WGC DELL TECHNOLOGIES MATCH PLAY

March 23, 2023

Scottie Scheffler

Austin Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Scottie, I know match play is weird, but which round do you think was better, yesterday with the two eagles or today with seven birdies?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think definitely today. Yesterday I made too many mistakes, I think, and today I just went out and played solid, no bogeys, and made some key putts in the beginning of the match.

Alex birdied the first and then played solid after that, and made two key putts I believe on 5 and 6. I made about a seven-footer for birdie and then about an eight-footer for birdie to tie the match, and made another key putt at 7 for birdie to take the lead.

After that I just kind of kept the pressure on him and hit really good shots on 10 and 11 and got myself in position on 12 and made a good putt there at 13.

Q. Was that kind of the turning point in the match right in there, 6, 7 --

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I drove the green on 5 and he didn't hit a great tee shot over in the right rough and then he chipped it to like two feet, gave it him.

And then I had a pretty good first putt. Wind kind of caught it. I had a tough putt with it breaking right to left and the wind blowing left to right, so those types of putts are always challenging.

I was able to make two in a row on 6 and 7, similar putts where it's breaking left and the wind is blowing right so you don't really know what's going to happen.

Then I would say the putt on 7 to take the lead and then good up-and-down on 8, good up-and-down on 9, and then started to kind of build momentum.

Q. What was the most difficult part of the wind today? Was it putting?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: When it's blowing that hard there's a lot of factors. I hit a putt today on our third hole where it was downhill left to right and I got some phantom gust, because it should have been blowing across with the break.

I hit this putt and I hit the exact speed I wanted to and it was like it hit a wall and made a U-turn because the wind was blowing this way and the break was that way, and it came up like four feet short from like 20 feet just because of the gust.

But the same thing can easily happen on approach shots, as well, so it's important to keep the spin off the ball and just kind of hit like chippy shots in there by the pins.

Q. How big is it to control your own destiny tomorrow?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it's big. I think I've had to get through a playoff twice here now the last two years, and to be able to go into tomorrow and to be able to win my match and get through the group would be nice, and that's what I'll be focused on tomorrow is getting off to a good start and hopefully winning the match.