BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

August 20, 2023

Scottie Scheffler

Olympia Fields Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Scottie, at what point did you realize that there was some crazy special round happening just in front of you?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I'm not really sure. I was just kind of trying to stay in my own little world. I know he was getting going. I didn't know what Viktor started at, but I knew he was playing really well.

I was just trying to do my best to keep pushing forward. I didn't birdie 15, and then missed a birdie putt on 16 and bogeyed 17, which kind of -- 17 obviously kind of took me out of it.

Q. Do you just write this off as one of those days where somebody does something completely extraordinary?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, pretty amazing round of golf to win this tournament like that.

I still don't understand how the scores were so low this week. I don't know, this place seems pretty hard to me, but guys are just ripping it up. 61 is a fantastic round, especially with Sunday pressure, and the way he finished was a really fantastic round.

Q. Can you walk through the chip on 15.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it was just a little bump-and-run. I landed it maybe a foot short of where I wanted to, and then the second bounce was the one that really got me. I thought I was going to one-hop it on to the green but it hit that poa annua and kind of stopped.

Q. Because of your disposition, you're not overly expressive, sometimes it's hard to tell what you're feeling in those moments, those succession of holes, if it's frustration or anger. Can you tell us a little bit about how you actually feel when it goes awry like that late?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I don't really know. I'll just say that.

I'm just out there trying to execute shots. That's really all I'm focused on. I feel like I did a pretty good job of that today. It was just the putts didn't fall at the end.

I felt like I doubted myself a little bit on 16, and then 17 it was like -- it was weird because I had a lot of those right-to-lefters today, and it seemed like I was just hitting them barely through the break.

16 was a putt where it just had a lot more turn than I thought, and 17 was another one where I felt like I hit my line, and I took up and it just stayed on the right edge the whole time.

It's definitely frustrating, but I approached the shots the way I wanted to today and just didn't hole the putts there at the end.

Q. It was such a wild final hour. What are you feeling now?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, I'm just a bit frustrated. I think that would be the way to describe it. I mean, Viktor went out and really just beat me today and played a fantastic round. I can hold my head high and just -- I did my best out there today and fought hard. Just ultimately came up a couple shots short.

Q. When you said you felt that doubt, was it just on that specific swing or was it a buildup of anything else?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No, no, I'm saying on the putt, I read about three inches of break and I just didn't hit it the speed that I needed to.

I felt like I started it on line, I just didn't have the speed.

Q. You've got a big first round in about four days. How do you regroup, reset, refocus?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Get out of here, first of all, go take a shower. Step one.

No, I'll take some rest tomorrow and then I'll be out at the course, going through my normal routine on Tuesday, but I'll take all of tomorrow off.

Q. Is there an accumulation of times when you've felt you've played well enough and not won?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, yeah. I think it's something I've touched on a good amount this week is I'm never satisfied with how my score is at the end of the day. Viktor is probably pretty happy with a 61, but if you ask him I'm sure he left one shot out there somewhere. Perfection is unattainable in this game, and that's something I guess we're always striving for but we always seem to fall short.