NEW YORK, NY — About a par 5 away from Grand Central, a foursome of golfers were officially introduced as New York’s next sports team. While one of them, Cameron Young, a native New Yorker, was a no-brainer for the TGL’s New York Golf Club, the others—Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler and Brit Matt Fitzpatrick—don’t have strong Big Apple ties. But that didn’t keep the team’s best player from saying something that was sure to win over plenty of New York sports fans.
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At a Monday event hosted by New York Giants legend Eli Manning and held at T-Squared Social—an establishment co-owned by fellow TGL star Tiger Woods—Schauffele and Co. were asked by a lifelong New York sports fan (Me) what it’s like to represent New York and whether Young had given his new teammates a crash course on where he was from. Here was Schauffele’s response:
“No, he has not. It’s a little intimidating, I’m not going to lie,” Schauffele began. I’m from the West Coast, I’m very laid back. You know, if you grab a drink, go to the beach, do this and that, but it’s diehard here. We watched a clip earlier, all sports, all games to the fans here. And we just felt a thing that kept popping up or the thing that I felt the most, which is passion, there’s, there’s this passion and drive to get something done. . . . Like I said, I grew up on the west coast, so, you know, If the team loses, you go to the beach, boo hoo. Here, you know, you hunker back down at 1 a.m. back in your house, pissed off at what happened that game. So, it’s a completely different beast out here. I’m excited and honored to be out here.”
Pumping up New York sports fans while taking a shot at West Coast fans? Man, is that music to our ears! Nicely done, Xander.
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“I mean, for me it’s really cool,” Young added. “I’m obviously familiar with it up here. There is a different energy around New York City and, and New York sports that you don’t find. It is kind of high stakes. It has that feel to it all the time. I’m sure that the state and city will embrace this team and we’ll all really enjoy getting to represent.”
Amen to that Cam.
And the team certainly had a nice couple days of getting acclimated to New York. Xander and Rickie took in a Broadway show:
All four appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon:
NBC
And they even posed with . . . a taxi:
New York Golf Club will play in TGL’s opening match against the Bay Golf Club on Jan. 7 on ESPN (All matches will be played in the new SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens). Which gives the guys plenty of time to have their New York accents perfected by then.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
