THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Scottie Scheffler to the media center here at the FedExCup St. Jude Championship. Scottie, coming into the week FedExCup leader, six wins on TOUR this year and recently won the gold medal at the Olympics. Just want to start with some initial thoughts on the incredible season you're having up to this point.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it's been good. It's been nice to be able to get some wins for some good play. The Olympics were obviously a lot of fun, and it was a great week there representing the USA, and it's great to be back home, and ready for the Playoffs.
Q. Fifth consecutive time you're in the FedExCup Playoffs. How are you feeling returning to Memphis this week for the first leg of the Playoffs?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, feeling good. I feel like stuff around here doesn't change too much. I think we know what to expect from the golf course. We know what to expect from the fans. Always a great turnout this week, and it's fun coming back.
It's a pretty easy week for us. You rent a house near the course and food is always really good and tournament treats us great. It's good to be back here in Memphis.
Q. Did you bring the gold medal with you?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I did. I needed it for a thing this morning.
Q. You didn't want to bring it to wear it around and show it?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Honestly, it's a bit heavy around the neck. No, I brought it for a deal this morning, and I promptly put it back in my backpack.
It's fun. I was definitely surprised at how many people want to see the medal. I feel like there's a lot of stuff in golf where they'll say congratulations, but I think a lot of people get a lot of joy from seeing the medal, and it's pretty cool, so that part has been fun. I'll have it with me the next couple weeks because I'm not going home so it'll stick around.
Q. You talked after 2022 about the disappointment of not winning the FedExCup. What does it mean as far as trying to win it to put an exclamation point on the season and end on a good note?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I don't really think about exclamation point or anything like that, but definitely want to win the FedExCup. It's quoted as the season-long race, but at the end of the day it really all comes down to East Lake. I didn't have my best stuff at East Lake the last couple years. I played good there my rookie year, but outside of that, the last few years I haven't had my best stuff. I'm kind of excited that they changed the course a little bit. It may give me some new vibes around there.
But yeah, I'm excited to be in the Playoffs, excited for the next three tournaments, and hoping to continue the stuff that I've been doing well this year and having another couple nice starts.
Q. How would you describe your relationship with this golf course?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, I think it's a golf course that should suit me pretty well. I haven't really played my best here the last few years. I have good memories around this place. It was one of the first TOUR events I ever played in in 2014 and it was my first TOUR event as a professional in 2018, so the tournament has always supported me from the beginning, so that's why it's great to be back here. It's great that this tournament is in the Playoffs. It has a lot of significance to us.
My relationship with the golf course, hopefully it'll improve this year.
Q. Building off that, for all of your success, particularly in these limited-field events, this has given you a little bit of trouble. What in particular about TPC Southwind has been difficult for you, and is there anything you're looking to do differently this year?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, just play better, really. It's hard for me to remember the last few years. Scores are typically low here, and I just haven't really shot that low. Why that is, some years I didn't hit it good, some years I didn't putt it good.
Like I said, I feel like it's a golf course that should suit me. It's not super wide. You've got to hit good shots. Bermuda greens is what I grew up on.
I'm excited about the week. I'm excited for the golf course. I think it's a really good test, and looking forward to the week.
Q. Anything about the aftermath of the Olympics and winning surprise you, maybe either your own reaction or others' reaction to you winning?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I guess maybe my own reaction. I didn't really know what it would be like to stand on the podium, and I felt like the week was a challenging week because I felt like I was playing really well, and I just was not getting anything out of it, and I was just falling further and further behind. I just kept telling myself to wait until I got hot because I knew once I started making some birdies, I felt like they were going to come in bunches just with the way I was playing.
Teddy did a really good job of keeping me patient, and it felt like at one point on Sunday, it was almost like we ran out of time, and I wasn't going to get it done.
It almost changed to still just try to work your way up the leaderboard. When you've got Rahm at 20 and I'm sitting there six, seven shots back, sometimes it can almost feel insurmountable at that point. You've really got to rely on him making a mistake and me playing some great golf.
If you look at it just in terms of I'm six back, I have to birdie every single hole, I think you get a little bit distracted. I kind of tried to tell myself to make some birdies, see if you can get into medal position and then go from there. Was able to make some nice birdies, and then all of a sudden I looked at the leaderboard there on 17 and I was expecting to be one behind with -- I think Tommy and Jon were both at 18. Going into 14 with it being a reachable par-5, I figured at least one of them was going to make birdie, and when I walked up on to the green on 17 I had a putt which I thought was going to be to tie for the lead, and all of a sudden Rahm had fallen back and it was just Tommy up there, and it was to take the lead over only one guy. So that was a really important moment.
Standing on the podium I think was definitely one of the coolest things that I'll ever experience in golf. It was a lot of fun.
Q. Did you happen to watch any of the women, and if so, any reactions?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I didn't see any of it. I try to keep -- I saw Lydia ended up winning, which was pretty cool. I think it got a little tight at the end, but I didn't watch any of it. I try to kind of turn myself off when I go home. Yeah, I didn't catch much of it.
Q. I'm curious, since the Olympics what is sort of the most ridiculous thing you've done while wearing your medal, watching a movie at home, doing something fun? Have you done anything a little wild while wearing the medal?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Not really. I feel like one of the coolest things about it is there's not really many rules of who can and can't wear it. With the green jacket it's pretty strict, when you're out representing the club with the green jacket.
It's a bit of a different feeling with the Olympic medal. It's like, yeah, sure, you can wear it, take pictures, do whatever you want. A lot of my friends have gotten a good amount of joy out of that, and it's been fun.
I brought it to the golf course with me last week a few times because some people who have never texted me really asking for anything at all were like, hey, man, can you bring the medal out? We all want to take a picture with it. It was really fun bringing it out to the course and showing the kids out there and taking pictures with my buddies. It was a lot of fun.
Q. Did you use it as a ball marker at all?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No, nothing crazy.
Q. Different tournaments I realize, but there's still some similarities between PLAYERS and France. When you look back on those, what stands out as similar and what stands out as different? Two really good comebacks.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Well, THE PLAYERS I got what I felt like was everything I could have, the way my body felt that week. I was making half swings starting Friday on the third hole of the tournament, and Friday and Saturday I was definitely not myself. That was a cool event for me because my goal was really just to stay in the tournament, stay somewhat close to the lead, and hopefully my neck would feel better and then I could play, because I was playing really, really good at the time. My swing felt great. I was rolling the ball good.
I told myself after I got hurt, I was like, man, if I can just get to the clubhouse today, maybe I'll feel better tomorrow. Then on Saturday I didn't feel better, and it was like, all right, if I can just get to the clubhouse, I'll feel better, then maybe tomorrow I'll feel better and I can play more like myself.
I remember at THE PLAYERS I birdied 16, 17, 18 on Saturday and I just felt like when I rolled in that birdie putt on 18, it was huge because I was just -- what I felt like was close enough to where if I had a good front nine I'd be ahead of the leaders and I would be able to kind of put pressure on them by posting a score.
At Paris, I had an opportunity to do the exact same thing, and I birdied the first three holes, then I got cold for the next six on the front nine, and I wasn't able to make any more birdies. All of a sudden, I went from getting right to the lead to just watching the guys going further and further ahead of me. I think Teddy, that tournament specifically, did a great job of helping me stay patient on the back nine, just because, like I said, when you get six or seven shots back, all of a sudden you're like, man, I need to birdie every hole, I need to do this perfect and I need to do that in order to get up there, but it was really just a matter of me hitting the right shots at the right time and was able to do enough and kind of feed off some mistakes that the leaders made and put myself in position.
Also the golf courses are fairly similar the way they close with there being a lot of trouble but also opportunity. You think of the closing stretch at Sawgrass with the reachable par-5, a wedge, and then a really tough par-4. You look at Le Golf National and you've got 14 is a reachable hole; 13 is 3-wood, wedge; 15 is 3-iron, wedge; 16 is a wedge or a 9-iron. You've got two tough finishing holes, but if you put it in play, you can make birdie. It's not like it's a 530-yard par-4 to close. I could have hit -- I think I hit 3-wood, 8-iron on the green, and on 17 I had 8-iron into the green, too.
There's similarities in the golf courses where there's a lot of opportunity but there's also a lot of room for guys to make mistakes.
Q. As it relates to the next three weeks, your record speaks for itself; you have this enormous lead. Is there any part of you that it doesn't seem right that two-shot lead going into East Lake, where Xander really kills it, by the way?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, that's why I was excited about the renovations to East Lake because I was like, maybe they'll change it a little bit and he won't have the exact same vibes because I don't think he's ever had a bad round there.
Yeah, I mean, I talked about it the last few years. I think it's silly. You can't call it a season-long race and have it come down to one tournament. Hypothetically we get to East Lake and my neck flares up and it doesn't heal the way it did at THE PLAYERS, I finish 30th in the FedExCup because I had to withdraw from the last tournament? Is that really the season-long race? No. It is what it is.
It's a fun tournament. I don't really consider it the season-long race like I think the way it's called. But you've got to figure out a way to strike a balance between it being a good TV product and it still being a season-long race. Right now, I don't know exactly how the ratings are or anything like that, but I know for a fact you can't really quite call it the season-long race when it comes down to one stroke play tournament on the same golf course each year.
Q. It's kind of a pick-your-poison thing. You can also go to the TOUR Championship and pull a Vijay and just have to show up and make sure you stand upright for four days to win it?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, which on the flipside, that's not good, either.
Q. Would be good for you.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It would be great for me. But those aren't the rules.
At the end of the day, I try not to think too much about the results at tournaments, and I'm not going to look back on my season really any differently if I don't win East Lake. I'm going to show up there, do my best. I think I've been No. 1 the last two years going into the tournament. Went in 2022 having a really great chance to win and wasn't able to pull it off, and last year really just playing poorly pretty much the entire week.
I've had close calls there, and I'm looking forward to the challenge of going back there and playing with the lead again. We'll see what happens. Those guys could catch me in these next couple weeks. But I'm looking forward to hopefully fending them off and going into East Lake with a lead.
Q. You just touched on it, but with the season that you've had, the gold medal, the green jacket, all that, how important is it to be TOUR Champion with the season that you've had, to be able to win that tournament, be the last man standing in three weeks?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, it would be really nice. Sometimes questions like that are tough for me really to judge. After the Olympics I got the question at lot, where does this rank for you in terms of your wins, and I'm like, I'm not going to rank my wins against each other. Each one is special in their own way.
I feel like it's the same thing with the TOUR Championship. Is it a tournament I'd love to win? Yeah, I'd love to win the TOUR Championship. It would be awesome. I'd also love to win this tournament. I'd love to win next week.
Every time you're able to win a tournament, it's a lot of fun. I cherish those experiences and I look forward to hopefully being able to do it more in the future. Going into these last three tournaments, I'm showing up to play all three, and I want to give myself the best chance to win each one of them. In these next two tournaments it's showing up ready to play and defending my lead in the points list to where we're going to East Lake and I start with a lead.
Q. With the SEC bringing Texas in and Oklahoma in, how excited are you? And do you think your 'Horns can hang with the best conference in college football?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Well, I certainly hope so. I consider myself sometimes a delusional sports fan. I've been rooting for the Cowboys for many years and I think they're going to win each and every year, and they somehow cease to disappoint me year in and year out. But going into the season I feel like it's always exciting. Texas, I feel like they had a good building year last year. The team played great. Going into this new season, there's so many fun games. I'm really excited to have some time off this fall and sit back on Saturdays and Sundays and enjoy football.
Q. Obviously you've had a great year, winning the Masters, the Olympics, becoming a father. Do you have a favorite moment of the season?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think the non-golf related is pretty easy with my son being born. I think the last few weeks have been especially fun because he's starting to develop a little bit and learning how to smile and stuff like that, and it's really cool when you get in his face and he recognizes you and it's like, hey, man, what's up, hi, whereas the first eight to ten weeks of his life you're trying to make eye contact with him and he won't even look at you. That part has been really fun.
As far as golf, I mean, it's been great getting some results and being able to get some wins this year. It's been a ton of fun. I really don't know what my exact favorite memory would be, but the Olympics was pretty special. THE PLAYERS was very special. Masters obviously was special, as well. It's hard to really pick a favorite. All of them were cool in their own way.
You think of THE PLAYERS, I had my family there, had the big comeback on Sunday. The Masters is almost like I -- having it be the second win and it being close and the way I closed out the back nine was cool. Then with Paris with the whole family being there and Bennett and Mer, those are pretty special memories playing for the USA. It's tough to choose a favorite out of those, but all of them were pretty special.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports