THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome our twice-defending champion, Scottie Scheffler, to the interview room here at The Memorial Tournament Presented By Workday.
Scottie, coming in with an opportunity to three-peat. It hasn't been done very often in the history of the TOUR. It's been done at this tournament, and I think the last time it was done on TOUR was 2011. So with an opportunity like that, how meaningful is it for you to maybe get across the line and win again?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I mean, the last two years don't mean much when you stand on the first tee, but this is a golf course I've had some success at and this will be a cool place to be able to accomplish something like winning the same tournament three years in a row, especially with it being Jack's Place, and I'm looking forward to getting out there this week.
The golf course is already firming up pretty good. It doesn't look like we have much rain in the forecast, so it should be another pretty challenging week here at Muirfield.
THE MODERATOR: Just describe that pro-am experience. Nine holes early, but there was a lot of people out there today. Were you surprised about that?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: There was. Yeah, we were talking about that coming up off the 9th. There's a ton of people out here on a Wednesday. This tournament always gets great support. The crowds are always great and it's a really fun place for us to come and play. The golf course is always really challenging, and so it's an exciting week for us and it's a tournament that I always get excited to come and play.
THE MODERATOR: We'll start with questions.
Q. 18th hole in particular, one of the hardest holes on the golf course. What is your strategy for tee to green on it and how does that change based on the wind or what might happen?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Like, the strategy, per se, is not all that complicated. There's a spot in the fairway where I need to get my ball to and depending on wind, it's going to be 3-wood or driver. I feel like a lot times it's driver unless we get a pretty heavy downwind. And then if you do hit 3-wood off the tee and it's heavy downwind, that's a really hard green to hold. Teddy reminded me, we had a conversation a couple years ago, on the 18th hole, the pin was back left and he was asking me in the fairway, he's like, Where do you want to chip from? Do you want to chip from long or short? He's like, Nobody can hold the green. I'm like, Long. So we hit it over the green, got up-and-down.
It's just one of those places where depending on the wind can change it drastically, firmness can change it drastically. 17's another hole where that green can be very hard to hold if it's pretty heavy downwind. You never really know what you're going to get, but this year I think it's setting up for something exciting just with all the firmness that we've already seen just playing on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Q. Why do you like a hard test? What do you find enjoyable about it?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think a test like this -- this golf course specifically is a place you can come out, and even if the greens aren't that fast and there's not a ton of wind, it will still be challenging because there's so many areas where you just can't really miss. The greens have a lot of pitch. There's certain holes where you just have to step up and hit really great golf shots.
You think of holes like 12 where there's really no bailout, 14 there's really no bailout, 3 there's not really a bailout to a lot of pin locations. You got to step up there and hit really, really good golf shots. I think golf courses can challenge you in different ways and some of 'em are really good ways to challenge, some of 'em I wouldn't want to see every week. This is one where I think when you're testing the ball striking that you do out here, it's just really challenging. And I think if you hit great shots, you get rewarded for it, and if you start hitting poor shots, you're going to be punished pretty severely, especially when you look at some of the shorter holes out here like 3 and 14.
Q. Assuming conditions are similar, and let's just call it, like, firm for the week, what is the difference between the hard test of here and, say, Bay Hill? How are they different? They're both hard tests and you like 'em both, I assume?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, Bay Hill you get a little bit of the luxury of there always being wind. Bay Hill typically in Orlando that time of year there's always wind. The rough there is also very heavy. I think those greens each year you know they're going to be quite firm. They do something in the off-season to those greens where by the time we get to 'em they're pretty much always dead. Yeah, whatever it is.
And so when you are playing that golf course, I think you can always rely on wind and green firmness. I think on this golf course, there's years where it's been soft and it's still very challenging. You get a little bit of wind here, but you don't get the wind with the same severeness, I think, that you get in Orlando.
So here, I would say it's a bit more of a placement course than Bay Hill. Bay Hill feels like one you can overpower a little bit more in terms of there's certain holes out there where you can really bite off a lot. Like, I think of No. 10 and No. 6 when it's downwind and there's some places where you can get a bit more aggressive. Here it's more about placing the ball in the right spots and taking your opportunities when you can get 'em.
Q. Have you gone to Shinnecock at all for any prep or do you plan to before the U.S. Open?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I actually came up and played on Monday. Left Dallas Monday morning, went up and played 18, and then came over here Monday night.
Q. What were your thoughts on the course or how did it differ from your perception? I don't know if you had been there prior.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I hadn't been there prior. That was my first time on property. It was kind of what I expected. I had heard some rumors about how difficult the greens were. I was a little surprised at the width of the fairways, but the green complexes there are extremely difficult, and I think that's where the greatest challenge comes from.
The rough, also, was a really good penalty, I think, for the width. Once you start missing fairways out there, you have no chance. But the fairways are generous enough to where it provides you some opportunity and that way it's just that the green complexes are extraordinarily difficult, and so they can put the pins wherever they want and make the scores as high as they could possibly want 'em to be.
Q. Did you keep score?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I didn't keep score.
Q. As a PAC member, do you have certain things that are core issues to you that matter, certain things that, like, you want to be more involved in and you care more about or is it just kind of stuff comes up and you handle it?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I wouldn't say I have many core issues. I would say I think when the PAC wants my opinion on something, somebody will come and ask me, and then I'm willing to give a pretty honest opinion to whoever it is. I feel like that's how a lot of the discussions go. I don't really feel like a politician or something like that where it's, like, Hey, we're going to tackle these couple issues on the PGA TOUR. Mine's more just I feel like when my opinion's needed, I'm happy to give it, and outside of that, I'm not really trying to solve any issues, per se.
Q. Is there something, I guess, that's come up that you have had a strong opinion about?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I don't know. Yeah, no, I don't know. Nothing too strong. I think one thing that we talked about in terms of the new schedule was a healthy amount of turnover, and one thing that I'm actually pretty passionate about is avenues of getting onto the TOUR. I felt like when I came out, that was something that wasn't an issue for me, but it was more difficult than I thought it would be. So when I turned pro -- when I was planning on turning pro after graduating college, PGA TOUR U wasn't a thing.
I tried to sign up for PGA TOUR Canada Q-School and there was only one qualifier that I could do due to my college schedule, finishing out the year, and that qualifier had already filled up because they give priority to the people that had already had status before, which I understand. But there wasn't an avenue for me to even qualify for PGA TOUR Canada, so I spent the summer playing Monday qualifiers on the PGA TOUR and the Korn Ferry Tour and playing mini TOUR events so I could stay sharp and get ready for Q-School.
So when PGA TOUR U started being discussed, that was something I was pretty passionate about, getting a new young group of guys out there and giving them avenues to get into our system and opportunities to get onto the PGA TOUR. Because the guys coming out of college are getting better and better from a young age, and I think in a lot of other sports, it's very simple how you get into the professional ranks, is you get drafted, and in golf, there's not really that avenue, and I felt like that was something that we needed to have on the TOUR is the right avenues for guys to be able to got out here. I feel like where we're at on PGA TOUR U, giving those guys the opportunities is something that I think is important to me.
Q. (No Microphone.)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think just giving guys opportunities is really what it is. Golf is a hard sport to predict, and I think that's why for a long time there wasn't that system, just because a guy could be a great college player, but it's really hard to figure out who is going to be the best player out here.
So I think giving guys a lot of opportunity across the board is important, and that's not giving out a ton of cards on the PGA TOUR, but getting guys into our system where when you know if you play well at a PGA TOUR sanctioned event, whether it's PGA TOUR Canada or Latin America -- or I think it's called PGA TOUR Americas now. But giving guys those starts and those opportunities to where they can prove themself and earn their spot on the TOUR.
There was an avenue for me, which was Q-School and a year on the Korn Ferry Tour, but I think it's important to get guys immediately into the system when they get out of college, especially when they have had good college careers.
Q. (No Microphone.)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No, I don't have a strong opinion on that. I think what's most important to me is having avenues to give guys the opportunity to play. I think you get into some tough areas where if you're going to have three to five, it can be different each year.
Q. A mediocre class-type thing?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, you never really know how it's going to go, and I think that's part of life is sometimes you get yourself in a difficult situation, sometimes things come a bit easier. That's why I think kind of across the board how they're giving guys opportunity, not just on the PGA TOUR, when you look at the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA TOUR Americas, I think we're giving guys opportunities in that way. And once you start playing well in our system and in our sanctioned tournaments you can prove up pretty rapidly.
Q. The other thing that gets a lot of attention, maybe as much as you going to Shinnecock, is the golf ball and the whole rollback proposal. Where does that stand and what is your view on that?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think that I agree with some of the principles behind the golf ball rollback. I think when you look at how power and hitting the ball high has become so important in our game -- we were actually talking about it today, I was looking at the World Rankings and Russell Henley is really the only guy in the top 20 in the world who doesn't hit it pretty far and doesn't hit it very high. Outside of that, you pretty much hit the ball high and you hit it far -- and when you look at the major championships, especially the U.S. Open, you look at Augusta National, you look at the PGA Championship, those are the tournaments where you have to hit the ball high and far. I feel like those are the organizations that are also trying to roll the golf ball back. I think when you look at the golf ball rollback, when you start moving it back only eight yards, not only does it disproportionately affect certain players, where you have some guys who it won't affect at all, and some guys where it will affect 15 to 20 yards I think creates some issues within our game when you start changing the rules. And then, on top of that, I think it's a greater issue in terms of golf course design where power is becoming too rewarded. You look at certain golf courses that we have that are great tests, like a Colonial or a Harbour Town, and they're not overly long golf courses, but it challenges you in different ways. I feel like they're doing it to make the game of golf a little bit more difficult at the elite level, which I understand, but golf is the easiest game in the world to make hard. Like, if you just make the area small to have a guy to hit the ball into, he's going to try and learn how to control it. When the corridors are big and greens are big and there's not many trees in your way, guys are going to learn how to hit the ball far. I grew up on a course in Dallas where when I was growing up it was a tight, parkland-style golf course, and you had to learn how to hit fairways. The fairways were firm and if you started hitting the ball off line the ball would run off into the trees. So I learned how to hit the ball straight, I learned how to curve the ball both directions. And if I grew up on one of these golf courses that had been restored, I'm not going to name any of those golf courses, but there's certain ones where if I grew up on that golf course, I would be like, Oh, my gosh, I got to learn how to hit the ball so stinking far. Because the fairways are wide and the penalty for missing them is not is severe enough in my opinion. So I think when you look at how power is being rewarded in our game there's a reason why you see so many guys doing speed training, why you see so many guys spending time in the gym, trying to increase their speed because it's becoming increasingly important in our game, when you look at the way golf courses are set up and when you look at golf course design.
Q. The Memorial Tournament is a very traditional tournament. What makes this stand out from other tournaments and what's your favorite part about playing here at Muirfield Village?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think one of my favorite parts is probably the crowds. Every year here the crowds are amazing. They make a lot of noise, they're very passionate about this tournament. And the community, I think really rallies around this tournament and Mr. Nicklaus. And I think any time you can play a tournament that has his name on it is something that's really special. He's a guy that I look up to, not just from being a great golfer, but he was a great family man as well. And you see it through his tournament, you see his sons heres, you see his wife here, you see his grand children everywhere. Mr. Nicklaus is a part of the fabric of this tournament and his family is as well. It's not just about him. This is a special place for us to be able to come and compete, not only from the challenge of the golf course, but being able to play in front of the fans and carrying on Mr. Nicklaus' legacy. This is a really cool tournament for us.
Q. From what I know of you you're a guy who focuses only on the next shot, being in the moment.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I try to.
Q. Can you think of -- how would you characterize your year, your season so far?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I would say this year has felt like I've been close. I felt like I haven't been as sharp as I would have liked to have been. When you look at the margins in this game, they're quite small. I think statistically I'm probably not far off from where I've been the last couple years, it's just a couple shots here or there, a couple of those momentum shots where it can kind of swing you in a tournament. I haven't really either been able to pull off, or when you look at the close calls that I've had, a putt goes right around the lip, another guy pulls off an unbelievable shot. There's little things that happen in tournaments that make it very hard to win. Byron is a good example. I played some pretty decent golf over the course of four days and I was tied with a guy going into Sunday and he shot 60. That's going to be tough to beat. So you got to be really sharp if you're going to beat scores like that. So I feel like I could be a little bit sharper, but overall I feel like I'm pleased with where my game is at. I feel like I'm hitting the ball quite solid, and I like where things are at. I just got to get a touch sharper.
Q. We asked Jack yesterday why he thought you played well here and he just pointed to the head. Do you agree with that and in your opinion what does that mean? If you don't agree with it you can leave, by the way.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No comment (laughing). I think when you look at this golf course specifically I think you have to have a lot of commitment to your shots, because like I said, there's certain holes where there's nowhere to bail out. Like, there's no really -- like we'll be sitting in the fairway sometimes, and we're like, is there a miss, and we're like, no, not really. You look at No. 9, if they put the pin on right side you can't miss short because there's water and you can't miss long because then you're chipping straight down hill to the water. And so there's a lot of spots out here where there's just not really a miss, and you just got to step up there and hit the shot. I feel like over the years here I've done a really good job of being committed to what I'm trying to do. And I think sometimes your mind looks a little stronger when you're hitting the ball where you're looking more often than you're not. And I think, when I look over the course of my career, I would say my mind has always been one of my biggest strengths. I think that's also why golf is such a hard game to predict because there's a lot of things that you just can't measure in this game. When you look at football and basketball and those types of sport, there's certain things that make it easier to predict, just based on size and athletic ability. And in golf you can be the guy who hits it the furthest and hits it the straightest, but you got to figure out a way to get that ball in the hole and some days it's a lot easier than other times.
Q. (No Microphone.)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I wish there wasn't a mic in front of me to answer that question. That's a funny one. Some people where their mind isn't their greatest weapon? I don't know, I'm not going to hate on anybody right now.
Q. (No Microphone.)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, name names too, yeah. That's why I said I wish there wasn't a mic. That's a good off the record one. A good hate on some of my buddies.
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