THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 14, 2025

Scottie Scheffler

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. How confident are you you might be able to make up some ground with the conditions this weekend?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it's going to be pretty challenging this weekend. The golf course was definitely gettable the first two days. I wasn't able to take advantage of it the way that I would have hoped to, but yeah, going into tomorrow and Sunday, definitely be some opportunity there with the conditions changing.

Q. Xander just got done saying that the difference in terms of playing with top three players in the world versus playing with Tiger, he said there's a reason why they call it the Tiger effect. Just seemed like the crowd was very polite, very cordial, but it didn't seem like it was ever really, really boisterous.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I mean, I didn't really do a whole lot to fire them up today. Rory did some good stuff there, but he didn't hole out or do anything crazy, but yeah, I don't know.

Q. Except on the first hole?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: He did, yeah. He chipped in on the first hole. That seemed pretty loud. But after that he just played solid, boring golf. Man, how terrible is that. I hate that for him. (Laughing).

Q. Rory rarely has a bad week and you obviously haven't had many in awhile. What impresses you about his consistency as he just kind of seems to be always in it, as you are?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Well not only his consistency week-to-week but year after year. I think you got a guy there that's played really well out here for about 15 years. May even be longer than that. You guys would remember better than me. But it's very impressive, not only his week-to-week but his longevity year after year. The guy's won, I think they said 27 times this morning on the first tee on TOUR, and he's doing a few things right to be putting up those kind of numbers.

Q. You're early stages compared to that, how difficult is that to sustain?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think in this game it's very difficult. You can battle a number of things, injuries, aging. There's a lot of different things that can happen. Rory has stayed healthy for a long time. He's played great golf for a long time, and it's definitely not as easy as you would think it is.

Q. You're having pretty good finishes most weeks, but you seem a little frustrated at getting back to where you were. What is your standard for what you would be happy with right now?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Well I'm still right here, so, don't need to get back anywhere. I'm right here. As far as the frustration, yeah, like for instance the last two days I felt like I could have scored a lot better. The amount of good putts I hit that just went right around the hole, whether it be slight misreads, or I think about my putt there on No. 9, Teddy and I had a really good read on it, turned a little left early, came back to the right at the end. The grain's going to the right, there's a gentle slope going to the right, my ball goes the other way.

At times last year those were the putts that would go in, and the last few weeks seems like they haven't been. But still doing a lot of good things, hitting a lot of good putts and looking forward to trying to climb the leaderboard over the weekend.

Q. In the last year at this time on this day you were not feeling great, obviously with the neck, and you toughed it out. Is there anything you lean on from those rounds to help you, because obviously you didn't have your best stuff, but you not only did you get it done, you won.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I think having that in the back of my head at times is always a good thing. I don't have to play perfect golf in order to try to win tournaments, and sometimes I try to lean on that a little bit when I'm out there. But I talk about it a lot. Last year was last year. This year's a totally different year. It's a different golf course, different feel. There's a lot of different stuff going on.

But I can remember some of those experiences of playing some decent golf when I was injured and so if there's a day where I'm not swinging it so well or things just feel off, I can kind of remind myself of times like that.

Q. Gusting 30 tomorrow, what is it like playing here in that that sort of challenge in a southeast wind?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It will be very challenging. The wind moves around a good amount out here. If you go to like a course like where The Open Championships usually are, you could play the ball on the ground. Around this place you can't really. The fairways are fairly soft. You got to get the ball airborne, and so got to make sure you're controlling your spin, hitting it really solid. At times it can feel like you're guessing a little bit on the wind, and you hopefully guess right more often than you're wrong.

Q. Do you look at statistics, and if you do, when and why?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I'll usually check statistics just more out of curiosity than anything. I usually have a fairly good feel of what's going on, and sometimes I like to check the statistics just to make sure.