SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Slow day. I made some silly mistakes out there, but at the same time, I made some key putts and some good momentum saves in my round, but overall just need to be a little sharper.
Q. Do you take more positives or negatives out of today?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I just got off the course, so I don't know. I mean, I would have liked to have finished a little better. I felt like I was battling back pretty well after the start, and then I had the three-putt there on 13 where I felt like I hit two good enough putts to make a two-point there and get out of there with a par and then kind of a sloppy wedge on 14 and I missed a short one on 15.
The greens just got challenging out there late in the day. There's so much speed and so much pitch and then with the amount of guys going through on these greens, they can get a little bit bumpy. But you know that's going to be part of the challenge going in. You've got to do your best to stay under the hole and stay patient.
I felt like I did a pretty good job of executing today. I've just got to be a little bit sharper tomorrow.
Q. What was the last time a round took this much physically and mentally out of you do you think?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Gosh, I don't know. I mean, that round took a while. What time did we tee off, 1:24? That's over five and a half -- that's a long time to be out there on the golf course, especially on a day where there was almost no conditions. There was a little bit of wind but not much overall.
But the golf course is just challenging. There's certain holes where -- like you think of a hole like 12 where I hit a good drive off the tee, it gets down there in the first cut, and you think a reachable par-5 where you've got 6-iron in your hand is going to be a pretty good scoring opportunity, and I'm sitting there in the fairway going, I don't know where I'm going to hit this thing because if I hit it on line with the green it's going to go over the green and I've got a 50-yard chip back up the hill, and then if I miss it right, you kind of leave it up to the lie, and if I hit it left I'm going to have a bunker shot from basically 40 yards short of the green.
You just basically try and play a shot up the right because that's the uphill chip knowing since it's in the first cut I can't keep it on the green, and you hit it over there to the right and the ball ends up in a hole in between the rough and the first cut. Some days that ball ends up in the first cut I've got a pretty easy chip. Some days it's in the rough and it's challenging.
Overall I just feel like after today, I've probably got to give myself a few more looks, a few sloppy bogeys today, and would have been a little bit of a different story.
Q. Do you think it's going to play even harder as we go along?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: That's a good question. A lot of it depends on the rain. As the fairways firmed up today -- I'm going to talk about 12 again because it's another hole where if you hit it down the middle of the fairway -- I'd love to see the percentage of guys that were actually able to keep it in that fairway in the afternoon just because it's so firm and there's so much pitch in the fairway. So there's little stuff like that that just makes it so challenging. You can hit a great shot on that hole off the tee, and no matter what it's probably going to end up down there in the first cut or the rough. So little stuff like that where you know what you're getting into and you've just got to try and execute and stay in it.
I felt like today I did a pretty good job of that after the start, had kind of a sloppy bogey on 3, sloppy bogey on 4, and then another bogey on 6 and all of a sudden I'm a few over par. On this golf course, when you get over par early, it can feel like a daunting task.
I did a good job of battling, and if I'm a little sharper tomorrow, I think I can score a bit better.
Q. Was 4-under a surprise, someone shooting that? Or did you think that might be out there?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No, I mean, when you play these really difficult golf courses -- I think there's always opportunity for low scoring. That's why I think -- like you look at the U.S. Open especially, you look at a tournament like they had at Shinnecock where guys are barely making the cut and all of a sudden they have one good round and they're back in the tournament, when you're playing these types of tests that are this challenging, there's usually still a way to score. I'm surprised somebody maybe didn't even shoot a little bit lower today just because there's opportunity.
If you're in the fairway -- especially this afternoon. If you're in the fairway most of the day, you're going to have -- you're not going to have a 4-iron into every green. You're going to be able to hit some shots and give yourself some looks. But it's just really hard to get the ball in play and it's really hard to get the ball close. Anytime you're out of position, the golf course just gets really challenging.
Q. When you go and wait on one hole and then have to stare at them again on the next hole, what's that mental challenge like?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I'm trying to look at the fairway.
Q. What do you think of the setup this week? Do you think good shots are being rewarded and bad shots are being punished in the way that they should be?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it's always on a scale. When you look at the U.S. Open versus other tournaments, it's just a different type of test. You look at a hole like 12 where a good drive is maybe not getting rewarded as much as it should, but you're standing there on the tee box, and I know exactly what I need to do to try and give myself a chance at birdie, and it's just difficult. I mean, the pin out there is on the front of the green, and if the ball -- if you're hitting like a 15-footer -- sorry, if the ball on a flat green is going to go 15 feet past the hole there, it's going to go all the way off the green 40 yards over the back of the green, and that's just hard. That's all it is.
The greens have a lot of pitch. Yeah, it's not overly complicated; it's just difficult.
Q. Were you confident with your game plan today?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I mean, it's one of those places there's not like -- there's not a ton of strategy I would say. You just step up on the tee box and go, what club can I get into this fairway, and then try and hit that club in the fairway, and if you don't, it's like, how am I going to get out of this rough and get the ball back in the fairway so I can have a shot at the green. It's not like an overly strategic golf course where you know there's a lot of club options off the tee and stuff like that. It's just a golf course where you step on the tee box, look at that fairway and you're like, all right, get the ball in that thing.
Q. So just reverse it back; how much luck do you need to be successful around here?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: How much luck do you need? I mean, in any tournament I think there's a matter of luck when it comes to competing, and sometimes you get those little bitty breaks that kind of help propel you, maybe it's chipping here, maybe you hole a long putt, something like that, but luck is always a factor in the game of golf.
Q. How do you think playing earlier tomorrow will affect your game? You said the greens got harder as the afternoon went on.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it's interesting because the green speeds I think as the day goes on actually slow up, so the greens I think will be faster in the morning, but they should be a little bit softer. So maybe it'll be a little bit more opportunity to attack some of these pin locations.
The golf course also plays longer in the morning, so there's challenges to it no matter what, and it's up to us to go out there and -- I think tomorrow, like when I look back at my round today, I think I just need to give myself some more looks at birdie. That's really all it came down to. I'll clean up some of those mistakes, a couple three-putts and stuff like that, and I think tomorrow will be a better day.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports