Q. What did you like about your play out there today?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I did a lot of good stuff. I felt like the conditions were pretty challenging out there, especially late in the day. I was able to hole some nice putts, as well.
Q. Did you have a favorite kind of shot or hole or anything -- what was the highlight of the day, if anything?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, 13, that 3-iron I hit in there was really nice. It was pretty much exactly what I was trying to do. It was kind of one where I had to hit it really solid in order to get it there with the water short, and I just did pretty much exactly what I wanted to and it felt nice.
Q. What did you want to do in terms of -- you said you did what you wanted to do. What did you want to do?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Hit it really solid and really straight, just barely right of the pin, and kept it nice flat flight, get it to go through the wind, and it was good. Well struck.
Q. How many shots did you hit like that today do you think?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Just one. Well, exactly how I wanted to? Very rarely throughout a tournament do you hit one exactly how I intend to, and that was one of the few.
Q. What would you describe the rest of them as, pretty good?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, pretty good, yeah. Yeah, good. Yeah.
Q. Adam Schefter was out there. He was joking about hearing a lot of Adam Scheffler out there. Did you hear he was on-course reporting today?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I heard he was on-course reporting. I never saw him. I'm not sure what he was doing, but I did hear he was making his debut.
Q. Have you followed him at all like NFL --
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I love the NFL, so yeah, I definitely know who Adam Schefter is. Did some fantasy football last year, so I did get to know him a little bit better.
Q. I know you talked yesterday about a course rewarding good shots and punishing you reasonably for less than good shots. Is that the way this played out for you today, that you got the rewards that you earned?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I hit a lot of good shots and I made the bogey there on 17. If you hit 3-iron out of the fairway you should be struggling to make par.
I actually got a pretty good lie in the rough. I got a lucky break and wasn't able to take advantage of it, but overall, I hit a lot of good shots, gave myself a lot of looks. I got off to a good start, and like I said, it was challenging out there late in the day. The wind was blowing pretty hard, and I was able to hit some really nice shots to get some good looks.
Q. What was your strategy in changing clubs on 17?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I was in between 8 and 9 and decided to hit 9. Fortunately we did because we still went over the green with a 9-iron.
Q. Do you think about the possibility of shooting sub-60? Does it enter your mind at all?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Not really, to be honest with you. The conditions were really challenging out there today. Anytime -- I would be surprised to see what the scores were around kind of our tee time wave just because when I got out here to have breakfast this morning it was very calm. When I came out to do my warmup it was still pretty calm. By the time I got to the first tee, it was blowing 20 miles an hour and it was sustained at that for most of our round.
It maybe went down to 10, to 12 and then it would gust to 30. It was pretty challenging out there. I didn't really let my mind water too much. I just tried to stay out there and execute, and that was pretty much it.
Q. Collin was taking his glove off for some shots today, said it was the first time he had ever done that. It was something he found on Monday. He said golf is a crazy head --
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I've tried to hit without my glove and I'm not any good at it. You definitely won't see me doing that. I've got sweaty hands so that ain't going to work.
Q. Do you look forward to seeing a golf course that doesn't have this much rough on the side of the fairway?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No. I mean, with the way I play golf, the more rough typically is going to be better for me. I hit a lot of fairways, and a course like Oakmont I thought suited me really well just in terms of -- good ball-striking was going to be rewarded there for sure. I just wasn't able to do it.
I've always had a preference for the tougher tests that we have. That's always been my preference since I was a young kid. I like the challenge of playing difficult golf courses, and I like the challenge of playing against really good fields, as well.
Q. So did you enjoy winning Dallas at 30-under?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah.
Q. That's just what the test was for the week?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, and to be fair, I won by a significant margin, so to call it 30-under I think would be a stretch. I could have won it at 23-under, and also the PGA, same thing. I maybe won at 10, but it was still a pretty sizable cushion.
So I think to call the winning score when it's that big of a margin I think is a bit silly. 30-under, actually, no, I won by eight.
Q. Did you call me silly or the question silly?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Both. Does that make sense, though?
Q. Do you start out on a day like today looking at the 62 at the top of the board and shoot for it?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No, no, not at all. It's a 72-hole tournament, and the conditions I felt like were tougher this afternoon, so I was just going to try and go out and post a number and try and get myself in good position for the rest of the week.
I got hot pretty early in the round and got off to a nice start, and then I really kept the momentum through basically hole 15 and then I had one mess-up there on 17, but overall it was a pretty good day.
Q. What was difficult about the conditions?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Just the wind.
Q. You've said for a million years now that you're just a forward-thinking guy, but when you finish a major and it was reasonably close, not everything went your way that week, how soon do you close the book on it or how often do you just think about that?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: That's a good question. I think reflection is always a good thing. I don't know if I'm necessarily a forward-thinking guy. I usually just try to stay in the present.
I think there's always stuff you can learn when you're not playing as well as you should. Maybe you could think about a shot differently. Maybe you could think about a hole differently. There's always something that can be taken away from tournaments like that.
The way I swung it the first couple rounds was pretty poor. I mean, I was not getting the ball in play. I don't know if you saw much of it, but it wasn't very pretty.
But I was very proud of the way I stayed in the tournament and I still gave myself a chance to win. That gives me a lot of confidence going forward that I could -- especially on a golf course like Oakmont where you know you have to get the ball in play, and I wasn't able to do that in the beginning of the tournament, and to hang in there, flirt with the cut line on Friday, have a good finish to my round Friday, kind of bounce back, get myself back in the tournament to give myself an opportunity to win was I felt like pretty good. I gained some confidence from that.
It's also just good reflection knowing that it's really important for me just to stay in it mentally, and I felt like last week was, oddly enough, as good as I've been mentally on the course throughout the season.
Q. Last week was?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think so, yeah.
Q. You didn't think about, man, I just lost some momentum here, if I just could have done this; you think about, man, I wasn't great last week and I had a chance?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Well, there's definitely some stuff I wish I could have back, obviously, but what's the point. The U.S. Open was last week, and as much as I want to win every tournament and play perfect golf, it's just not sustainable. For me to be able to stay in that tournament and give myself a decent chance, even on Sunday -- if I holed some putts on Sunday, I think I could have made a run, and I just wasn't able to make the putts.
But overall, I did some really good stuff last week, and I'm not going to sit around and waste time with what-ifs.
Q. How many tournaments did you win without hitting a perfect shot, without hitting a 3-iron?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Gosh, I don't know. I have no idea. Very few shots stick out in my mind over time. Like I think of the final round at THE PLAYERS I hit -- when I had the bad neck in '23, I hit exactly what I wanted to do on the 3rd hole with a 9-iron. '22 Masters, the 5th hole, I hit it exactly how I wanted to. In those high-pressure situations where you can hit it exactly how I'm imagining hitting it, that gives me a lot of confidence going into the rest of the round.
Those are shots that kind of get lost in terms of the tournament. I'm not even sure if I birdied No. 3 at THE PLAYERS and I know I didn't birdie No. 5 during the Masters, but those are the shots when you're playing and you're in the moment, those are the ones that give me a lot of confidence.
Q. Last week the rounds were really slow. Do you find these tournaments with a twosome, a little bit more momentum, do you think that helps your game or any of these players' games a little bit better?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Well, I think if you're going to look at the pace of play debate, I think twosomes makes a significant difference in terms of what we can do for pace of play. You also have two completely different golf courses between Oakmont and this one. The distance between tees on this golf course is much shorter. The holes are also shorter. It's simpler to get around this place. Oakmont is a big piece of property where the tee boxes are far apart.
The holes go back and forth, but you finish one hole and you walk 100 yards back to the next tee, and it's also so difficult so you're hitting a lot more shots, as well.
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