Q. How was today?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: How was today? No, another frustrating day. Today was a day where I thought I played a lot better than my score.
I'm having a lot of trouble reading these greens. I had a lot of putts today where I felt like I hit it really good. I looked up and they were not going the way I thought they were going to go.
Really my swing today felt a lot better than it did yesterday. I felt like the last 27 holes I've played, I've hit it really nice, but I just haven't been able to hit it quite close enough, which is difficult around this course. I haven't been able to hole the putts the last few today.
Q. (Question regarding the course setup.)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Definitely tricky pin positions. It's going to get firmer. The sun is out. The wind is blowing enough that the greens are definitely going to dry out. I definitely in noticed that coming down the stretch. They're getting pretty firm. With the way these runoffs are, it's going to be pretty challenging this afternoon.
If you're in play, with how firm the fairways are, you will be able to able to stop it. The minute you hit it out of the fairway...
Q. Any holes you find to be borderline, dicey?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: You really want to write about this (smiling)? No.
Q. No, there's not?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think when it comes to the U.S. Open, 'borderline' is such like a trigger word. No matter what I think, you have a pretty good understanding of where you're trying to hit the ball. It's when I start not hitting the ball into the places where you should hit the ball, that's where things get tricky.
I think about No. 5. Yesterday I made double. Hit it in the waste area, bad break, can't get it up on the green. The next one, there's not enough sand underneath the ball. You can blame it on luck or whatever.
I knew not to hit the ball down there. I knew where to hit it and not to hit it. If you're hitting the ball in the middle of the fairway, in the middle of the green, you can definitely make 18 pars.
Now, granted misses are going to hurt here more than next week at Travelers. That's just the nature of the golf course, the nature of the tournament. You're going to get injured more here for a bad shot than last week at Memorial. That's just how the U.S. Open is.
Q. What are some of your goals the rest of the time here at Pinehurst?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: The rest of my time here at Pinehurst? Hit the gym this afternoon, pack up, put my feet up for the rest of the day, hang out with my little man and my wife. I'll show up tomorrow morning ready to play. Like I said, I'll go to the gym today, wake up in the morning, get ready to come out to the course again, see if I can learn.
Like I said, the last 27 holes I played a lot better. I just haven't been able to hole any putts. Hit a lot of putts from seven to 10 feet, where it would be good momentum for me to get going in the round.
Hit the putt, it will be burning the edge. There's another missed opportunity. So I feel like that's a lot of what this week was for me so far.
Hopefully going into tomorrow, as far as goals, I don't really think about it. I'll try to have a good round tomorrow.
Q. (No microphone.)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No, not at all. You look at a guy like that, he hits it far enough. I always love kind of getting to know the guys that are coming up. I felt like when Tom Kim was first coming up, he had the right attitude to have success.
He's another guy that has the 100% the right attitude. He works hard, has the right attitude. Those are the guys you love to see have success.
Guys like Xander, winning the PGA, that's another guy you enjoy seeing success come to. He puts in the work, does the right things, treats people the right way. It's nice when guys like that have success.
We'll see more of that from him in his career.
Q. (No microphone.)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: The game of golf is a mental torture chamber at times, especially the U.S. Open.
Yeah, I thought it was challenging. The first 27 holes, I was in the native area way too much of the times. Everything felt really tough. Now that I was able to hit a lot more fairways today, it maybe felt a touch easier to me.
Wouldn't be using me as a bearing for what's good right now. Pretty mediocre at best right now.
Q. (No microphone.)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I thought about that a bit yesterday afternoon. I think in terms of prep work for a week that I know is going to be as tough as this, I'm leaning going forward to maybe not playing the week before. I think especially going around Jack's place, which is going to be pretty close. I did most of my damage under par there at the beginning of the week, so...
I think going into the major championships, especially the ones we know are going to be really challenging, it may be in my best interest not to play the week before.
Like I said, that's stuff for me to figure out later in the year. That's some of my thoughts sitting around watching the cut.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports