THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Scottie Scheffler, our 2024 The Memorial Tournament Presented By Workday winner.
Scottie, congratulations on a great victory. You've won some prestigious tournaments already this year. Just what's it like to add the The Memorial Tournament to that list?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it's very special. Yeah, Mr. Nicklaus did a lot of great things for the game of golf, but the affect he had on his community and our country as well is very special, and so I've looked up to him for a long time. He was always a family-first guy and I try to put my family first as much as possible just the way he did, and you can kind of see it. You know, I think he's been married -- I think he said 64 years now, and so Lord willing Meredith and I will make it that long.
Yeah, it's special to be here and it's even more special to be the winner.
THE MODERATOR: Okay. We'll open it up for questions.
Q. As dumb as this sounds, how did you play today?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I played all right. I didn't have my best stuff, but man, I felt like I hit a lot of good shots that were just barely off. If I holed a few more putts, it probably would have been a really good round. But outside of that, you know, a few bounces my way -- or a few bounces or breaks go my way, the day could have looked a little bit different, but I felt like I stepped up when I needed to there in the end.
Q. You described it as a fun test. I got to think there was a lot of stress out there as well. Which was it?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I think playing golf for a living, you're kind of just a weird person in general, kind of just taking punishment constantly (smiling). To choose this life as golfer is not for, you know, I would say a normal person. I think we all got a few screws loose to play this game professionally and basically just battling week-in, week-out. I think that's really part of the fun of it, and so I'll look back fondly on today, you know, being the battle that it was. Collin was playing some really good golf. He hit a lot of quality shots today. He was a tough man to beat, for sure.
Q. No win is easy. Was this the hardest one this year?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Was it the hardest one this year? I don't think so. It's kind of hard to rate difficulty of wins. Maybe THE PLAYERS, I think, would maybe be the hardest, if I could think, just because I was coming off a win and I had -- the neck was bugging me pretty bad that week.
But as far as satisfaction at the end of the week, this one's up there pretty significantly. You know, being at Mr. Nicklaus's golf course and being at a tournament where I've had a few close calls in the past, it's very satisfying to hole that putt on 18 and be walking off with a win and shaking Mr. Nicklaus's hand and him not saying -- you know, I think I talked about it a little bit earlier, but a couple years ago I missed a putt that maybe would have been for a playoff, and he told me I didn't make the putt today, but one day I'll make the putt on 18 and I'll be walking off to shake his hand.
So, you know, it was pretty special thinking about that as I was walking over to shake his hand today and, yeah, it was a fun week.
Q. What made the test hard today? Was it the greens being so firm?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I think the wind was up and it was from a direction where the downwind holes, it almost doesn't really help. Like, you had holes like 18 where it's really hard to hold the green. 17, I was in between clubs and if I hit 7-iron, I really don't think it would have even been possible for me to hold the green with it, so I tried to just smash an 8-iron and get it up there.
The firmness of this greens make this golf course so difficult because the areas are already so small, and then when you get the wind up and the greens firm, it's almost impossible sometimes to hit the ball in the right area.
Q. You've had a roller coaster ride emotionally the last month. What has that told you about yourself in terms of being able to really come out and still perform. You're a father, you know --
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah. Yeah, I try to pride myself as much as I can on -- I call it compartmentalizing parts of my life. So I have my off-course life and then I have my on-course life, you know, when I'm out here practicing and playing tournaments. I don't show up to these tournaments just to play. I'm here to do my best and compete. So I definitely try to do my best to do that. Yeah, it's definitely nice to be able to keep good form going with all that's been going on in the world of golf and for me personally.
So, yeah, it's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. I think that's pretty -- I think that's a pretty accurate description, I think, of what it's felt like at times. Yeah, it's definitely nice to be sitting here a winner again.
Q. Can you take me through both the par putts on 16 and 18, what you saw in both those?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: 16, I got a pretty good read off Collin's putt. His putt kind of hung out there and he was more up on the slope than I was, and so I played a little less break than I thought, than I would have originally. So it was helpful kind seeing his putt there.
Then on 18, it was just breaking a little bit right to left and with how bumpy the greens were -- or I shouldn't say how bumpy they are, how challenging it can be when the wind is up and the greens are firm and, you know, you have the traffic on 'em. It can be challenging to hole those downhill putts, and so since there wasn't too much break, I felt like I hit it a touch harder than I normally would have to take the break out of it and started on line and went right in the middle.
Q. We have seen Meredith on the 18th green a bunch this year as you've won. First time she was accompanied by your son. Just wondering if that moment felt any different with your son being there?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it's pretty surreal. Yeah, I feel like I've talked about it a little bit this week, but sometimes I still feel like we're in high school because I don't really have a real job. You know, we come out here and play golf.
She is my biggest supporter. Watching her be a mom the last month or so has been really special, and I'm so proud of her. I definitely could not be doing what I do out here on the golf course without her support, and yeah, having Bennett there today to celebrate, even though he has absolutely no clue what's going on, but it's fun for us as parents, and so we'll always be able to look back fondly on this tournament and Benny's first week out on the road with us.
THE MODERATOR: Mr. Nicklaus, thanks for joining us. We just had a few questions for Scottie.
How proud are you to have him win this tournament as the No. 1 player in the world?
JACK NICKLAUS: Well, if you have the No. 1 player in the world there and the No. 1 player in the world performs and wins, you're really proud. Scottie, I know he didn't have his A game on several holes today, like a lot of fella's didn't have their A games on several holes today, but he put enough of his A game together to win the golf tournament and that's what it's all about.
I loved hard golf courses, I love 'em. I don't know whether we were hard or we were really hard, but we were hard. You know, when he gets down and you got about a 20-footer for par -- that's about what it was at 16, wasn't it? Pretty close. And you ram it right in the back of the hole on probably the toughest hole, maybe the toughest hole on TOUR, I don't know, but you played it short every day, didn't you?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I did.
JACK NICKLAUS: No, no, not the third day. The third day, you knocked it stony.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I'm trying to remember. Yeah, third day I hit a good shot. The other three days I bailed out in your new area over there. Thank you for that.
JACK NICKLAUS: Yeah, I know. I gave you an area, but it's a long way from the hole.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: True.
JACK NICKLAUS: But you take the water out of play and you make 3 and you get out of there without too much trouble. He knocked that putt in and then he got back and Morikawa almost chipped it in at 18 and his ball ran down and Scottie played a nice chip down, and of course, he just knocked that ball in like champions do. That's the way he would like to finish it off. It's the way we like to see it finished off.
But anyway, it was great. We got a great champion. I think it's -- you know, winning five of the first eight tournaments he's played this year is pretty special and we at Muirfield couldn't be more delighted and I hope Scottie feels the same.
THE MODERATOR: All right. Terrific. We've got a few questions lined up.
Q. You go in next week as the shortest odds favorite in 15 years in a major. Do you feel a target on your back yet doing what you've been doing the last couple of months?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Not really. Just because I'm the favorite next week doesn't really have any affect on my score. I think we all start at even par, if I remember correctly (laughing).
Yeah, it it's a good place to be. I like the way -- I like how my game's feeling right now. I feel like I've been playing some good golf. It's great to see some results too and some wins. Out here the margins are so small between winning and losing. It's a putt or a shot here or there. Fortunately, today I was able to hit the shots when I needed to and hopefully going into next week I'm going it stick to my game plan and prepare the way I usually would and get ready to go out and compete again on Thursday.
Q. You talked so much about keeping everything just right in front of you, one shot at a time, one meal at a time, everything. I'm curious, when you've got a four-shot lead to start the day and you know it's going to be tough out there and you know what the conditions are, do you start the day with any kind of strategy or game plan or anything in mind or do you just go wing it with a screw loose?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Go wing it (laughing). No, I feel like I have a strategy in the way in which I want to play the golf course and that doesn't really change unless my lead is extremely drastic. I felt like this golf course, you have to plot your way around no matter what your score is and I got off to a bit of a slower start, and, you know, it's one of those places where -- you know, Mr. Nicklaus likes it tough and mission accomplished.
JACK NICKLAUS: Yeah, I know that.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Good job.
JACK NICKLAUS: A little more than I wanted, really. (Laughing).
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No, I'm the same way. I love difficult golf courses, I love difficult tests, and this week was definitely one of those tests. As far as going into today, no, I don't have any other thoughts, other than trying to continue to stay in the right frame of mind and hit shots. Execute is really all I'm focused on because -- especially when the golf courses get this tough, you have to be so committed to what you're doing and that's -- I try to focus on just my execution and let the results be the results, and whether I have a four-shot lead or I'm in dead last in the tournament, that's always going to try and be my focus.
Q. What did you think when Collin's chip on 18 was rolling toward the cup? He thought it had a real good chance to go in.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I typically don't pay a ton of attention to what other guys are doing. I was watching his chip there. To me, it looked like it was a little bit out to the left. From my angle, it didn't look like -- I mean, I don't want to like insult him or anything, but from my angle, it didn't look like it was going in at any point. I don't know what it looked like on TV, but from my vantage point, it didn't look like it was too close to going in.
But really, I was just trying to do my best to stay in my own little world out there and focus on just trying to get my ball up-and-down. My only focus was -- I had kind of an iffy lie there in the rough. So as his chip was rolling up to the cup, maybe that's how I remembered it, just because I wasn't really paying that close of attention to it. I was more just trying to gauge the speed as it went down the hill because I was coming from a pretty similar angle. I was just really focused on what I was trying to do there and that was get the ball up-and-down.
Q. Jack, earlier in the week you talked about how much you enjoy tough golf, that you liked it hard. 7-under won last year, 8-under this year.
JACK NICKLAUS: That's the way it was for about the first 10 Memorials. Nobody broke 280 for the first ten times.
Q. It seems maybe you got the golf course where you want it, as far as tough, but fair?
JACK NICKLAUS: Well, we've had two years in a row with no rain, we've never had that, it's just never happened. I think the golf course was probably a little more difficult than I would have liked it, but I don't control that. You know, I mean, you've seen the British Open, you've seen the U.S. Open, you've seen Augusta where the conditions get really hard and fast, and there's not much you can do about it. You prepared the golf course to the best of your abilities. Chad has done, did, prepared the golf course to the best of his ability. The TOUR was on board with what he prepared. The TOUR set the pins. The TOUR set the tee markers. That's, that was what, that was what was out there. Now when you get a difficult day the scores go up. We had some difficult day this week. The first day wasn't particularly difficult. Then the second day it got a little bit more, but then Saturday and Sunday were tough days. But you know, they expected that. They understood that. They knew that. But they were prepared for it. That's not -- the course -- I mean, I don't think the greens were all that fast, were they? About 13?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: They were good.
JACK NICKLAUS: Yeah. I mean, one year we had it, I don't know whether it was 1979 or something, our greens got to 17 and a half. Now, you know, that, to me, was our fault and I mean, Ed or -- Ed was our superintendent. And Ed was back laughing, I said, Ed, hey, this is not about you. This is a golf tournament for a lot of people that I wanted them to come back and be here again, and I want 'em to enjoy it. I don't mind it being tough, but we don't make it ridiculous. I mean, that year 79 was a normal score in the last round. I think I shot 79 and moved up in the field. I mean, it was ridiculous. But, you know, that to me is not what, is not what it's all about. It's about putting out a fair test. If it's tough, then it's tough. But, you know, I don't think there was anything unfair out there. I think the greens probably got a little firmer than the TOUR probably thought they were going to get. I mean, you found, the last few holes, a little wind came up going down wind, the greens got firm, it was tough to stop it on those greens. It was really tough.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It was.
JACK NICKLAUS: 16, 17, 18 were really tough to stop the ball on the green. And 14, 14 was really tough. But, you know, hey, same for everybody. And then -- and so you, the guy who works hard perseveres better than the next guy is the guy that wins. That's the guy right here beside me.
Q. Incrementally you just keep improving. What do you attribute that to? Why are you getting get better?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I feel like I'm always trying to work on all aspects of my game and I feel like when I walk out on to the first tee I'm focused on my preparation. When I step up there -- and I always remind myself walking to the tee that I'm prepared for this, I did everything I could in order it play well. I checked all the boxes when I step up there on the tee. If you see me at a tournament there's about a 99 percent chance that I checked all the boxes and I'm ready to play. So when I step up there I just remember the results aren't up to me and I'm going to go out there and compete. But I feel like I put in an awful lot of work into this game, and just because I got to No. 1 in the world doesn't mean I'm going to stop working.
I always think about -- in my gym at home I hang some of the hats that I grew up with. That I remember, you know, when I was a kid, and I got a cool hat, I would wear it the whole summer and I would sweat through the hat. And they're just disgusting and gross and I hang 'em in my gym. So when I'm back there working out I remind myself that just because I got to where I am now it wasn't just because it just happened. I remember all the work that I put in, all the balls that I hit, all the amount of time I spent out there sweating in the sun and putting in the time and the effort in order to become good. I continue to try to even work harder. That's really all it is. That's, I give myself those little reminders of stuff like that and, yeah, those hats are pretty gross, but (laughing) they're good motivation (laughing).
Q. What was your favorite hat?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I remember when I was in college I had a Masters hat that was from playing the course, and it has like the cool little logo on it. I wore that one for a long time.
There's one hat from Olympia Fields that's in there that I wore just constantly.
There's one with a bigger Masters logo on it that I wore when I was in high school and stuff like that. It just remind me of putting in the time and the effort.
I don't always want to go back into the gym and work out. I would much rather sit on the couch and hold my son and hang out with my wife, but, you know, I feel like I'm called to do this to the best of my ability, so when I go back there and I'm putting in some work, sometimes you need a little extra motivation, and those hats are just reminders for me of what the work that it took to get here and I don't want to let it go to waste.
Q. I wanted to ask you, just from today, what was, what did you consider the scariest shot you faced, most challenging, whatever?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: The scariest shot was -- I mean, 16 I think was pretty scary. 14's pretty scary as well. 14, I was trying to hit it down the left side of the fairway so I would have a better angle into the green. I pushed it up the right side which makes that shot so much more difficult.
But I think that's what I appreciate about tough tests of golf, and I don't feel like at any point today the golf course got out of hand. What we want as players is to be rewarded for good shots and punished for bad ones. Today was one of those days where I felt like the rewards for good shots were appropriate, and the punishments for bad shots were just severe enough. It was a good test. Collin made a good push today. He shot, I think, 1-under and, I mean, he hit a lot of good shots out there, it was a great round of golf and he was a tough guy to beat today. But overall I'm pleased with the week, I'm pleased with the golf course and yeah, it was a fun week.
Q. As one of the top athletes in the world, I guess my question is --
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: As a golfer.
Q. -- and also Mr. Nicklaus, is, what advice do you have for kids -- my understanding is you were a basketball player, much like Mr. Nicklaus, you're both great athletes. What advice do you have for kids about playing multiple sports growing up, and then finally what do you think of the Mavericks chances tonight?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Was that for me?
Q. Well, the Mavericks was.
JACK NICKLAUS: Go ahead.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I'll start. Yeah, I think the -- being able to play multiple sports and compete and learning how to play on a team -- I was never too focused on one thing when I was a kid, my dad always did a good job of letting me just go play and have fun. He didn't push me to become a good golfer, it was something I always wanted to do. But, yeah, played high school basketball, love playing other sports, and I still love playing other sports to this day but I try to limit it a little bit just because I can't be getting hurt. But overall I would encourage kids to continue to go out, play, have fun, work hard. I was hard on myself when I was young, so I would encourage kids today to just continue to enjoy it, enjoy competition, be good winners, be good losers and have fun.
Q. Thoughts on the Mavericks?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I'm hopeful. Hopefully they play better than Game 1 and I think they will.
THE MODERATOR: All right. Well, we appreciate everyone being here. Thank you so much. Mr. Nicklaus, thanks again for being a wonderful host and founder as always, and Scottie, congratulations on your fifth victory this season. Terrific.
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