Q. First time here and you seem pretty comfortable on this golf course. A really nice 66 today. Tell me about your comfort level on this course right now.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I'm starting to get a little bit more comfortable. The first couple practice rounds we had, there was a decent amount of wind, and then yesterday there was more than we had in the practice round and today was pretty calm. So much simpler day out on the course.
Q. You had a phenomenal 2020. Rookie of the Year, made it to East Lake, finished fifth in the FedExCup standings. Was it difficult to be patient?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I would say it wasn't too difficult to be patient. I think I'm kind of a patient guy in general. But it's a little frustrating not to have that win, but just keep plugging along, put myself in a good position, and just try to play good golf and go from there.
Q. Talk about getting the invitation to come and compete here. How excited were you when they extended the invitation for the folks who made the TOUR Championship?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I was obviously very excited. This is a good place to start the year. Good, fun tournament and a cool place to come visit as well.
Q. Pretty motivating to have repeat visits here coming back every year to see how gorgeous it is. Talk about today's round and the difference from yesterday to today. Did the conditions make it easier to score today?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, conditions today, much easier than yesterday. Not much wind for us to start. It started to pick up a little bit on the back nine, a little different direction, so the course played a little different today. Who knows what it will be tomorrow. We'll find out.
Q. That's one of the exciting things, right, you never know what you're going to get here.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, exactly. The weather forecasts are pretty irrelevant. My weather app has been way off this week.
Q. How would you assess your round today?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I felt like I played pretty solid. I didn't putt as good as I had hoped to, but I did some good work around the greens and kept myself in a good position the rest of the day.
Q. I was on the range watching you the past couple days. Did you put a new 3-wood in the bag recently?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, my trusty 3-wood cracked on Saturday on the range at Royal Oaks, and right now I got a Callaway one in there. We'll see how it goes.
Q. Can we get some more details? Trusty, like --
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It was a Nike VR Pro. I think it came out in, like, 2011.
Q. Did you get it brand new?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, back then. I put it away for a couple years in college, but I've used it the whole time I turned pro, most of my senior year, and pretty much all of high school. I only wasn't using it for two or three years in there.
Q. That had to be like losing a dog, didn't it?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it was.
Q. Who you how did you handle it?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I had my wife pick up about 10 3-woods from the house that were all backups and she brought them to the range and we found something that could work for the week.
Q. What was so special about that club? I mean, obviously it's a nine-year-old golf club?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I would say the way that the club setup it was really square, it was really clean, not a lot of loft so I was able to flight it down pretty easily and it was softer than the new 3-woods and for me that's important. And when I wanted to hit it far, I just teed it up a little higher, hit it higher on the face. I got to know the club really well and for me I knew exactly what I needed to do with it each time.
Q. Have you ever been to Maui?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: First time.
Q. Any whales today?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah we did we went sailing the other night too and saw some whales then, that was pretty cool, the whales are awesome.
Q. Do you ever find yourself stopping and looking?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, there's holes where you go down the hill, like 7 we saw -- it was either 7 green or 8 tee -- we saw two really big whales breach out of the water. It was pretty cool.
Q. Pretty nice even, if it's just one-year nice little exemption to this tournament, just to start your year in a place you've never been to?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, this is a great place to start the year. I hope to be here every year going forward, for sure.
Q. Would you like to make history this week as the only guy to make his first victory Kapalua?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yes. Very fun.
Q. I guess they present it to the PAC, I don't know it's going to go anywhere, to be honest, but keeping this a constant, TOUR Championship field, plus winners, or even as new as you are on TOUR, do you think there's something about the Tournament of Champions, understanding this year's different?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Honestly, I have no idea. I'm obviously very happy to be here this year. It depends what the tournament wants to do. If they want to reward winners and season-long performance, I mean it's totally up to them, it's how they want the event to feel. I think it's cool to have a Tournament of Champions, I also think it's cool to have the guys who made it to the FedExCup included. So either way, it's up to them.
Q. I know that you're not one who cares about much except the next shot, but as a rookie last year did you have any idea before you got to East Lake, for example, what all perks came with it or even what perks came with getting to BMW, that kind of stuff, did you know that ahead of time?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, my caddie knew. We didn't talk about it much. We knew getting into East Lake got us here and then getting into East Lake and all the majors, but we didn't put too much thought into it we were focused on the week at hand and.
Q. Next shot?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Next shot. Whatever's going on, whether it's -- I mean, there's always benefits of playing well so you can't control that stuff and just try and play well.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports