CHARLES SCHWAB CHALLENGE

May 28, 2023

Adam Schenk

Colonial CC

Press Conference

Q. Adam, thanks for joining us at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Take me through the emotions and how that went for you.

ADAM SCHENK: It was probably the hardest round of golf I've played because of the course conditions. It was so firm, so fast, and if you got out of position, you had to think about how you were going to give yourself a chance to make par.

We played great all day. I hit a poor shot on 10. Other than that, I wouldn't take back any of the shots we hit. Unfortunately, came up one short and didn't get it done in the playoff. But Emiliano hit an amazing shot into 16. So he earned it.

THE MODERATOR: Seventh start here, best finish here. Another second place runner-up finish this season already. You're trending in the right direction. What do you like about your game right now that that win is on the horizon?

ADAM SCHENK: I like how I've learned what shots I'm good at and areas I need to improve and stay away from. I just play to my strengths, and I generally putt well. And I try to get the ball in play off the tee, which the cut, a spinny cut high driver, or if it's a high bomb, just really taking advantage of what the golf course is giving me.

We did a great job of that this week with how firm and fast, and you had to play a lot of different tee shots. We did great. This was my first week with Brett Swedberg, and David Cooke, longtime caddie as well. We're doing more or less a bag share towards the end of the year. This was our first week with Brett.

David and I put in a lot of work too. I'm happy for everyone. David is caddieing for me next week at Memorial. It would have been amazing to get it done, but maybe next time.

THE MODERATOR: Your wife and baby A.J. flew in to support you. What did it mean to have their support today?

ADAM SCHENK: It meant everything. Not that I forgot they were here at times, but I was so involved with what was going on and how difficult the course is playing, and I look up, and we're already on hole -- through the front nine, and then we're on 15. I looked for them throughout the day, and I knew they were on hole 1 when I teed off, and it's just hard for her to -- I don't think she walked much of the round.

But you saw them on 18, and it would have been one of the best experiences of my life to make the putt and have them run out. It would have been special for us. But hopefully another time.

I know we can do it. We just need to keep giving ourselves opportunities.

THE MODERATOR: Absolutely. What will you take away from this week moving forward and into these upcoming tournaments?

ADAM SCHENK: I'll just remember -- obviously we got close and know it's coming and know just to stay patient. When I get in the situation again, especially if it's a difficult golf course, just to keep taking what the course gives you, stick to your game plan, and know that I'm good enough to win out here.

I've proven that, but I just haven't quite gotten that done yet. Any small improvements I'll take away from this week, I will, and I'll definitely learn a couple of things.

Q. When you made the birdie at No. 16, did you have any idea what was going on with Emiliano up at 18?

ADAM SCHENK: I did not. When we walked off the tee on 17, I spun my 5-iron up, and I looked right and someone was in the creek. I couldn't see who it was. I didn't look too hard. I knew Emiliano was a couple shots ahead.

I had so much to worry about on 17. I was just worried about how I was going to make par, have a chance, and i hit it in the bunker. Then ended up making par.

I didn't know if he was at 8, 9, or 10. I know Brett said he was struggling to make bogey or par on the last hole. Then I hit my drive in the fairway on 18, I looked up on the leaderboard and saw it was 8. So I knew a birdie would win it.

Q. Adam, that was a really fun final six, seven holes to watch as a fan and an observer. Was it fun to play in, or did the conditions make it, I don't know, miserable in a way?

ADAM SCHENK: It was fun. It wasn't miserable. The course is hard for everybody, but it was pushed to the limits. I don't know, I'm guessing some parts of the greens would die if they were trying to bring them back.

It was such a test. It was fair. There weren't any holes that you couldn't birdie, but it really penalized you when you were out of position. That's what a good golf course does.

Q. When did this change? Because the first day, you guys were killing it. Then at some point here in the last couple days, this thing really started to kill you. Do you know about what hole or what day or what moment of the second day or third day this really changed?

ADAM SCHENK: You'd have to ask them. I'm guessing it's when they stopped watering. From Thursday, plug balls middle of the green from the rough, fine. Friday could still kind of do that. Saturday, started to firm up. Then when I stepped on the putting green today, it was like whoa, this feels like you're walking on concrete.

Q. Adam, can you walk us through the second playoff hole, please, from start to finish. The shots you hit, the yardage you had, what you felt.

ADAM SCHENK: The first playoff hole, 16, when I played it the first time, 73 front, 85 pin. We were trying to hit something around 80. The wind was more down off the left.

I hit a pretty good 8-iron in regulation, and I don't know where it landed. You can't find the ball when it's out there on the greens, and it rolled down there seven, eight feet.

I tried to hit a similar shot in the playoff. The wind was definitely a little stronger, and it felt like it was more down. I tried to hit a very similar 8-iron, and it took off with no spin and just went a mile. It went 197 in the air. I saw Emiliano at four, five feet.

I was talking with Brett, if we can get this somehow relatively close to the hole, make the putt, and make him have to make it. I chipped it, and it went up there to two feet, and then he made it.

He deserved to win, in my opinion, just because -- he doubled the last hole. How many times out of a hundred is he going to do that? One maybe? Two? That would have left a pretty sour taste in his mouth to do that and lose. Then for him to hit the shot on 16, he probably deserved it a little more than I did.

Q. It looked like you had a couple of clubs in mind for the chip shot?

ADAM SCHENK: I was back in -- I thought if I could -- I was in actually some green grass, which is not a ton of it out there around that green because everybody walks off that way, so it's all trampled down.

I thought, if I could come in steep with an open face and get the pathway left, I thought I could maybe fly it on the green, but then I didn't know if I could stop it. I was looking to stop it with a 60 or a sand wedge, a 56.

Ultimately with the downhill slope, I went with a 60 just so I could be a little more aggressive through the thick rough. I mean it was -- as close as I hit it, it was probably a 1 out of 30 shot, and it just happened to be the 1 out of 30. And then he made it. It didn't matter.

Q. One more question if I could. At Valspar, you got the tough side of the luck on the last hole. Today flying the green on 16, what Harry suffered on 18, what Grillo suffered on 18. How do you keep your perspective about golf when it can be so incredibly cruel?

ADAM SCHENK: It's tough. Like I told Brett, I said, I really shouldn't be in this playoff now. He probably should have bogeyed the last hole. Like we said, it's not going to happen very often, and we had a chance to win. It didn't happen. We had a putt in the playoff. It didn't happen.

Just the perspective I'll take from today, it really stings. It would have been really cool to win with my wife and my son A.J. and my mom, my mother and father-in-law. My father was not here. But it just would have been really cool. Looking back on it, it's definitely a missed opportunity, but in the same stroke, I shouldn't have been in the playoff.

So fortunate to do that, fortunate to have a solo second. It's my first playoff loss actually. I was 2-0, but it was bound to happen at some point.

THE MODERATOR: What are your thoughts on the renovation that this course is about to undergo? It's currently the longest standing non-major held at this course. What you saw this week and kind of what you think this means for the TOUR moving forward.

ADAM SCHENK: To be honest, I don't know much about what they're doing. I saw the little drawn out map in player dining this morning, and I checked it out for two minutes. I don't know exactly what they're going to do. I don't know if they're going to keep their bent greens or go to Bermuda, but the place is phenomenal.

This is my sixth time here, I think. Always enjoy coming here. It's a direct flight from Evansville, which is where my home's at. I can't wait to come back here next year.