PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 19, 2022

Scottie Scheffler

Southern Hills Country Club

Flash Quotes

JOHN DEVER: Good afternoon. Welcome back to the 2022 PGA Championship here at Southern Hills Golf Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We're with Scottie Scheffler. Scottie put forth a 1-over par 71 today. Looking at your scorecard and watching some of your play, really solid play on your front nine; a little more of a struggle on the back. Can we tie that into the conditions getting a little breezier and tougher as the day went on?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, definitely got windier as the day went on. The greens get a little bit more chewed up. I missed a short putt I think on 12. Which I really didn't make a terrible stroke on, just kind of hopped off line.

That's the things you're going to get. That's what happens when you play late in the day. Today was windy so the course was challenging, and I didn't keep myself in position on the back nine and paid the price for it.

Q. Just in terms of the course, did it set up fair?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it was very fair. Definitely no gripes with the setup or anything like that. It was challenging. The golf course is very challenging. But the setup was fair. The greens were good. The fairways are in good shape. The golf course is in great shape.

Outside of a little bit of wind and then 150 guys walking on the greens they get a little chewed up, but other than that, things are in a good spot out there.

Q. Are there more satisfying pars than the one you got at 18? And can you talk about that how that maybe saved the championship or at least the day for you?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Well, it's definitely going to make my dinner taste a little better. Bogeying the last three is definitely not very fun, so it was good to make that par at the end.

I'm still pretty frustrated with how I played the back nine, but overall 1-over par playing as poorly as I did today is not -- I didn't shoot myself out of the tournament, so I'm still in okay position.

Q. I know you said the golf course, you had no gripes with it, but JT was just in here talking about how tough it is out of the bunkers and having a lot of hard time spinning it, a little bit pebbly and inconsistent sand. You finding that as well? I see you were one for three from the sand today.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, there is definitely some pebbles in there. I think where you see most of them is when people are hitting it out of the bunker and they end up on the green.

So there was a lot of putts I had today, especially on the back nine where the pins are close to the bunker, like 17 is a good example, where guys, if there's some people splashing out of that bunker all those pebbles will shoot out onto the green and can affect your bunker shot, as well.

That's definitely something I noticed at the beginning of the week. Bunkers aren't supposed to be that easy to play out of. It's frustrating for sure to get in there and have a pebble kind of shoot your ball off line, something you can't see.

I shouldn't be in too many bunkers and I put myself in I guess three of them today, which is definitely not a place I want to be.

Q. More philosophically, does seem like you're cool with bunkers playing as like a proper hazard; whereas like a lot of times on the PGA TOUR it seems like it's almost an automatic up and in. Do you like seeing them be more penal?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: You know, it depends. I think if you were to go look at golf 100 years ago and people kind of appreciate bunkers being true hazards, but now with there being so many around the green you really kind of need a good lie how fast the greens are.

And I don't really think it should be up to pure luck on whether or not you get a good or a bad lie in the bunker, so when they're in really great shape I think as players we all appreciate it, just because it's kind of like getting in a divot in the fairway. There's certain bunkers where you know it's an okay miss, and I think a lot of the traditional golfers or -- I don't know how you say that, but when you look at how golf used to be played with much slower greens and longer clubs going in, it was much different than it is now.

I think we all appreciate on Tour having bunker sand that's really, really good.

Q. I know you said you didn't shoot yourself out of the tournament, but what's it going to take to put yourself in position to really make a run to win after a score like Rory put up today?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I mean, it's early in the week; still a lot of golf left to play. I guess I'm six back now, so six shots over three days really isn't that big of a deal.

I'm definitely a lot further back than I had hoped to be, but at the end of the day I'll probably be in 40th place. This is one of those golf courses where you could have a really great round, and so for me just kind of taking what the weather is going to give us tomorrow morning and kind of go from there.

Q. Probably not going to be that many eagles at the fifth, right? Can you just talk about doing that actually, getting home there, and just the difficulties of the par-5s and how maybe there aren't that many scoring opportunities unless you're really hitting it?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I mean, I think in most major championships, and especially the way this golf course is playing, in order to make birdies you have to hit great golf shots. In some cases you have to hit two really great golf shots.

For me on No. 5 I hit two fantastic golf shots. I held a driver against the wind off the tee and then I drew a 3-wood in there and I ran it up kind of the front part of the green. It was two just great shots, especially the 3-wood, and then a great putt.

But there's definitely no gimmes out there; there's not a hole where you set up on the tee and it's like, man, I have to make birdie here or else I'm losing strokes.

Q. I think you were over 300 yards. Were you thinking you could get there, that you could roll it up, or were you hoping to get it in front or in a bunker?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Well, where I was aiming, I was aiming -- I knew I couldn't land it on the green, but I knew if I bounced it short it could run up, so I was aiming in that little space in between the two bunkers.

Maybe it was like a six- or seven-yard gap and I happened to hit it just because I hit a great shot. Sometimes when you're that far away you can hit a great shot and not get rewarded, and fortunately I was rewarded for it.