TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 2, 2020

Scottie Scheffler

East Lake Golf Club

Press Conference

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Scottie Scheffler into the interview room here at the TOUR Championship. Scottie has had five consecutive top 25 finishes.

Scottie, perhaps no one is coming in as hot as you with a couple of T4s in your last three starts. If we can get some comments one being at East Lake for the first time.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it's great to be here at East Lake. Rookie season to make it here is definitely really cool, and I feel like my game is kind of coming into form. I've played pretty solid the last few weeks, so hoping for a great week this week.

JOHN BUSH: Talk a little bit about this golf course. Have you seen it yet this week, and how do you think it'll suit your game?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: So I haven't seen it yet this week but I played here in 2016 or 2017, I can't remember, but yeah, I think so. You've got to hit a lot of fairways out here. It's kind of a ball striker's course. It's not easy playing with the rough and the trees out here and the holes are long and the fairways are pretty tight.

I don't know, we'll see today. I just got in yesterday afternoon so I haven't seen the course yet, but I assume it's probably going to play pretty firm and fast and should be a fun week.

JOHN BUSH: Talk a little bit about your first full season on the TOUR. Has it met your expectations? And in terms of the goals you entered the season with, obviously you're here at the TOUR Championship, so just talk a little bit about how you've met your goals for the year.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, so as far as meeting goals, I don't really set too many long-term goals just because I'll start looking towards the future too much and I won't say in the present.

For me, I'm extremely competitive, and so what works best for me is just focusing week to week. And when I'm home, I'm never not motivated to practice or anything, so just getting out and doing the best I can each day is what works best for me.

As far as meeting expectations, I didn't have expectations. Just wanted to come out here and do my best and go from there, and feel like I've done a good job of that and looking forward to this week for sure.

Yeah, I didn't really know what to expect exactly going into this year, but it's been a super fun year and been enjoying myself a lot out here and been playing some decent golf, as well.

Q. This is a strange year anyway; when you get started back in again, how big a goal was getting here for you?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it's definitely a place that I want to be. I want to be here every year. That's something that'll never change. Starting after the quarantine I was in a good spot to make it here and I got off to a really slow start. I struggled right out of the gates at Colonial and the next few events after that, so that was some frustrating times.

But I started to play pretty solid again after that and then played good at the first playoff event, which secured my spot here, which was very nice. It was able to loosen me up a little bit.

I didn't play my best last week, but I feel like my game is in a good spot for this week.

Q. The first playoff event you shot a 59, and that's only good enough to beat DJ by a stroke that day. How do you feel about spotting him strokes, and what's the challenge going to be to try to run him down?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it'll definitely be a big challenge. Obviously his game is in a good spot right now, but there's no reason that I can't go chase anybody down on the leaderboard. The tournament hasn't technically started yet, and so I'm looking forward to this week, getting out on the course today, see how it's playing.

Starting a little bit behind, which is a challenge, but it should be fun.

Q. Of all the things you were just talking about, sort of all the perks you get for showing up at East Lake and earning this, which one stands out to you?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: So to be completely honest with you, this year I haven't won yet, and so I wasn't going to get to go to Kapalua. I'm getting married on December 4th, so our first tournament like as a married couple will be Kapalua, which will be really cool, and that's something we're looking forward to a lot.

As far as the other perks go, I don't know exactly what they are, but my caddie told me that was one of the perks, and so that'll be really fun for both of us.

Q. I think you won here in 2016, right, the East Lake Cup; is that correct?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yes, sir. If it was 2016. I don't know if it was.

Q. What do you remember about the golf course and that tournament?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: You know, I remember most of the holes. Just from seeing it on TV so many times and then coming out here to play I remember most of the holes, which is awesome. It's not typical of a TOUR event for me to know the course.

I just remember a lot of holes being long, having to hit a lot of drivers, get the ball in play, and I think that's one of the strengths of my game, so it should be a fun week.

JOHN BUSH: Scottie, we appreciate your time. Best of luck this week at East Lake.