Q. How important was it to birdie 18 setting you up for tomorrow and take us through that. That's a tough hole and you played it great today.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, today easier wind direction than yesterday with it being a little bit of help. It was a nice wind for me because I should have enough to cover the water. So I tried to hit a high one up the right side and just ended up in a good spot and really nice 9-iron in there to finish off. It's always nice to have a little tap in at the last.
Q. 71, 67, 69 on a tough golf course. First time you played it in a tournament. I think you played pretty good. Are you pleased?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah. See a few more putts go in I think it's a different story. On this golf course it's tough to get it really close to the hole so you're stuck with a lot of 15, 20-footers. On this golf course those are challenging. You get some there's a lot of cross the slope and the grain don't necessarily match so it can be challenging on judging whether or not the grain is going to pull it or if the slope is going to counteract it. Then you add wind. It's a tough combination. I feel like I hit a lot of good putts this week and just continue to do that over the course of tomorrow.
Q. Long hitters have an advantage here. I looked at your stats you're over 317 yards per drive. You're up this year.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It's firm out there. Cheating it a little bit this week. Yeah, I would say I'm a little bit faster than I was last year. That's not from anything other than just being in a good spot physically. I'm not doing anything crazy to try to gain a bunch of speed. Golf you're always kind of towing the line between improving and falling back. It's very challenging to gain a lot of speed and continue to hold the same amount of accuracy. So I've always just kept my routine in the gym, and I kind of go through ebbs and flows. I'm actually about the same speed I was in 2022 and 2023. The last two years I was a little bit slower. So it's how the body feels and stuff like that overall I feel like the last couple weeks I've struck the ball quite nice.
Q. Those work out videos I'm watching are real on Instagram with you?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Some of 'em.
Q. How difficult was it with the wind today and was the direction consistent or did it flip a little bit?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It shifted a little bit as the day went on. It went a little bit more west. Started off a little bit more south. It's just gusty. Florida, the wind gets gusty. When it blows this hard and you got long clubs into the green it's very tough to get the ball close to the hole.
Q. What did you feel like you did best today?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I gave myself a good amount of looks again. I think that's really I think a lot of it. Just gave myself a lot of good looks for birdie. I'm hitting it solid, it's just a lot of these holes it's just tough. There's a lot of cross winds and it's just challenging to get the ball really close to the hole. You got to be holing putts on this golf course if you want to make birdies.
Q. How much firmer was the course today with the wind starting to dry things out even more than they already are?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: The greens were definitely getting a little bit firmer. They're getting crustier. I don't know if the actual bounces going into the greens were firmer, but they're definitely getting crispier in terms of the amount of friction that's on the greens when you're hitting putts. You get a lot of grain this way, slope the other way and add wind to that so it can be challenging what that ball's going to do and I felt like I've done a good job of hitting some solid putts and that's really all you can do.
Q. I know you touched on it about the course's conditions already, but when you come into a tournament are you kind of reactionary day by day or do you go in expecting the conditions?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think you always have expectations about the course is going to change over time just based on -- we play a lot of PGA TOUR events and I think typically as the week goes on as long as there's not much rain they typically try to get it firmer and firmer. That's what I was anticipating going into this week. They haven't been doing any extra watering on the greens trying to keep 'em soft. The fairways are definitely firming up as well. We'll see what happens.
Q. I'm assuming that you haven't been able to get out as much while you've been down here, but do you have a favorite part about South Florida?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: The weather's pretty nice. I definitely love the heat over the cold, so it's nice to be out in the heat. I haven't ventured too far. It's been nice staying on property this week and having a relaxed week. We did a couple restaurants right around the corner. That was really good and the food's been great.
Q. Times are moving up tomorrow, how important is it going to be to get to have to a fast start to see what you can do to catch Cameron?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, the tournament's in his hands right now. I can go out and have a really good round, and if he has another really good round he's going to be a tough guy to catch. All I can do is go out and try and have a great round and see where that leaves me.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports