TGL PLAYOFF SEMIFINALS PRESENTED BY SOFI: NEW YORK GC VS LOS ANGELES GC

March 17, 2025

Xander Schauffele

Rickie Fowler

Cameron Young

SoFi Center

New York Golf Club

Press Conference

New York Golf Club 6, Los Angeles Golf Club 4

THE MODERATOR: Welcome New York Golf Club here to the media center at SoFi Center. You lose your first two matches; I guess that was all part of the plan. Now here you are in the finals. Just comments about tonight's match.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it was a tough start to the season. It's definitely -- I think we all thought it was possible just to try and come back and get to where we've gotten.

The comeback isn't complete yet, but it's definitely nice to be here.

Q. What have you learned as a team from that first match to tonight?

CAMERON YOUNG: I think we've just learned how to play the game well and kind of figure it out, just how to get comfortable. We've played better and better, so I think it's just been a team effort, and all four of us have done some clutch things and gotten us through to this point now.

Q. I'm not sure you guys even know this, but over the last three matches you guys lead the league in strokes gained total and holes won. Do you feel like any momentum has come in the last few weeks, including into the Playoffs?

RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, definitely like we've talked about, like Cam just said, the more time we've been in here and the more time spent and the more comfortable we get, the better we've been playing. Tonight we didn't play as well as we have been, but there was still some good golf. Luckily LA didn't play as well as they have normally either. It ended up being a good match. Hopefully that's a good sign, us saving a little bit for next week.

Q. Rickie, you had said that you wanted another shot at LA, particularly with the way the last match went. Was it satisfying to hold them off in singles after the way they came back last time?

RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, it was, especially getting the first two points out of the gate in singles and giving us a little bit of cushion, but not the way I wanted to make the putt to close it out, not the way I wanted to see it kind of finish up there with Tommy missing his.

We would have bet hard the other way, that he wasn't going to miss that.

It was still a hard-fought match. We had a good time. Yeah, we left it all out there.

Q. Talk a little about the hammer strategy and how you guys took advantage of that tonight.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, I thought we did okay. I feel like I kind of fumbled a little early on where I tried to throw it late. Didn't know I could throw it -- I thought I could throw it at any time and I ended up throwing it --

RICKIE FOWLER: You missed it by like half a second.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Right as I was taking the putter back. I felt like that was a pretty decent spot. I don't know if they would have accepted it, which would have given us a point earlier on, and then he ended up making it so we got to keep our hammer. But overall just try and pick your spots and try and throw it wherever you can.

Q. Xander, you were clearly frustrated with your play over the weekend and with your health in general coming into this early season. How big would a championship in TGL in its debut season be for you to turn this thing around?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, it was nice to see some balls go straight --

RICKIE FOWLER: Same.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Water is water. Whether it's in real life or in a simulator, it sucks. That's probably where you saw I hit one snap-hook there which I got a little bit heebie-geebies for a second. Didn't want to mess it up for my team. We ended up winning that hole, thanks to these two. But it's nice to see the ball go a little bit straighter than the last two days. I'd probably say that for the entire team.

RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, we've got a lot of bad shots out the last two days and saved up some of the good ones for here.

Q. When you guys are having to make that adjustment, what was the priority coming into today on making that adjustment from being outdoors to indoors?

RICKIE FOWLER: I think one for me is trying to keep it simple. You're not having to deal with, say, elements that we dealt with over the weekend with wind and different things like that. You're placing the ball, you kind of know what lie you're going to get.

In a way in here, for the most part, I try and hit fairly straight shots. That's very different when you're playing in wind or to tournament conditions where pins are tucked or different things like that. This green is obviously very small compared to what we normally play, but in a way it kind of forces you to stay pretty tight and hit some good shots. For me, like I said, it's staying really simple and just kind of aim at the stick and try and hit it straight and flag it.

Q. For Rick and Xander, we saw some of the props out there today. Can you touch on filming "Happy Gilmore 2" and what it was like working with Adam Sandler?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, I've always been a huge fan. I feel like I quote him a lot just with my humor. My wife jokes that I have the same, like, egghead that Adam has, too. It was really, really -- I felt like a kid again when I was able to meet him and sort of see how he operates, and it was cool to see him hands on and see the rest of his crew and I think just how cool and how close that entire group has stayed. Even some of the guys that weren't in the movie, they were kind of hanging by and saying what's up to Adam. It was a really, really cool experience for me.

RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, I had a blast. I've known Adam for a while, and it was fun to be able to be up there for a couple days. I wish I would have played a bit better last year; that would have allowed me to spend some more time there, but I needed to go actually do my real job.

I had a blast. Like I said, wish I could have done more, but it was fun. Like Xander said, kind of getting to see Adam in his element and be a part of that was special.

Q. I know Xander is playing Valspar, correct?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I am.

Q. How does the finals next week fit into your schedule leading into the Masters?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Finals during Houston?

RICKIE FOWLER: I'm not in Augusta so I need to play better on the real golf course to work on that.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Just got to win it all, Rick, and we'll see you there.

RICKIE FOWLER: Maybe a win next week might give me some momentum to go win a tournament.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Why not. Yeah. I'm just happy we were able to win tonight. We're going to have to -- I think Rick is currently -- I don't know what Fitzy is doing for Houston, but we'll fire up the group chat and see how it's working, but we'll get organized and have a plan. But it's early in the week, so it's going to be sort of all eyeballs on this and try and win it and move on from that.