WGC DELL TECHNOLOGIES MATCH PLAY

March 26, 2021

Scottie Scheffler

Austin Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Just talk about advancing to the round of 16, a little bit of a roller coaster day for you.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, very much so. I don't think I had a lead in the match until I took it on 16 and had two really good looks to close out the match, and I think my speed was just a touch off on them and Xander made a great birdie on 18, and then just tried to stay focused.

Felt a little bit of the momentum come back my way when he missed that putt on 10 and took advantage of it on 1 and 2.

Q. Obviously your first Dell Match Play. When you came into this week what were your -- I mean, you expectations were obviously to get here. How do you feel you game has been this week to get you to Saturday?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Oh, I feel like I have done a really good job hanging in there. I don't feel like I've had my best stuff this week, but I've done a really good job of staying patient closing out these matches. To go into the singles -- to the knockout rounds or whatever without a loss is comforting, and I'm looking forward to playing Ian tomorrow.

Q. Is there something you feel like you need to improve upon going into tomorrow?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No my game is trending right in the right direction. I think it's kind of nice that I feel like I've been improving a touch every day, and things felt a lot better today, so I think things are only going to improve as the week goes on.

Q. How long had it been since you'd played match play before this week?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Since college. We play kind of match play at home, but it's never really this level of competition. It had been a while, but used some of that experience from college, and I think it helped me out here.

Q. This is a match play question from a protocol perspective. From your view, when do you concede a putt and you make sure you verbalize it to your opponent?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: When do I concede? When I know for a fact there's no way he's going to miss it, and then I either say "that's good" or I toss it back to him.

Q. Would you ever assume?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Would I ever assume that --

Q. Let's say you've got a short putt; would you assume that it's given to you or do you want to hear it?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I need to hear it, and I think I've seen that the last couple days with the guys I've been playing against. A lot of times I'll ask for confirmation because sometimes you also don't want to be rude; after a guy misses like a four-footer and it lips out, you don't want to yell "that's good" to him.

I think sometimes that can -- I would feel a little bit offensive if I kind of -- I don't know, it just seems weird to really like get in his face about it, so a lot of times I'll say "that's good," thumbs up, pick it up, stuff like that, and a lot of guys will ask for confirmation, too.

Q. And you feel like the field should never assume anything is good?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No, and I think we've seen that in this format the last couple years. I don't know why you're asking me these now; I guess something happened today. I would say that I don't assume that it's good.

I think a lot of times in match play you can make that assumption, but I think it's always safe to kind of wait and to hear it. I guess that's all I really have to say about it other than that.