Q. Strong start to the first round. Obviously put it in there close on 18. How does it feel to get another solid start here?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it's good. Going out this morning, a little softer greens, a little softer fairways, and was able to put up a good score. It felt like I hit a lot of quality shots today, it felt like my ball striking was really good, and I was able to hole a few putts as well, so overall, pretty pleased with the round today.
Q. The course is going to look different next week at Pinehurst, but does it feel like a mindset tune-up here almost where pars are a good score and you're being patient on the birdies?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I mean, I think that's a characteristic of most places we go. I feel like for me I'm always trying to stay as patient as possible. Whether or not we're shooting really low scores or shooting around par, I think I'm always trying to plot my way around the golf course for sure.
Q. What was the size of mud on 5 and where was it?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It was on, like, the top to, like, right side of the ball and it was pretty aggressive. I aimed it 60 yards from where the ball ended up. It's one of those deals where it's, like, I hit it in the middle of the fairway and I basically -- on that hole specifically, I did not have a good shot to hit. Because of the mud on the ball, you have absolutely no control over where it's going to go. If I tried to lay it up, there's nowhere really for me to lay it up. Hindsight, maybe I could have aimed it down the middle of the creek and just see where it would have went and maybe it goes in one of the fairways.
But at the time that didn't really seem like a good idea, obviously. So I felt like we tried to do the best we can to kind of get it up there somewhere and, yeah, you just can't control it.
Q. You talked about your excitement for playing Jack's course here. Obviously, you had the practice rounds, but getting out there for the first round today, what was your impressions of how the course played and how it felt out there?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I think it's always great coming here to play. The golf course is always in great shape. I can't remember a year when the greens weren't really good and the fairways weren't in great shape and the rough was high. They always do a great job here agronomy-wise getting the course going and it's a treat to be able to play in this tournament on Jack's golf course as well.
Q. It's a smaller field obviously, but to have a leaderboard like this on a Thursday, what do you think of the names on there?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: What's the question?
Q. The fact that it's such a strong top of the leaderboard on a Thursday --
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Oh, okay. Sorry, I haven't really looked much at the board. I know Ludvig played good. Xander --
Q. Xander and Viktor Hovland?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it's fun. I think it's nice to seeing -- I guess it looks like Collin is already 3-under through 5, so it's nice seeing some good names up on the leaderboard and, I love being out here competing and, yeah, I'm sure it's shaping up to be another great tournament here in Ohio.
Q. How much has the course changed in the last three days because of how much rain we got?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I was surprised with how firm it was when we first got here on Tuesday. The rain yesterday, I think, really softened it up. As long as the rain holds off the rest of the week with the winds we're supposed to get, the golf course is going to be really, really challenging. There's so many little areas where you have to put the ball, and when the greens get firm and the wind starts blowing, it can be extremely challenging to hit it into some of those small portions of the greens.
Even with wedges in your hands, I think of holes like No. 3 and No. 14, I mean, it's kind of hard to describe how small they really look back there from the fairway. Anytime I get it back there on the green on No. 3 like where the pin was today, it's a great shot. It's not just a good shot. It's a great shot.
So that's with soft greens. When the greens get firmer, it's only going to get more challenging.
Q. Did that give you more -- I don't know, a little bit of urgency to go out there and score low today, knowing that it's going to firm up even more as the week goes on?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Not really. The scores are going to be what the scores are. I'm going to go out there and try and do the best I can and execute.
Q. I don't know your history, actually. You're not a pre-major guy, are you?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Typically not. I've done it before. I've kind of mixed it up throughout the year. During the Masters, I've never really played the week before -- or I did it once and it didn't work out as well as I had hoped it would.
I'm trying to remember. I usually don't like -- my thing was I always didn't want a huge layoff, like a four-week layoff, before a major. I think three weeks would be kind of my max in terms of how many weeks I would want to take off before a major.
But outside of that -- I typically played the Scottish before the The Open Championship.
Q. That's different.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah. Is it?
Q. I guess so. If they ever came to you with some advice, which they won't, by the way, would you like to see this back to where it was, Memorial the week before?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, because they're not going to ask me --
Q. They might.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No, they're not going to ask me.
Yeah, I mean, I'm going to come play the tournament regardless of the date. Would it be more advantageous to have a week off before the U.S. Open? I mean, I guess we'll find out. I'm not really sure. Yeah, we'll see. I'll come play whether or not it's last week or this week.
Q. So are you a guy, if you had next week, a week off before The Open, are you someone who would turn up at a Pinehurst on the weekend or before?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: So I usually go to the Masters on Sunday and, like, I would never -- let's say if this -- hypothetically, if this tournament was last week and there was a week in between -- I don't know what tournament it would be. Let's say there's a tournament, and then there's the U.S. Open, I would take that tournament off because I wouldn't want the major to be my third week in a row. I feel like that would be pretty challenging.
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