RBC HERITAGE

April 12, 2023

Scottie Scheffler

Harbour Town Golf Links

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: I'd like to introduce Scottie Scheffler to the interview room, I guess.

Your first start here, Scottie. You played nine holes this morning, nine yesterday. What's your first impressions of the golf course?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Golf course is pretty cool. Greens are firm. Fairways are pretty firm. I don't know if that's typical. Obviously it's my first time here. Should play pretty tough this week and be a fun test.

THE MODERATOR: It's your first start here but your 100th start on TOUR. Does it feel like it's the 100th start for you?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No, I did not know that until now. Yeah, I'm now in my fourth year. 100 tournaments went by pretty quick.

THE MODERATOR: Obviously defending the Masters last week. You've had some experience at defending tournaments. What's that been like the last few months, going back to tournaments where you've won them?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I felt like I did a really good job of defending the first three times. I gave myself a chance, a good chance to win each of them. The Masters, I was kind of on the outside looking in, which was a bit frustrating, but I did my best.

Outside of that, I just didn't have it last week. But still T-10, can't hold my head down for too long. Had a good weekend, fought back. I didn't have my best stuff the first two days, but kind of fought back to finish in the top 10, which was nice.

Q. When you come to a place you've never played before, what are you looking at?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Just trying to learn stuff about the golf course. Learn how it plays, kind of where to hit it, where not to hit it. A lot of it you can pick up on for the first time, but just trying to do as much studying as I can.

Q. It turns a lot. You're going to hit a lot of funky shots, a lot of trees out there.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, a lot of trees.

Q. Do you have a game plan right now, or are you still working on it?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think the golf course kind of tells you where you need to hit it here. A lot of it depends on pin position too, but for the most part, the trees and everything kind of shape the golf course. So you pretty much can stand on the tee and know where to hit it most of the time.

It's just kind of finding those lines where you know exactly where the middle of the fairway is, stuff like that, that we're still trying to figure out. I think we've kind of got that down with the practice rounds. When you stand on each tee box, it pretty much tells you exactly what you need to do.

Q. You put the jacket on Jon last Sunday. Was it bittersweet? Did you want to give it back, give him one?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I definitely imagined myself putting on the jacket at the end of the week, but Jon is a very deserving champion. For me, it was a good memory for the both of us. That was obviously a very special moment in his life, so I was glad I was able to share it with him and put the jacket on. That was definitely a good memory.

Obviously I would rather the chairman be putting the jacket on me, but at the end of the day, you just -- when you get beat, that's the beauty of the game of golf. You take your hat off, shake hands, and able to congratulate him. I think I did a good job putting the jacket on. It didn't look like he struggled too much, so it's good.

Q. I know it's a sore spot with Texas A&M, but what did you think of Sam Bennett?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Sam, very talented player. It was pretty special what he did the first two days. He struggled a little bit on the weekend, but it's hard playing the Masters your first time. It's even harder playing it as an amateur. For him to show up and be inside the top three after two rounds is pretty special.

He played some good golf. It's just the first two days we had conditions, and then the last two days, those conditions completely changed. So I think that's one of the things you learn a lot about playing professional golf and having to play these courses over four days is you learn how to play them in a lot of different conditions, and I think he just didn't have the experience under his belt as the week went on.

That's something he'll learn over time. But obviously very talented and has a bright future.

Q. You mentioned being a little frustrated last week. When you have a week like you had on the greens and finish T-10, what does that tell you about yourself?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It was just a weird week. I felt like I did a lot of stuff really bad, and I felt like I hit it really good the first two days. Outside of that, I felt like I didn't do a lot of stuff I was really overly pleased with.

The first round I hit it amazing. I just did not putt good the first two days. It kind of felt like a little bit of an out-of-body experience. I was just proud of how I fought on the weekend. I made a lot of nice putts, and I was definitely much happier with how the weekend played out for myself. Going into the weekend T-30 or something like that and fighting my back and getting into the top 10 was nice.

Obviously wish I would have put myself in a better position, but still top 10 without my best stuff is a good week.

Q. What happened on 12 over the weekend? You had two.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I don't know. I hit two in the bushes, which typically it comes out of the bushes. The first one should have come out of the bushes. The second one on Sunday airmailed the bunkers, which I don't know what happened. It was getting gusty at that point in the day. I hit it the way I wanted to, it just kind of got in the jet stream.

Usually the ball flies kind of like that (indicating), and that one flew like that the whole time. My 9-iron flew almost 180 yards, and I hit it about 155.

Just stuff happens on that golf course. I told Teddy, I just said I'm glad I made that mistake when we were eight shots back versus either last year when we were in the lead or in the years coming when we're hoping to be close to the lead or in it again. So it's just a learning experience.

Q. When you first looked at the golf course yesterday and today here, is there any hole that stood out to you for any particular reason?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Not really. I think just the traits of the golf course stood out to me the most. The greens were really small. I felt like all of the par-3s were really difficult. I don't know if that's what everybody else thought. There's two with water. Actually, there's three with water, I think.

And there's one where I hit a 5-iron this morning and the pin was in the middle of the green. It didn't look like a green where I could be hitting 5-iron very close to the pin a lot.

So I would say the greens stood out, and definitely the par-3s were very challenging.