RBC CANADIAN OPEN

June 8, 2022

Scottie Scheffler

St. George's Golf & Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Scottie Scheffler to the interview room here at the RBC Canadian Open. Scottie, thanks for joining us. Making your first start in the event. With that said, why don't we start with that, a couple thoughts on the decision to be here, you've had a chance to see some of the course at least, and just your thoughts on that as well.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I typically like playing the week before a major so this was a pretty easy one for me to decide to play in.

Fortunately, we draw a really good field this week and so definitely looking forward to competing against these guys. The rough this week's definitely going to prepare me well for next week. That's definitely a good bonus.

First time in Canada, so should be a lot of fun. Toronto's treated me well so far and looking forward to the rest of the week.

THE MODERATOR: Your last start you nearly got it done at Colonial with your playoff loss to Sam Burns. I'll save everybody time, I won't recap your season so far. Just a few thoughts on how you're feeling coming into the week, kind of mentally as well as physically with the game.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Physically my game's in a good spot. I've been playing good golf this year. Mentally I was able to get some good rest after Colonial. I played three in a row so I had a good week at home last week just getting rested and prepared for, I think I got three in a row out here on the road. So definitely feeling good going into this week.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Curious about how much this week is going to be preparing you for next week. Obviously this is a big tournament, it's a National Open, how do you manage to kind of stay in the present versus thinking ahead to the U.S. Open next week?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, that's always been kind of a good skill that I have is being able to stay in the present. I'm extremely competitive and I think that's one of the reasons why I'm able to do that so well.

Yes, I'm preparing for next week's U.S. Open, but I really want to win this week. I really want to win every time I tee it up and play. So for me just staying present, trying to hit golf shots and not over think things has always worked best and it's something that I've been able to do week-to-week.

Q. Obviously this is one of the oldest tournaments in the world. How does it feel to be maybe staking your claim to a little bit of history this week?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it should be fun. I haven't had a chance to play this tournament yet before in my career, the last two years it's obviously been cancelled. So it's definitely good to be here in Canada and playing in a historic event.

Pretty historic golf course. This place is pretty old. So I played the last 10 holes today in the pro-am and it's a pretty cool golf course. A lot of elevation changes. Excited to go out and play it under competition.

Q. Sorry to be the guy to ask this question, but there's a lot of noise going on around the golf world right now. What do you make of what's happening over there and how it's affecting what's happening here?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I would say stuff here's pretty unaffected, I haven't really noticed that any guys are missing. Maybe outside of Dustin being a RBC guy for so long, I think he's really the only one I've noticed wishes not here.

But I'm out here competing against these guys. We got the best players in the world. I think we got five of the top 10 playing here this week? So the best players in the world are out here playing golf and I'm looking forward to competing against them this week. I don't really know what's going on over there, so I don't really have much to say.

Q. You mentioned the rough and the length of the rough. Talk a little bit about how your approach, how a stance, how a club selection, that sort of thing, changes when you're dealing with longer rough like you will this week and at the U.S. Open.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Fairways are going to be hugely important out here. This golf course isn't as long as a U.S. Open golf course would be, so you can definitely kind of mix it up off the tee and hit some different clubs. But then there's a few holes out here where you're forced to hit driver. The par-5s obviously and then there's some long par-4s out here as well.

It's a challenging layout around this golf course. I think if you're precise you can score really well, but if you're going to be a bit off you're not going to score well around this golf course. This doesn't look like a place where you can fake it around.

Q. I saw you drop the puck at the Dallas Stars game a couple weeks back. Obviously we have the Rink hole out here as well. Are you a hockey guy by chance and have you seen the Rink hole?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I have seen the Rink hole. I'm not a huge hockey guy, my trainer who I've worked with since high school, trainer and chiropractor, he's Canadian and he loves hockey, so he's getting me a little bit more into it.

I struggle to figure out the game because I never played it. All of the other sports are easy for me to figure out and get into because I played them and I kind of know the strategy and everything. Hockey I'm still a little lost.

Q. Who is your trainer?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Troy Van Biezen.

THE MODERATOR: I've got one last one, just for one fun. I happened to notice who you were talking to outside, from The Office, that's kind of me nerding out. How did that come to be? Have y'all met before?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: So this is the first time I met Andy in person. I guess we'll call him David Wallace for the sake of the show. So Andy Buckley from The Office came out today. And he's actually friends with the Tesori family. So after the Masters this year he sent me like a pretty hilarious like video, just with like a bunch of inside Office jokes. And Andy's a big golf guy, so he came out and said hello today, he walked a few holes with us in the pro-am and it was fun getting to meet him and hang. He's pretty funny in person too, so we had a lot of support out there.

Q. Sporting the Dunder Mifflin shirt, I love it.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, he gave us some Dunder Mifflin swag too, so I'll have something to show the wife when she gets here next week.

THE MODERATOR: That's fantastic. Okay. Well, thank you for your time, we appreciate it, and best of luck this week.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Thanks. Thanks y'all.