BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

August 19, 2023

Scottie Scheffler

Olympia Fields Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Everything was working really well for you today; what were you most pleased with in that round of golf?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think the way I scrambled. I hit some really good bunker shots. I did a good job when I got into trouble today, I got myself out of it pretty quickly, and a lot of that was due to some really short game shots where it takes a lot of stress off of you when you just chip it to a foot instead of eight feet, so that always helps keep the momentum of the round going.

Q. Wind was shifty out there. How did you navigate around it to try and avoid a mistake that was definitely looming out there?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I mean, the winds were swirling all around this place, and when you get a wind that's this heavy and it starts swirling, there's a lot of holes where -- No. 6 comes to mind where the wind, you think it's straight across, and if it starts helping or hurting just a tad, it can change your shot, close to 20 yards.

Rickie and I both hit 8-irons there, and I may even hit my 8-iron a touch further than he hits his, and his ball flew almost to the back of the green and my ball flew pin high. There's a big difference in the gusts, but just got to trust my feel and trust what Teddy is giving me, and fortunately we were right most of the day today.

Q. What do you think this golf course will present to you tomorrow? What do you need out of it to get this win?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Just keep playing good golf. I think the wind is going to be a little bit lighter tomorrow, but it still swirls a bunch around this place, so just keep trying to execute.

Q. There's a lot going on with the projections and whatnot, and looking ahead to next week and starting strokes and all that stuff, is it a test at all or do you feel somewhat tempted to let yourself get ahead of yourself, or do you find it very easy to focus just on this tournament?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, I don't really pay attention to what's going on with the leaderboards, especially when it comes to projections. It was Saturday out here, so I'm not really too concerned about next week. I was just trying to have a good round of golf and just try and move my way up the leaderboard.

Q. How satisfying was today given how the wind, we know the golf course is hard?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I mean, I played what felt like a great round of golf today. I shot 6-under. Sam was the only guy lower than me today, I think. Yeah, I played really good. The winds were shifting around a bunch out there and you're going to get caught with some weird gusts; that's just part of the game.

But I did a good job of when I got into trouble, got out, and my short game was really nice today.

Q. The two previous tournaments would be maybe considered a bit of a lull for you, but you've pretty much been in contention almost every week this year. What's that been like, the level of consistency? I don't know if it puts more stress on you or if it's fun. How would you describe it?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I would say it's pretty hard to describe. It's definitely been fun. I like being in contention. It's why I practice as hard as I do. It's why my whole support system, that's why we work as hard as we do is to be in those positions because it really is fun.

On the flipside of it, yeah, it's very draining, especially with this year, I felt like I've -- this is now the second year where I've really been in the spotlight a lot, and yeah, I'd say there's definitely challenges to it. There's a lot more energy that gets taken away from the course, and at this point in the year I'm definitely very tired, and I'm looking forward to next week being done, but at the same time I didn't work this hard and for this long to just cash in the last two weeks and not really do my best.

Just out here to put my best foot forward and just hoping to continue to trend in the right direction.

Q. Is it just too easy to say, I wish I would have turned a couple more of those into wins? Are you satisfied that look, I keep putting myself there, or yeah, I should have nabbed one or two more?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I'm going to look back on my career and I'm going to think I could have nabbed way more than tournaments than I'll end up with. It doesn't matter if I won eight times this year or if I won twice or none. There's always more out there.

You're never fully satisfied with the results. Tiger Woods won I think 83 times, and if you asked him I'm sure he's trying to think about getting No. 84. It's never enough.

Q. That was quite the shot on 15. Can you talk us through the driver off the deck?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I haven't hit driver off the deck as much with this driver as I have drivers in the past. 15 has been a hole where first of all you're teeing off from so far back, and it's really hard to hit the fairway because I like to fade the ball and there's trees that take out half of the fairway on the left and you've got water on the right. So it's a really tough tee ball for me.

I think it was the first round where I hit the first driver off the deck there just because it actually shapes -- the shot is really shaped well for that kind of play. It's just a low cut with -- you can't really draw a driver off the deck. I tried it the first day just because I thought it would be fun, and I hit a pretty good shot, and then I did it again today because it was fun.

Q. What's your swing thought when you take driver off the deck?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Hit the ball. Just make contact, make good contact. You can look really stupid really fast trying to pull that shot off.

Q. How does the putter feel today versus the first couple days?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think I rolled it really nice yesterday and today. I don't know what the stats showed. I think today I probably had a few more putts that I could attack versus yesterday.

I would say it felt like a pretty good example of how difficult it is to putt really well when the ball-striking is on, and today I would say I didn't hit it as good as I did yesterday. My putting is better, so I didn't feel any different out there.

Q. What's an example of where you felt like you could attack it?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: With the putts?

Q. Yeah.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: First of all, I saw a few go in early even though, granted, they were all short putts. I think I one-putted the first five holes. I saw a putt go in there on 5, but it was really the first putt I made over three feet, I think.

Then I had a decent look there on 6, good two-putt on 8. No. 9 was really the only putt I missed, and then I was putting uphill on 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. 16 was a really hard putt but still up the hill, and then shorties on 17 and 18.

I didn't have very many putts today, and that's part of the nature of not hitting as many greens as I have in the past. I'm sure my putting is going to end up better just because I'm going to get better looks.