SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – Not much has gone wrong for Xander Schauffele the last few weeks following his victory at The Open and the pace he’s set at the Olympic men’s tournament, where he’s tied for first place. Not much, that is, until the 13th hole on Day 2 at Le Golf National.
Schauffele was cruising along at 5 under through 12 holes when he pulled his drive left of the 13th fairway. When he approached his ball, he immediately realized there was a problem.
“I was kind of putting my club down and sort of that fluffy grass almost, and I’m taking practice swings and I’m trying to get to my ball and I can’t, what’s going on, something is behind my ball,” explained Schauffele, who is a co-leader with Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama. “I called an official. It was just ants. It was a pile of ants, an ant pile, or whatever you want to call it, and their home; so I didn’t want to mess with it.”
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Schauffele asked an official if he was allowed to use a golf club to “scrape the sand [behind his golf ball] since it’s loose.” The official said he could, but Schauffele wasn’t convinced so he requested a second opinion.
“My gut was like, oh, boy, am I really going to use my club, have it on film, and then talk to you [the media] after,” he said. “The guys said I could not move the grass but I could use my tee to move the ants. I didn’t do anything to be honest. I ended up hacking out 50 yards on the fairway.”
Schauffele bounced back with a birdie at No. 14 on his way to a 5-under 66 and a great shot at his second gold medal.
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