PGA Tour Player Blog: Always at home in Japan

Xander Schauffele, the World No. 6, will make his fifth straight appearance at the Zozo Championship in Japan this week with every intention of completing a famous “double” where he also won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021. With a strong family presence in Japan, the 29-year-old is looking forward to challenging for his eighth career PGA Tour victory at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club.

I love Japan and I love being here. I've been coming over here a lot over the years and my grandparents live in Tokyo and I have uncles, aunts and cousins from my mum’s side of the family living here as well. I’ve made a lot of visits and I've always enjoyed the culture, the people and the food. The people are so proud here, they have a lot of pride, and I respect that a lot. It's a very special place which I hold very dear to myself and my whole family. I pretty much love everything about Japan and I'm always happy to come back.

You know when you open a suitcase, you can always kind of smell sort of where you come from. I can always tell whenever my grandparents used to travel to San Diego a long time ago to visit us when I was a kid, it always smelled like Japan. I really don't know how to describe it but every time I come over here, I really appreciate the culture and how kind and respectful everyone is and I think I speak for everyone competing in this week’s Zozo Championship. 

As many of you know, I'm the only natural-born American in my family, having been born in the United States. My dad, Stefan, is half French, half German, born in Stuttgart while my brother Nico was born in Stuttgart. My mom Ping Yi, was born in Chinese Taipei and grew up in Japan from the age of two. Hence, we have family in both Chinese Taipei and Japan. And then my wife Maya’s mom is also Japanese. I'm just a mix of all kinds of things. I grew up kind of raised on the Japanese side and being out here and communicating with Japanese folks kind of reminds me of my mom's tendencies, which is funny.

I’m excited to be playing in front of Japanese fans again this week at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club. Golf in Japan typically is much tighter, much narrower and conditions