Q. Scottie, four birdies, no bogeys, 12-under heading into the final round. I know there were some putts out there you thought you made that wouldn't fall. Give me a synopsis of the round today.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: That's a pretty good description. I hit a lot of good shots. I was close on the putts man. A lot of these pins are just sitting in some tricky spots. I had a lot of cross-grain, putting it -- cross-grain, cross-slope. So you have slope going one way, grain going another.
And then a lot of these pins, they put on a lot of grain changes, so you can have 10- to 12-footers with multiple grain changes. It's challenging to hole putts. I'll just keep giving myself the looks, and hopefully they'll drop tomorrow.
Q. The strategy tomorrow -- you're in the mix. You have a chance tomorrow to win the TOUR Championship again. Is it the course setup? How aggressive can you be tomorrow?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, a lot of it depends on the conditions, and like you said, the setup. We'll see going into it tomorrow. I won't think much past just getting in the fairway on the 1st hole and try and attack from there.
Q. We've heard Aronimink mentioned twice today in terms of just everything being so stacked at the top. Can you see any similarities? Not tee to green maybe, but just the idea of --
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It's a long discussion, I think. I think you see --
Q. For a Saturday.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I think it's a good description. I think when I talk about some of the pin locations, I think that has a lot to do with it. When you have really, really large green complexes like these and they tuck the pins very close to the edges, it's a balancing act between how much you want to bite off.
It's like am I going to try to squeeze it into a pin where it's three yards off the edge and if I miss it on the short-side, I can't get up-and-down and I have 50 feet coming back? There's a lot of that out there. There's a lot of pins that are on grain changes.
There's certain holes where guys are making tons of pars, like the 9th hole. The 9th hole, I looked over the last few days and I actually asked in scoring today, just because I was curious. You're seeing between 87 players going through over the course of three days, you've got 79 pars. 79 pars out of 87 players. Is that a good hole?
Q. That seems high to me.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: That seems very high. It's almost like let's just skip it at this point. If we're all going to make par, what's the point in playing the hole, to be fair?
Q. What did you hit?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I hit a 5-wood today. Part of it's design, part of it's setup. I actually thought it was better from the back box because you might see a few more bogeys. I asked in scoring just out of curiosity, and it was just a ton of pars again.
I don't love stuff like that. I love seeing rewards for good shots and punishments for bad. I think sometimes, especially when you look at these modern golf courses, they do a lot of the same stuff to the golf courses. They make the fairways bigger. They make the greens bigger. Then in order to protect par, we shove the pins up against edges.
That's why I think you see the scores get really close like they are this week. Like I said, it's a balancing act between how much do I want to bite off.
You look at like the 17th hole yesterday was a shot where I had a good number, liked the number, hit a good shot and get a bad wind gust. All of a sudden, I'm in a spot where I can't get it within -- I mean I hit an unbelievable pitch, and I have 12, 15 feet for par.
In that moment you're like, man, I probably shouldn't have attacked there. At the same time it's like, if you're hitting it to 15, 20 feet a lot, you look at -- what was the hole there? The 13th hole for me. On the spot there, left side of the fairway, where pin's in the back of the green. It's three from the back right edge; it's four from the back edge. It's like -- wind's swirling. I'll just play it a touch short a bit, have a 15-footer, hit a good putt and burn the edge.
Little stuff like that over the course of an event, I think it can bring people closer together. Like I said, I'm not a fan of that when it comes to setup.
Q. Sorry for not seeing 18, but what kind of lie do you have that led to the second shot you had?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: A lot. When you're preparing for the course, Teddy, one of the things he does is kind of check the rough. That was a spot where a lot of the rough was down grain. It was pretty thin over there. You kind of shift your line to be more aggressive with the left side, especially with where that pin was today. You get up there and your ball is buried in the rough and there's a lot of thin grass around you, it's pretty frustrating.
Went up to a number and was able to get out there and down the left side of the fairway. Actually, it was a pretty tough layup shot. Just hit a poor wedge and ended up two-putting for par.
Q. So you missed your spot by a yard off the tee, it sounds like.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: A little more than that but...(laughter).
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