Q. When you look back, what stands out to you when you take stock of this year?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think I played a lot of solid tournaments, and it was nice to get some wins. I've had years in the past on TOUR where I've played pretty nice and I haven't been able to win a bunch.
Sometimes in this game the breaks go your way and sometimes they don't. You know like Rory's had some close calls. He has a playoff last week, and a guy eagles the final hole to beat him, and that's kind of a tough deal. He didn't lose, he got beat. So that can happen.
Sometimes the breaks fall your way, like Tom Kim and I in the playoff at Travelers. He did birdie 18 to get in the playoff, but then he made a bogey on the playoff hole. Just little things like that sometimes can help.
I remember a couple years ago Sam Burns made a 40-footer off the fringe to beat me at Colonial on a day when all the afternoon guys struggled because the winds started picking up like crazy.
Sometimes it's an important putt or a little break here or there, and a lot of times this year I felt like I made the putts when I really needed to. I made that 5-footer on 18 in Paris, made a bunch of putts on that back nine. I made a putt to win the Memorial on the last hole. And back nine at the Masters, final round at THE PLAYERS, I made a lot of putts that were not necessarily on 18 green, but a lot of putts that were important to keep momentum in the round going.
In years past, maybe sometimes those putts went in sometimes, but this year I felt like for the most part I made a lot of those putts when I needed to.
Q. (On having a favorite year just in terms of trophies and accomplishments?)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I would say no. I feel like sometimes I'm almost living in a simulation out here. I still feel like a kid sometimes because I play golf. I don't really have a real job that I go to. I get to go play golf for a living. I married the girl I dated in high school, and we have a kid now, which is probably even more surreal.
We still have the same friends we did five to ten years ago. Life for us at home hasn't changed a bit. It's just out here things are a bit different.
Q. How would you define what success is for you?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I try to define success at each tournament as doing everything I can to be prepared on that first tee. I've done all the work. I've done all the prep work. I've practiced as hard as I could. I've done all the stuff in the gym I need to do, so when I step out on the first tee, I feel totally prepared, and I can go out and play free.
If I have a good attitude and I approach things the right way mentally throughout the week, I consider it a successful week.
Q. At this stage of your career, how do you measure progression?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I try not to focus too much on the results, to be honest with you. I try to continue to put in the work. That's really all it comes down to. That's really my favorite thing about golf is just continuing to practice. It's one of my favorite things in the world is going out by myself to the golf course and just practicing when I'm out there all alone.
That's what I enjoy about it. I like the challenge of trying to get better. Other than that, I try not to think about it too much.
Q. Scottie, how did you spend your time off?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Not much. We were at home for most of it. I took a good week off after East Lake, and then I got to practicing pretty quickly after that. That's about it.
Q. Is practice different for a team event as opposed to getting ready for a Masters?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Other than testing out golf balls, depending on some stuff for alternate shot, pretty much the same preparation.
Q. (On comparing the Ryder Cup to other tournaments.)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: You guys love asking me to try to compare tournaments. I'm not good at it.
After the Ryder Cup last year, it was obviously pretty disappointing, but I don't know how to compare that to anything else. That was a week in which I was hoping to play well and I wasn't able to get it done. It kind of felt like missing the cut at a major championship would be a good comp for that, but I really don't know. I treat each one of them individually.
My two alternate shot matches that week, I remember not playing great. Then in the best ball match with Brooks, when we played Rahm and somebody else, both of us -- all four of us played some really solid golf. I think Rahm made like a 40-footer for eagle on 18 to tie us.
There was a big difference if his putt that was going pretty far by the hole lips out versus hitting the back and popping up and going in, it's a totally different story in the match.
That's why I try not to focus too much on results. Especially in the team events, things can be a little bit flukey. I would say last year, the alternate shot, I didn't play my best. Other than that, I played some pretty solid golf.
Q. Is that from experience, not allowing the result to define things?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think that's changed with experience for sure. I think, when I look back at my first couple years on TOUR, I think it would be easy to say that I didn't have my best stuff. When I look back on it, I learned a lot about myself and my game and what I was building towards and how I need to manage myself throughout the tournament week to get better.
I just feel like I'm trying to constantly be learning and continuing to fine tune things out here.
Q. What are a couple of those things?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: One is I'm an extremely hard worker, and I felt like at times in my career I wasn't as efficient as I could be. I felt like I was putting in a lot of hours out here at tournaments, and I felt like I wasn't as fresh as I needed to be on the weekend. I may not have brought the same intensity to the first couple rounds as I would the last few.
I felt like -- it wasn't that I was playing poorly on Saturdays and Sundays and not winning golf tournaments, it's that I was a little bit on the outside looking in. I didn't really play in a lot of final groups. When you look at my results from the last couple years, I've been in the final group a lot. That's obviously the times where you're going to have the best chance to win golf tournaments.
Q. (No microphone)?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I feel like playing a golf course for the first time, you're able to learn a lot. Some of it depends on the golf course, but there's always little things about places that you learn.
I feel like the way I play, being able to control my ball, I know -- I kind of like to have an understanding of where to be and where not to be. I think sometimes you just learn how to play the course a little better when you play it in competition.
Q. What do you think of this golf course? What have you learned after the first couple practice rounds?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Definitely a little bit of an understanding of where to be and where not to be. It's a pretty simple golf course for the most part. We played it the first time, and it wasn't really like there were many holes where guys were discussing what to hit off the tee or what line to take. There wasn't a lot of confusing stuff. The golf course kind of presents itself to you, and you just have to go out there and execute.
There's some holes where you can make birdies, but there's some pretty good long par-3s that are challenging and some long par 4s. This is a week where we're going to get, I think, a different wind direction each day, and that will provide another challenge to playing a golf course for the first time.
Q. (No microphone)?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Just the same way I would handle it in a regular tournament. I try to stay in my own little world and execute shots. That's pretty much it. I'm trying to give you a better answer than that, but there's really not much.
Q. Was the Olympics the same way?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, the Olympics was a good example of a week in which I was playing really well and I wasn't getting a lot out of it. I felt like I was lipping out putts and hitting edges and hitting some really good shots and then get a weird gust of wind.
I kind of just told myself throughout the middle of the week just wait until I got hot. I got hot kind of at the very last second and was able to make something happen. Then the guys on top of the leaderboard faltered a little bit.
I guess that's another deal where it's like what's the difference between eight wins and two? Sometimes like when you've got -- I think it was Rahm and Fleetwood were coming up behind me, and they were -- it's hard for me to remember the numbers, but I think they were at 17-under, playing the 14th hole, reachable par-5. I was at 17-under -- I think we were all at 18-under. I'm on 17, and they're playing the reachable par-5 14th, all at 18-under.
I'm thinking they've got a good chance for at least one of them to make birdie, if not both of them. I have a putt on 17 to think I need to tie the tournament, to tie the lead. You've got Rahm, I think, maybe made double, and Fleetwood only made par, and I see it on the leaderboard. All of a sudden, my putt I have to tie is now to take the lead. With the way the last four holes were playing, it would be real challenging for somebody to catch me if I was able to birdie 17 and maybe birdie 18.
It's just little ebgbs and flows of tournaments. Sometimes it falls your way. Other times it doesn't. It could have been a different week if one of them eagles the 14th hole and I'm chasing them coming up 18 instead of protecting the lead.
There's little stuff that happens through 72-hole events. Like I said, this year I felt like, when I needed to, a putt like that was really important for me to hole, and I was able to get it done.
Q. (Does partner playing shift your mindset?)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I think it's definitely a bit of a different format, but I think it's a lot of fun. These tournaments are usually some of our fondest memories as players. We get to see guys in a different environment. Hanging out in the team room, you get to know guys a lot better.
So looking back on my career, sometimes I feel -- saying I've only been out here only five or six years, but looking back on my career, these are some of my fondest memories are the memories in the team room playing with the guys. They're fun weeks.
Q. (On playing team match with Rory McIlroy against Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: My manager takes care of a lot of that stuff. When he originally brought it up to me, I was like, yeah, it sounds like fun. I've partnered with Brooks and Bryson at Ryder Cups before. I've never obviously had a chance to play with Rory at the Ryder Cup, but those are two guys I really miss competing against.
Brooks has five major championships -- five, six? Five. That's a pretty cool record for him. He's had a great career. He's a guy I love competing against. You've got Bryson, with all his stuff, I think he's a fun guy to be around.
It definitely interested me, and the way things fell together, it seemed to work out nice. It seems like a fun deal.
Q. (On what happened behind the scenes.)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I think pretty much everything happens behind the scenes.
Q. I don't know. I'm just wondering it seemed like maybe you might have spearheaded that?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I don't really know. Really like my manager Blake does a really great job of keeping everything off the course in order for me to where, when I get home from a tournament -- like for instance, when I get home after winning a big golf tournament, he's not coming up to me with a list of 30 things that I need to do after the tournament. He sifts through them, finds the ones that he think are going to be good and important, then I'll do those things.
He really does all that stuff for me, knowing me personally and things I like to do. I like coming out here and competing, and I like having my life at home.
My goal was never to be a celebrity or famous or anything like that. My goal was always to be a golfer on the PGA TOUR, and I like coming out here and competing, and I like going home and living my life, living a normal life.
Q. Do you think that LIV has any influence on helping you decide?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I don't know. There's just so many moving pieces in that deal. It's one of those things where like my friendships to guys out there hasn't really changed that much. I think in the beginning when some of the guys were suing us, that was a bit frustrating for the players out here, but over time those things kind of fade. I don't think there was a ton of ill will for that type of stuff.
At the end of the day, you have your business, and you have your personal stuff, and I try not to cross the lines too much just because things get a little hazy there sometimes.
Q. (On team tournaments being one of your fondest memories.)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I just think week to week out here on Tour guys are really working hard to do their best. I think the guys you see make these teams especially, those are the guys that you really see get the most out of themselves and their game. When they're at a tournament, they're doing everything they can to play their best.
Not that we don't socialize week to week, but you don't get guys in the same environment where we're playing a practice round, I can ask Russell what he tries to do off the tee and he can ask me something about chipping, and I can ask Xander what he tries to do out of the bunker and he can ask me a putting question in return. That stuff doesn't happen a ton week to week on Tour.
When you're in these team events, it's a bit more relaxed at the beginning of the week. You see guys in a different environment. When you're sitting with a guy at dinner at night that you may have never had dinner with, but you see him -- you have lunch at the course, but it's kind of a quick, in passing thing.
So getting more time with each other in a more relaxed environment I think is important. That's why the memories are so fond. You get to know guys better and make great friends. Going out and competing together is a lot of fun.
Q. Does it mean more teeing off and winning for your country?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I think there's a big difference. That's probably why you saw me so emotional after the Olympics. I really do take a lot of pride in playing for my country. I've had the opportunity to do it a few times, and it's very special.
Coming here to foreign soil for us and trying to compete and bring back the Cup, I think will be pretty fun.
Q. Is there an area where you're going to be a team leader?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I don't really think about it. I just try to be myself as much as I can. The events are fun. There's also so many people in a room at a time. When we're taking a bus out here, it feels like there's a hundred people on the bus coming out to the golf course.
It's a lot of fun. It's loud, but we have a good time. I think everybody kind of has little roles on the team, but it's not really -- I mean, it's kind of tough to figure out. Everybody just kind of meshes together the way they do, and I don't really think much about it.
Q. Sam picked you as the class clown. Do you think that's fair?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Sam picked me as the class clown? I don't know. Xander's pretty -- I think, if you put all of us in a room, Xander, I think, would probably have the loudest voice. I think, when a lot of people end up in the room, I'm usually fairly quiet. I usually just sit in the back and I kind of like watching.
So if I were to pick, I would say Xander would be the main class clown.
Q. Outside of golf, give me three things that come to your brain when I say the word Canada.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: The Maple Leafs, maple syrup, the Hosers.
Q. When you say Maple Leafs, do you mean the team?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean the hockey team. Actually, I mean -- they're kind of synonymous. My first thought was hockey, and then actually no, then I think of the flag. I'm also thinking of the national anthem.
One of the coolest things I saw this year, think it was Toronto, the Maple Leafs when they were playing in the playoffs -- did they make the final or the semifinal of the Stanley Cup? What Canadian team was in the final?
Q. Edmonton.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Edmonton, the Oilers. So the Oilers, when they did the Canadian national anthem and the guy sang like the first word and then just put down the mic. It's really cool in America how we all sing with the person singing the national anthem, but it was pretty special to hear everybody just screaming the national anthem at a hockey game. That was pretty cool.
Q. What's your favorite part of America? Let me rephrase that. What do you think about when you think of America?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: The United States of America? It's really tough to say my favorite. I mean, I love just good old American food. I think that's the thing I struggle with the most going to other countries is the food. I would probably say American food.
Q. Who's the funniest guy on the team?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think, when you have everybody in the room, Xander typically has a loud voice when everyone is in the room, but Harman has also got a pretty sharp needle. It would be close between those two.
Q. (On balancing family and golf.)
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think it's two things. I think a lot of it has to do with how I efficiently practice. I think that's something I've learned over time is how to get my work done while I'm working, and then when I'm home, I'm able to be present with my family.
That's something I've had to train myself over time. Get the most out of myself out here, and then when I go home, I can forget about what goes on out there and just be present with my wife and my son.
Q. Since the FedExCup, any time off following the season?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it's been a wild year. I think after East Lake I definitely crashed a little bit at home. I took a good week to myself there where I was just kind of around the house, not doing a whole lot, just relaxing, playing, hanging out with the little man, just getting some time to just relax and be at home and try to recover a little bit.
It was a long season. It was a fun season. But I think my body was definitely a touch worn out. So it was kind of nice to have that week to rest and reboot a little bit.
Q. (No microphone)?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I don't really know or care that much, to be honest with you.
Q. What are the benefits to being the favorite in a team event?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I'm pretty sure the score is still 0-0. I mean, what's the benefit? I mean, the score is 0-0. My job is to go out in the first match and do my best and try to get a point for our team. Outside of that, I don't really think about if we're favored to win the match or not.
My job is to win -- all I can try to do is win one point on Thursday's match.
Q. Is there an advantage to being an underdog?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Can there be? I guess you could say one team would have nothing to lose if they're the underdog, but at the same time, when you're the underdog -- I've been the underdog plenty of times in my career, and I still wanted to win just as bad as I did when I was the favorite. That stuff for me never really applied too much.
Yeah, I'm probably not the best guy to ask that too. To. I'm internally motivated. I like to try to prove myself, almost to myself sometimes. I like competing, and I love competing because you tell me I'm bad at something. I love coming out here and competing because it's what I love to do.
So I try to do my best to block out the noise at times, and I think at times throughout the year it can be challenging when either I'm having a rough year or I'm having a great year. Both sides of the coin can be challenging.
I do my best to stay just as even keel as I can and not really think too much about that stuff because, like I said, the score is 0-0. It doesn't matter who's favored and who's not favored. We've got to go out there and play.
Q. Obviously a lot goes into the pairings? If something were to happen during a practice round today or tomorrow, one of your colleagues on the team, would you go to Captain Furyk and say something special happened today, or is it predetermined who's going to play with whom?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think a lot of that's up to the captain on who's going where. I think we have a lot of input in the beginning, and then we come this week, we kind of test stuff out in the practice rounds and kind of do a last-minute check, and he kind of sets the pairings from there.
Q. So there is communication between the captains and players?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Obviously, yeah.
Q. Who is your role model and why?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Who's my role model and why? I don't know if I have one specific role model. I look up to many different people in my life.
If I think about growing up, I had two great parents that I looked up to. I think they raised us right. They taught us right and wrong and taught us how to treat people the right way, I feel like. They did a wonderful job.
I think of my Coach Randy, who was always like a fun uncle for me growing up. I remember sitting there on the driving range when I was 8 years old, just sitting there, probably from the time I was 6 or 7, just sitting there watching professional golfers go out there and practice with Randy. Those guys were kind enough to let me watch them.
Like Justin Leonard is an assistant captain this week, and I watched him hit countless balls on the driving range at Royal Oaks, and I sat there and watched. I'm sure I was fairly annoying at times, being a 7-year-old. What are you doing there? What's with that? You can ask him, but I'm sure he got annoyed with me at times, but all those guys were kind enough to let me sit there and watch them. I had a ton of people that I looked up to and was able to learn different things from.
Q. How are you giving back kind of as a role model?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: To be a role model? I try not to think about it. I try to be myself. It's funny coming full circle and now I'm the guy out there on the driving range and I've got younger kids around me that can be annoying at times, but we have fun.
I think we've got a good chemistry, I guess is how you'd say it. When I come home from tournaments, it takes a lot for them to say congratulations. They'd rather give me crap than say congratulations. So I think we have fun. They sit there, and they help me with my practice and challenge me daily.
If I show up to the course and I'm not hitting it well, I'm going to be hearing it from the peanut gallery behind me on the driving range. It's really fun seeing it full circle because I know how much it meant to me as a kid to be able to spend time with those guys and have chipping contests and putting contests, and how much I learned, not only about golf, but just about life and how to handle yourself in certain situations.
So I try to be myself when I'm out there and have fun. I think at times when I was a kid I took myself too seriously. So I think, when you're a kid, whatever sporting event you're doing at the time seems like the most important thing in the world. Now being on the other side of it, I try to encourage those guys to go out and enjoy it and have fun and see where stuff can take them.
Q. (No microphone)?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Is there anything I'm practicing for the competition?
Q. (No microphone)?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Oh, okay. Not really. So my prep for tournaments is pretty similar, depending on the event. It may change a touch depending on where we're going. Like if we're going to the British Open, I may practice some different shots and stuff off the tee, but coming to a course like this, which is pretty similar to the course we play in the states, not a lot of my prep work would change very much.
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