20 September 2023 , 12:30
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Team USA star Xander Schauffele has backtracked on his initial Ryder Cup prediction, after admitting he is now expecting a 'dog fight' with the Europeans in Rome.
Schauffele and his teammates will head to Europe next week to defend the title they won so convincingly at Whistling Straits in 2021. Two years on though the Europeans return with a rejuvenated 12-man team out for revenge, and the American believes this will make for a tight affair.
He told Golf Channel: “If you look at the match-up of both sides, it’s going to be incredible. The average of both sides, I think, so it’s going to be a dog fight no matter what. It will be a tough one. I am very excited to be going over to Rome, and it seems like everyone is super fired-up to compete and play in front of the European fans."
"So, we’ll see who gets the best of who," he continued. Schauffele's comments are however in stark contrast to those he had made a few days earlier.
The Olympic champion appeared to have kicked off the Ryder Cup trash talk early, after recently claiming it would take 'nothing special' to defeat the Europeans in Rome, and end America's 30-year wait for a victory on home soil. "It may sound weird, but we didn’t do anything special at Whistling Straits," he told Sports Illustrated.
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"All the boys who were there are aware of that, and we have quite a few repeat guys on the team. We’ll stick behind our stats, our team leaders and our captains and go do our thing. We’re not really tainted by that sort of talk. People told me we haven’t won since before I was born. I think that’s great, because I don’t really care.
"I don’t think anyone really cares. No one has talked about it, because of course, no one likes talking about losing. It isn’t really something that’s been brought up a lot to us." Following his backtrack, Schauffele outlined Justin Thomas as somebody who will be key in the United States' battle with their rivals.
Xander Schauffele initially predicted that it would take 'nothing special' for Team USA to defeat Europe (AP)Despite announcing himself as a key part of the Team USA setup in recent years, Thomas' captain's pick this time around was questioned by many amid a poor run of form in 2023. Despite the criticism it appears Thomas has the backing of his teammate Schauffele, who believes his Ryder Cup experience will prove key in Italy.
"JT [Justin Thomas] is a dog and he fights," he commented. "We have a few on our team that fight and JT is definitely... He is the guy who will get the crowd involved. He is the guy who can get the whole place charged-up so that it will feed back down into our team.
“So, I am not very surprised JT was picked, and when you look at his record of 6 wins, two halves and just one loss it seemed like a no-brainer to pick him."