U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2023

June 17, 2023

Scottie Scheffler

The Los Angeles Country Club

Flash Interview

Q. 2-under 68. We've got to talk about the finish. Start with 17. Did you see it go in the hole?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No, could not see the ball go in, but there was a nice crowd there on the grandstand behind the green. I saw where it landed and I thought it would funnel out on to the green and I'd have a look for birdie and then you could see everybody as the noise started to kind of rise, got excited, and then they erupted, which is always nice when you're standing back there in the fairway.

Q. Talk about the putt on 18 and those two last holes kind of put you in a nice position.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I mean, I was fighting all day today, trying to just get myself back in position, starting the day six or seven shots back or whatever it was. Just trying to make some birdies and avoid the bogeys.

I didn't do a great job of that for most of the day but I grinded it out pretty hard. I felt like today was one of the days where I got punished for my mistakes, whereas yesterday I felt like I wasn't getting punished at all. I was hitting it all over the map and getting some decent lies and figuring it out from there, and today it seemed like every time I got offline I was really fighting for par.

And yeah, just fortunate to see that shot go in on 17 and then a nice birdie on 18 to kind of get myself back into it.

Q. Going back to 17, did that almost feel like a boost given the situation you said you had been fighting all day?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah. No, seriously, for instance, I think I was -- I maybe only missed a couple fairways today with my driver. I missed a fairway I think on 5 and actually hit a great recovery to get up there on the green somewhere, and I ended up in a spot where I had to play 70 feet away from the pin and two-putt for bogey.

And then I missed a fairway on 13, and it's actually a spot up there where the rough is fairly thin and it's almost kind of like, oh, I'll just hit it in the left rough and just get it up there on the green somewhere and try and make par just because if you hit it anywhere on the right side you're laying up and got a horrible lie.

I missed the fairway again there on 16. I can't advance it anywhere near the green, and it just felt like I was getting punished for my mistakes. Hit a good shot into 2; end up in the barranca. Just little stuff like that.

And then all of a sudden the shot goes in from the fairway and all that stuff just melts away.

Q. To follow up on what you told Damon outside, last night your driver actually caved in; is that correct?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, or flattened or something. I kept hitting it left, and I grabbed my backup and I just hitting it really straight. Then I grabbed my gamer and it just started going dead left. And then I grabbed the backup and it started going straight. And then I just tossed it away.

Q. Speaking of clubs, did you end up changing putters? Also, how do you feel your putting is going this week?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Thank you for not realizing that I switched putters. I feel like people are just asking me tons of questions about my putter, so thank you.

I did switch putters, yeah. I appreciate it. I'm serious. I did switch putters to a slightly bigger one that I have used in the past. It's a putter that the shape, I used a putter this shape when I won the U.S. Junior; I used it when I made a deep run at the U.S. Am.

Just something that was kind of an older look for me and something that just looked slightly different, maybe looked a little bit bigger line, would feel more forgiving or something like that, just a slightly different look, and I feel like I'm rolling it nice this week.

So I did switch putters.

Q. I know the Memorial was rough, but did you feel that far away on the greens over the last month or so?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No. Memorial wasn't that rough. I was one shot out of a playoff, so it was pretty decent golf.

I'm not going so sit there and bang my head against the wall because I had an off week on the greens. I'm proud of how I fought. That's something I talked about at the beginning of the week, was I think earlier in my career if I was still in college, having never seen the ball in go in on the greens would really bug me.

I just kept my head down and kept trying to execute shots, and I still gave myself a chance to win that tournament. I made the cut on the number and I didn't putt great on the weekend and almost had a chance to win.

That was my main takeaway from last week was how good I was mentally and how hard I fought just to give myself a chance.

Q. It's a long day tomorrow before the leaders tee off. What do you do during the morning and even the earlier afternoon to get yourself in the right mindset and take the nerves away?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I usually -- I'm a routine guy, so I always have the same routine whether or not we're teeing of at 7:00 in the morning or teeing off at -- tomorrow might be 3:30 in the afternoon. Who knows what time we'll be going off.

Just go out, wake up, go get breakfast, come back to the hotel, read a little bit, watch some golf, and then when it's time I'll get in the shower and start my routine.

Q. Is it any easier or harder if you're the leader versus in your position like in contention but a couple holes back?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I wouldn't say so. I think just -- you're nervous whether or not you're leading or chasing. I want to win the golf tournament. It doesn't matter what tournament it is. I'm showing up and I want to play good and I want to win.

Going into tomorrow I'm going to be chasing, but it's not going feel any different. If I was in the lead it's just I'm four shots behind instead of four shots ahead or whatever it is. Got to go out there and execute and do the best I can.

Q. Aside from winning tournaments, can you think of another more exciting finish to a round knowing what's at stake in your professional career, and how do you bottle that heading into Sunday?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Just mostly good momentum. That's pretty much all it is. I'm standing there on 17 tee and just made another bogey, and I think I was probably 4-under for the tournament and I'm looking up at the board and I'm seven shots back and I'm thinking maybe I can steal one shot coming in, but really I'm just trying to hit the fairway there just to give myself some sort of chance, because if you miss that fairway on 17 I am going to be fighting for par again.

And then hit a nice drive and the shot goes in and it's a huge boost.

And then hit another two good shots into 18, nail the putt, and all of a sudden instead of seven shots back I'm only four. So definitely a huge momentum boost going into tomorrow, and hopefully I'll just keep it rolling.

But I'm just going to go home, get some sleep, and then just get ready for tomorrow's round.

Q. Some guys it started to trickle out that they just don't really love this course; other guys really like it. Curious where you sit on that spectrum of like to dislike?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I definitely like the golf course a lot. I think it's a very interesting place to play golf.

I think some of the setup stuff has been also a little bit interesting. It can be frustrating at times with how firm the greens are and how much softer the fairways are. Like 11 is a good example of a hole in which I hit a shot -- let's go back.

I can either cut a 3-iron or draw a 4-iron and try and run it up on to the green, with a draw 4-iron. I can land 3-iron on the green, and it's just going to go 60 feet past the pin no matter what I do.

So you're standing up there on the tee box like, well, I might as well give myself a chance to get the ball somewhere close to the pin versus just taking 60 feet because there's no way that the 3-iron is going to stop.

I hit a 4-iron, nice draw, perfect shot, lands right in the middle of the runway, and it just hits and almost bounces backwards to sideways, and I'm 10 yards short of the front of the green. There's literally nothing you can do to hit the ball close to the hole there.

Then I feel like we ran into the same thing on 7 yesterday where it's just frustrating that like my ball lands just short of the green yesterday on 7 and barely gets onto the green.

Max's ball lands a foot on to the green and goes over the green the only guy who actually got a look for birdie was Collin, and he yelled 'fore' because he thought he was going to hit the volunteer in the left rough.

So stuff like that on the golf course can be frustrating, but at the end of the day, it's golf and you get good breaks and bad breaks. I like that the golf course is challenging. I like that the greens are really firm.

There can just be some frustrating aspects to it when golf courses get this challenging. It's just the nature of the game.