Q. You couldn't have gotten off to a much better start in those first few holes on the front nine with five birdies in your first six holes. You really got the round jump started.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, you can't ask for much of a better start than that. Came out, nice birdie on the first, good birdie on the second. Kind of stole one on 4, and two good birdies there on 5 and 6.
Q. You're cruising along with all those pars you're stringing together and all of a sudden at 16 maybe the longest birdie putt you made all day from about 15 feet away and the shot into 18, we had that outside of 190 yards away, and you put it in there for a 10-footer for birdie.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: 16 was nice to see one go in. I felt like I had put myself in position there on 15 and didn't capitalize, so it was nice to capitalize on 16, and yeah, finally figured out how to hold the green on 18. It's been a challenge.
Q. We've been here before in this Signature Event on the PGA TOUR, a winner a couple of years ago. How are you feeling about championship Sunday here on Hilton Head Island?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, excited. Good to be back in the tournament. I was a little bit behind the 8-ball going into today but had a nice round to put myself back in position.
Q. Was there anything you worked on yesterday after your round that you feel like helped you today?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, I went to the range for a few minutes yesterday just to make sure my distances were correct because I felt like we got a couple winds wrong yesterday, but that's part of the golf course is getting the wind right, and it can be really challenging. So just hit a few numbers. They were still good, so we left.
Q. Did you have fun today, would you say?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, at the beginning, yeah. We were making birdies; that's always fun. As you start kind of getting back into contention, I think that's always fun. It's never as fun being on the outside looking in.
Q. I wanted to ask about Gary; I know you guys have spent some time together in the last couple weeks. What impresses you about him and his resilience to get back into contention and win after what he's been through the last few years?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, Gary is a guy that I've looked up to for a long time. He worked with Randy a long time ago, starting when he was in college and when he was a young pro, and I was a young kid at Royal Oaks who was fortunate to be able to sit there and watch him practice. Gary was always great at letting me hang around, and I'm sure I was fairly annoying at times, but there was never a moment where he kicked me off the range. He always let me spend time with him, compete with him, watch him practice, do all different kinds of things.
So he's been a guy that I've looked up to for a long time. Like you said, you spend a lot of time around Gary. He's a fantastic guy, a great competitor. The game of golf I think means so much to him and his family.
It's hard to watch him at times just because I know exactly what he's going through, but the guy is so resilient. He's so tough. For him to show up, especially after a week like last week, which can be pretty draining mentally for him, to show up this week and continue to play and compete the way he does is pretty inspirational.
Q. When you're in contention on a course where you've won before, are you drawing on the memories of winning here in the past, or is it a recent win? Where is your mind at?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, I think having experience on a golf course always helps. This is a golf course where as you get later in the day, it typically will get more challenging just because the golf course continues to firm up. You continue to get more wind, and I think closing out on this golf course can be challenging.
I can always think about that experience, and like today I was maybe seven shots back going into the start of the round. I knew I didn't have to do anything crazy in order to get back in contention. I just had to have a really nice round.
Was able to get off to a really good start and had a good finish, as well, to kind of get myself back into contention.
Q. You had a lot of birdies on the front nine without hitting many greens. How is the scrambling out there?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think when I hit the greens, I probably made birdie. I'm trying to think. Maybe the only one I made off the green was on 9, which was basically on the green, just because I was putting from just off the fringe. So I was able to capitalize when I hit it pretty close to the hole is how I was able to make those birdies.
Q. Can you just talk about Matt Fitzpatrick and the times you've played with him and what observations you have about his game?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, Fitzy is a guy that I think -- I admire him because he works really hard. He's a guy that I see always doing stuff in order to play well. He's a guy that he gets really into his stats. He's a guy that's going to check every single box that he can in order to get out here and play well.
He's a guy that when you look has always improved over the course of his career and made some changes in order to improve. You look at him when he first came out, he was a lot slower off the tee than he is now. He's got a lot of speed. He doesn't use it on every single shot, but he uses it when necessary. Not only is he a hard worker, but I think he's a really smart player, as well.
Q. Do you think having that nice steady round that you had today, are you going to do the same thing again tomorrow?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Hopefully.
Q. Try to find the same thing?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah.
Q. Did you think with about 10 or 11 people in front of you that you'd need a good round but you'd need some help, someone from that group --
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, Fitzpatrick goes out today and shoots 64, that's going to make things really hard for me. But that's one of those situations where you just kind of tip your cap and say, great week. He's going to be hard to catch.
You need a tiny bit of help, but I can't control what those guys are going to do. If somebody shows up and shoots 28-under on this golf course, sometimes you just get beat. So going into today I was just going to do my best and see where that left me.
Q. Was there any part of you that was pleased when you saw the first leaderboard with you making up ground?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Well, yeah, I knew pretty early that I was going to make up some ground just because I think Fitzpatrick started at 14 and then Hovland was at 13, but the next guy was at 10. After my start, I think I was maybe 5-under through 6 before some of those guys had even got on the course, so it felt like I had already gotten myself into contention there.
Q. What was the club on 18?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: 9-iron. That's the only way to hold the green. Smash it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports