Xander Schauffele Officially Starts The Ryder Cup Trash Talk, Says It'll Take 'Nothing Special' To Beat Europe

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The U.S. Ryder Cup team has not traveled across the pond and returned to American soil with the cup in its possession since 1993. In fact, Team Europe has dominated the biennial event winning nine of the last 13 Ryder Cups. Xander Schauffele simply doesn't care about the not-so-great history, the American isn't worried about it whatsoever.

Schauffele, who wasn't even born the last time the U.S. won in Europe, shared a glimpse into the mindset of this year's U.S. team and it's pretty clear they'll be carrying an 'I don't give a damn' attitude into Rome.

"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," Schauffele told Sports Illustrated.

"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...But none of us are talking about anything of that nature. We’re looking forward to the week and bringing that thing back."

If that message wasn't clear enough, the 29-year-old doubled down with his boldness.

"Nothing special," Schauffele said after being asked what it will take to win in Italy. "It may sound weird, but we didn’t do anything special at Whistling Straits."

Xander Schauffele Not Concerned With European Ryder Cup Team

The U.S. not doing anything special during the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits is a bit debatable.

The Americans held a 6-2 lead after Friday's session and extended it to a 9-3 advantage in Saturday's morning matches. The U.S. then went on to go 8-4 in Sunday singles to take the Cup back by a score of 19-9, the largest margin of victory since the 2004 Ryder Cup when Europe won 18.5-9.5 in Michigan.

While some may claim Schauffele's comments are naive or even arrogant, you have to have a certain amount of naivety and arrogance to win the Ryder Cup. Every successful Ryder Cup team, especially in the modern era, has had a touch of arrogance to them, which in reality is just self belief in getting the job done.

Schauffele made his Ryder Cup debut in 2021 therefore has only been on the side of a lopsided win. The test in Rome against a top-heavy and scrappy European team will be much different than the one the U.S. faced two years ago.

Follow Mark Harris on X @ItIsMarkHarris

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and all other happenings in the world of golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.