slightly different, which allows him to work his body a little bit different to the shot.

I think in general it's allowing him to hit a fade where he doesn't feel like a pull hook is as much in play. He likes to work the ball a lot. He wants to have everything feel that he can draw it and then fade it and then do both without hitting a left shot.