U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2022

June 14, 2022

Scottie Scheffler

The Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome back. We're thrilled to be with world No. 1, Scottie Scheffler. Scottie, talk a little bit about your impressions of the golf course so far and just being here at the U.S. Open.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Golf course is in good shape. I was here in 2013. The course has changed a bit since then. I think they're mostly good changes. Should be a good test.

The greens are nice and firm. It he seems like the weather is going to be good for the rest of the week. Rough is healthy per usual.

THE MODERATOR: Per the usual. You've played well in USGA events in the past. What is it about these weeks that sets itself apart?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I like the challenge. I think these events are really hard obviously. For me it's kind of fun just challenging yourself like that.

This style of golf I think really suits how I play and suits mentally how I approach tournaments, and so for me I'm excited for this week and getting started.

Q. Is there anything that sticks out about 2013? I know that's kind of been a while ago now, but is there anything that -- if you were at dinner and had to tell a story about 2013, what would come up?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Well, that was a really cool event for me. I had won the U.S. Junior that year. It was a really cool year for me in golf.

I have great memories of this tournament. I have good memories. I was walking around with my coach here in 2013, and he was here in '99 when Justin made the putt, and he was teaching Justin at the time, so we both have great memories of this place.

I remember being down in pretty much all my matches and coming back. On the three that I won, I came back late on all of them. I think I made a big putt against maybe Brandon Hagy, somebody? I think it may have been Brandon on 17. I have good memories of this place. It was a lot of fun.

Q. Who did you lose to?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Brady Watt. I remember I plugged it in the bunker short on 18. I think I ended up making bogey, and he made a nice little 4-footer for par to beat me.

Q. How much do you look at statistics and how much is that, if at all, part of your preparation process?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I look at them. I'm not one of those guys that dives too deep into them. For me most of the time when I have dove into the stats, it matched up with pretty much what I was feeling, and so for me I've always been a guy that approaches things with how I'm feeling versus what the stats say.

Fortunately for the most part they've always kind of lined up.

Q. Then when you are out at a new golf course, are you diving through the yardage book looking at how far things run out, or is it more get out there, hit shots and see where they end up?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think a lot of it is hit shots and see where they end up. Golf is not really a perfect science for me.

Teddy does a lot of the prep work, and so, for instance, when I showed up here yesterday, he pretty much knew exactly what he thought we should do on each hole, and then we kind of go from there and discuss things.

Q. Just veering off topic a little bit, you are in New England. You participated in the Northeast Amateur. Your memories of that tournament and how much that ranks in your development as a player?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I remember I stayed right across the street. That was always a fun event for us. I spent a lot of time on that practice putting green, just having putting contests with people because my house was 100 yards away, so I pretty much hung out there all day.

That golf course is fantastic. I think you learn a lot playing those types of courses where you stand there on the first tee, and you are, like, oh, my goodness, I'm going to rip this place up, and then 5-under wins the tournament. Those are always fun kind of frustrating tests for us.

Q. You played a practice round with Travis Fick. I'm curious what your impressions are of him, and if there is anyone you played a practice round with when you were an amateur that was significant to you?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, that's something I'm always going to try to do. I think I played two as an am in '16 and '17. I got to play a practice round with Jordan at the time and then Dustin at the time, which was really cool. I got to learn a lot, mostly just by watching those guys, how they prepare for golf courses, the type of shots they hit, how they practice around the greens and stuff like that. For me I learned a ton by being able to sit there and be a spectator.

Playing with Travis, that's something I'm always going to try to do because I learned so much and so hopefully he'll be able to learn a little something from me.

It's definitely fun. He is a fantastic player. He is really talented. As we saw a couple of weeks ago, he plays really good under pressure as well. That's an important skill to have when you come out here on tour.

Q. Obviously, it's a little bit you're hoping to play all four days here, but if you were a fan and you were coming here and having a beer with your buddies, just you knowing the course, where would you like to watch it?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: That's a good question. I would probably get here early and walk it. If I hadn't been here before, I would probably walk the course and maybe watch one of the early groups where there's not too many people and try to get to see everything.

I don't know. There are so many good holes out here. I could post up on 8. I could post up on 10 and 11 kind of out there by the green and watch shots going into 11, watch shots coming into 10 and see some carnage on No. 10 and then maybe a few lower scores on No. 11.

There's a lot of good spots out there.

Q. Talking a little bit about Travis, you spent some time with him a couple of weeks ago too. Is there maybe one piece of advice that you would try to give him as he prepares for his first tour event, let alone major?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I think always good advice for people and how I try to approach things is not take yourself too seriously and try to get a little better at a time. I find a lot of guys really try to make these quantum leaps where it's, like, I'm going to make this swing change, and it's going to totally change my game. That whole rebuilding process I think has a tendency to really hurt guys.

For me I always try to get a little bit incrementally better over time versus making these kind of drastic changes to improve a ton at once.

Then don't take you yourself too seriously because you're going to hit really, really bad shots. It's not all about hitting perfect golf shots. It's about managing your misses and responding to those.

I think of Cameron Smith at THE PLAYERS. The way he played No. 18 is not how he is typically going to play that hole. If he's got to make bogey to win, what are the odds he is going to lay up into the water? That's not what defines how he won that golf tournament. It's defined by that wedge shot he hit in there to two feet. So it's more about how you respond to things than the mistakes that you make.

Q. Did you show in anything short-game wise yesterday?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: He kind of followed me around a little bit around the greens, but he didn't ask any specific questions. Travis isn't a super talkative guy. I figure he's kind of like me where he'll just learn a lot by watching and picking up on certain things.

Q. Wanted to ask you about your fellow Dallas resident Will Zalatoris. He has been in contention at the last eight majors it feels like. Wondering what you see in him mentally, emotionally maybe that's allowed him to always be up at the top in events like these?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, Will is a guy, he is a really confident guy. He has a lot of confidence in his ball striking. He hits it so good.

I think that's what separates guys at these tournaments is having that ability to hit all different kinds of shots, and so Will is definitely a player that has that skill.

Obviously it's really paid off for him in the majors, and I'm sure you're not going to see him out of contention anytime soon.

Q. Going back to the PGA, you missed the cut. You hadn't missed a cut in a major for a while before that. I'm wondering how do you -- what do you make of that? What do you do after that? Do you kind of just push it to the side and say, okay, we move on, or are you kind of analyzing what happened there at that stage? How do you kind of go about working through that?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: You can learn anything from that really failure. That's always a good learning time. For me I'm not going to sit there and be, like, oh, my gosh, how did this happen? How could I ever miss a cut? What's going on? Just sitting back and looking, well, I could have approached this differently. Mentally I could have been a little bit different approaching this shot, and it's more stuff like that versus, I missed the cut, what am I doing out here? I got all these things to work on. It was more just sitting back and saying, you know, I could have been better mentally here and here, and other than that, that could have changed the tournament for me. Just little changes. It's nothing big.

I was able to have a nice reset after that and play good the following week.

Q. What are your thoughts on the closing stretch here, especially 17?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It's really good. I think it's a nice stretch. You play 15, which is a really difficult hole. Trying to remember the routing because the routing was different for us.

14 is now a par-5, which you can get at, but it's a pretty hard par-5. Then 16 is a really good par-3. 17 being a short hole where it's a kind of a birdie-bogey. Then 18 if you get it in play or in the fairway off the tee, it's a good birdie opportunity.

I think it's really cool. I'm not necessarily a huge fan of those golf courses where there's always hazards coming down the stretch. For me it seems more classic of a golf course like this one where it's just rough and bunkers and it's more of a birdie-bogey type of situation. I think that's really a cool style of golf.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time, Scottie. Good luck this week.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Thank you, all.