THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler to the interview room here at the 2026 Cadillac Championship. Scottie, just got done playing nine holes on the pro-am. This is the first time you've seen Doral. What are your overall thoughts of the course.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I played the back, no, front nine yesterday and back nine today. Golf course is good. Greens are in good shape. Felt like the rumors about the course were true. It's long, it's difficult. Should be a good test this week.
THE MODERATOR: You had a fun pro-am pairing. How was it with being an F1 driver group.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it was fun. I got to talk with Checo a little bit about some different stuff, and kind of how they prepare for events. I'm not -- I don't know a ton about the Formula 1, but it was really interesting to hear things from his perspective about how he prepares for events, and what the week looks like for them. And how they get that car basically around the world for the year was also something interesting to hear as well. It was a lot of fun, really good guy and, yeah, fun pro-am.
THE MODERATOR: We'll go and open up for questions.
Q. You talk about the group that you're paired up with, you play in a lot of these things, sometimes you can get some guys that can't hit the ball. They look like they could play a little bit of golf. How cool was it to have guys that can do that in a pro-am and you can get through it?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, yeah, it's a good observation. Sometimes you don't know what you're going to get. The guys today moved it pretty well and hit some good shots. I was impressed with Checo, any time you make it as high as he does in a professional sport it's really hard to be good at another sport as well. So, yeah, they were good guys, we had a lot of fun, some good conversation. Overall it was really nice morning.
Q. Can you address the crunch we're in, in the schedule now. I know it's been asked the last couple of weeks, but between the Masters and the PGA Championship and all these Signature Events and five of the top 15 missing here just because of schedule issues. Going forward, do you see something need to be done about this and how has this impacted your scheduling personally?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, my schedule for me always operates on kind of a cadence. Like I typically don't love playing the week before a major. The TOUR right now's in a great position. It's nice to have so many tournaments that are really good and, I mean, people always ask me about what's my favorite tournament out here and it's always hard to say because we get treated so well at all the tournaments. There's really not a tournament that I played that I haven't liked. There's not a tournament that I wouldn't want to go back to. If I had it my way I would play every single week out here. But just the nature of our sport and the demand on our time and everything it's not really possible. I have to set up my schedule in certain type of cadence. And for me, playing three, four weeks in a row is a challenge. Like, if y'all were to walk with me each day of the tournament and to see what we have to do in order to play one week, having to do that four weeks in a row would -- I wouldn't be able to perform my best. So when I show up at a tournament I want to be able to give it my best and I have to set up my schedule in a certain way and, you know, the chips kind of fall where they do.
Q. (No Microphone.)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Having three of our biggest events in a row is, depending upon the time of year, if this was a different time of year, maybe I would play all three. But when you have a major championship as the last one I think that creates a different kind of a different cadence to it. Major championships are just the hardest events. When you look at the courses we're playing for our Signature Events now, like, I mean, I think it was a couple years ago we did Jack's place and the US Open back-to-back. I'm like, I physically and mentally, I can't do this for two weeks in a row. I won Memorial and I was whipped showing up to the US Open. So that's kind of how I adjusted my schedule to be like, oh, you know, maybe the week before the major it's not wise to go out there and beat myself up a little bit. Maybe it's best for me to stay home and get ready for the tournament. Just because you look at the demands of a regular week, a major championship is times 10. And then the tournament, you know, there's just a lot more activity. Mentally it puts more of a like kind of a mental grind on players, just with the amount of people that there is out there. It's great to be able to play in front of fans, but I think there's also a challenge to it when there's just that much yelling all the time. Doing that day after day, week after week, when you do that that many times in a row it can be challenging. In order for me to show up and play my best I have to have off time. That's something I've learned as my career has gone on how important rest is for me and it's not always about spending as much time as I possibly can at the golf course getting ready. It's more about doing what I can in my allotted amount of time in order to get ready and going home and getting rest so my brain and body is actually ready to compete in a tournament.
Q. I know you're very in the moment in whatever you do, but have you ever allowed yourself to think about a Grand Slam, and if so what would it mean to complete that, I'm assuming you probably never thought as a kid you would be in that position.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, growing up, I think you always have dreams and aspirations. I dreamed of playing golf on the PGA TOUR. I dreamed of having chances to win major championships and PLAYERS championships and tournaments out here on TOUR. I never stood there in the mirror and said, I have to do this, but this was always something that I dreamed about doing. I grew up at Royal Oaks I grew up around professional golfers, I grew up watching them practice and preparing to out and play and I always dreamed of playing golf on the PGA TOUR. I wore pants to school growing up because that's what I saw the professionals wearing, and I wanted to be like them. I get to live my dream out here playing tournaments and competing and the actual competition is one of my favorite things in the whole world. That's what I said, if I could, I would play every single week out here. Playing competitive golf on the PGA TOUR is so much fun. I wish I could. I wish I could play my best every single week. But that's why I said I kind of have to build a cadence into my schedule and stuff like that. In order to be at my best, I have to, physically, I just can do it every single week.
Q. If you were able to complete the Grand Slam, what would that mean to you? Are you a goal guy that way at all? Where would that stand for you if you were able to do that?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I would love to be able to win the US Open. It's a tournament that I love. I love my country, I would love to be able to win my National Open. And I've had some success at that tournament before and I think it suits my style of game. I'm excited to go to Shinnecock this year and hopefully get it done.
Q. Jim Furyk was named Ryder Cup captain for the U.S. recently. What made him a good captain when he was in that role for the Presidents Cup team that you were on?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, Jim and Tabitha both are really, they're great people. Jim is a really, really good leader. He's extremely organized in the way he does things. I think with Jim you just have so much experience across so many team events whether it's playing or being a captain. The guy's been on those teams for seems like for forever. He had such a long career out here and was so good for a long time that he played on a bunch and then he's such a great guy that he's been a captain and assistant captain on 'em as well. I think he brings a lot of knowledge and experience to the table. He has a way that he likes to do things and he's very experienced and in that role and I think he's going to do a great job.
Q. Was your, do you give any input into who would be captain, and if not would you like to be reached out to in the future?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, to answer your input question, no, I have no input at all. I found out when you did. Would I like to have input? If they want me to have input, then I can have input. But the PGA of America runs the Ryder Cup, and it's not the PGA TOUR, it's not the players, it's the PGA of America, it's not us. So if they want my opinion, they got my phone number, I'm sure. I had to fill out a bunch of forms to play in the tournament.
Q. There is a committee that there are PGA TOUR members on.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think Jordan's on the committee, so when I'm curious I'll ask him. We spend a lot of time together.
Q. Going back to your PGA victory last year, you had a pretty big reaction where you spiked the hat. Can you just, what made you so emotional in that particular victory moment?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think sometimes like people don't have a great understanding of what it takes in order to be in those positions. For me to have a chance to win the PGA Championship, it is quite literally a lifetime of work and sacrifice and dedication to a sport to have a chance to win just one tournament. So it's not just the four days, even though the four days are very difficult. And particularly when you look at Sunday, you know, I started the day with maybe like a three-shot lead, I lost that lead going into the back nine, ended up winning the tournament by four, five strokes I think. So not only was it a lifetime of work in order to get to a position where you have a chance to win, but then the ability to pull it off as well. I think in the fashion that we did, that week in particular, where I had the great finish on Saturday in order to take the lead, I lose the lead the front nine on Sunday, and then I just play a really great back nine in order to be able to have a nice walk up the 18th hole. So I think it's just a combination of factors. I always have those feelings when you're able to win tournaments just because no matter what tournament it is, it's a lifetime of work in order to achieve something like that, so sometimes I show it and other times I don't. But the feeling is always there.
Q. To go back to the group you were with today, when you're around other athletes who kind of do what you do, obviously travel the world, different place every week or most every week, even at your level, the success you've had, are there still things you can learn and pick brains about as far as best practices, as far as travel and staying sharp. Because, you know, golf and driving an F1 are not in any way the same, but I imagine there's things you might be able to steal from them. Does that ever come up in your world when you talk with other athletes at your level about how to do X, Y, Z?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, that's one of my favorite things to do when I get around people like that. Yeah, you can always be learning. I learned a ton from the guys out here just by asking questions and watching. So any time I'm with an athlete from another sport I love hearing about their methods, how they do things, how they approach events. That type of stuff just really interests me.
When I see somebody like Checo who has made, who has had such a successful career in F1 and in his sport and made it to the top of his sport, like that's something that's really interesting just to talk to somebody about to see their mentality, to see how they approach things, what they do. Like today we were talking about cardio for a bit today. Like that stuff just interests me. I like seeing what makes people tick. I like learning from them. I feel like you can be, shoot, learning all the time, no matter who it is. I think there's always something to be learned.
Q. What is your history with this course, and then, whenever you're walking a golf course for maybe the first time or if you have and you haven't done it in awhile, what's the most important insight or information that you gather on that first look back?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: A lot of it depends on the course. My experience on this course is the last two days was all I saw. I tried to go back and watch some stuff, but the golf course has changed a decent amount over time. The greens are bigger than they were a few years ago. Then, when you look back even further, the greens were a different type of grass. So when it comes to walking the course, this course in particular is pretty straightforward in a sense of like you can see off the tee box where you need to hit it, it's just a matter of hitting it there time and time again. There's not really many tricks to this golf course. It's just very, very difficult. It's a flat piece of land. There's just a lot of bunkers, a lot of water and the golf holes are long. So with that combination, it's going to be tough.
Q. I had a Rory question. Curious what impresses you most about him, whether it's his longevity, something physical in his game, what are the things, maybe the couple things that impress you most about him?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think when you look at just his game specifically I think his ability to drive the ball is, I mean I think it's the best that I've seen. Not only with his speed but how accurate he is as well. He's able to take out certain things on some golf courses that not many players can do. He does it in a way where he hits a lot of fairways as well.
Then I think another thing is his longevity. I think it's hard to have an understanding of what it takes to remain at the top for as long as he has when you don't see it each week. Like, the players, I think we see each other do all the things that it takes in order to have success out here, and Rory is one of those guys that checks the box each week. He's a guy I always see in the gym, the practice facility. If we're playing the same tournament, we see each other a lot because we're all doing the same things in order to get ready. So I think the players will have a greater appreciation when you see somebody like Rory who has had success over so many years. When you look at when he won his first major championship to now I think it's been 14 years maybe. Maybe longer. 15 years. 2011 was maybe his first one. So that's pretty difficult to do. So for him to still be at the top of the game for this long is quite impressive.
Q. From your last two days, the experience you've had playing, can you talk about specifically how difficult the 18th hole is tee to green?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I mean, with this course, a lot of it depends on wind direction. Because when you look at the 18th hole I think it's 305 to cover the water and if you can cover that 305 and then it's like 320 on the left. So if 18 was downwind it wouldn't be that hard of a hole for me, just because the fairway is significantly wider once you get to that 320 carry. But if it's into the wind, now all of a sudden the fairway's 25 yards wide at the most, also playing into the wind and so now instead of hitting a wedge into the green I'm going to be hitting a 4-iron. That's if I can get the ball in the fairway. Which the fairway at 280 is like 25 yards wide, where if you get to that 320, 330, it's like 40, 50 yards wide. So that hole depends on the wind direction. But then the green has a ton of pitch to it and there's water short left and then water left off the tee, trees right. I mean, any way you want to look at it, it's pretty hard.
Q. We have seen you go on these tears in your career, last year at this time you won three times in four starts from Nelson to Memorial. Now you've had back-to-back runner-ups leading into this stretch. When you go on those type of runs is there a feel that you're trying to find that sustains you or is that something that changes year to year to give you those type of stretches?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think sometimes in golf it's a hard sport. Sometimes the bounces go your way and other times they don't go your way and that's not necessarily the whole gist of it. But sometimes you're able to build some positive momentum, and I think at times in my career I've been able to really feed off of that. So any time you have success out here I think I can take a lot of positives from it and then when you feel like when you're in a good spot with your game and you're seeing the right shots like sometimes it doesn't feel that difficult. Then some days you're a little bit off and it seems impossible. So I think golf's really funny in that sense of -- like, Augusta National's a good example of a golf course where if you're flowing and some of the pins are in the right spot you feel like you can almost birdie all the holes. But then you feel like a touch off with your swing and you're like, Oh, my gosh, how am I going to make par here. If I don't make a really good shot, par's going to be a really hard score. I think golf's funny in a sense of sometimes you get a couple bounces when you hit an off shot and you're able to get positive momentum from that. And then sometimes you hit a good shot and get a bad break and it's like, Man, I'm so close to just getting to a spot where like I can go on a run. And then it's like, hit a good shot, plugs in a bunker, get a wind gust, something like that and you're like, instead of birdieing that hole where I felt I deserved it because I hit a really good shot, I make bogey, and all of a sudden that's two shots. And then you look at the end of the tournament, like my last two runner-ups, that's a big difference, two shots at the end of a week. Little stuff like that over the course of four day days can be the difference between winning and losing.
THE MODERATOR: Perfect. As always we thank you for the time, Scottie.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Thanks.
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