THE AMERICAN EXPRESS

January 22, 2026

Scottie Scheffler

PGA WEST Pete Dye Stadium Course

Quick Quotes

Q. You said you were excited about coming here to the desert, because it's benign conditions and you could find out where your game is right out of the gate. After shooting a 63 how would you describe where your game is right now?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I got off to a good start today I was really sharp on the front nine. Made some nice putts. Hit some good iron shots. A lot of good tee balls. I wasn't as sharp as I hoped to be on the back nine, but I scrambled pretty well and I was able to post a good score.

Q. Do you walk away satisfied with this number?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, yeah, off to a good start.

Q. When you come to a tournament that needs a lot of birdies, the winning score is likely going to be mid 20s under par, from an attitude and strategy perspective, do you feel a sense of urgency to be more aggressive, or do you kind of wait and let the game come to you here?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: You definitely have to have, you have to approach it mentally like you have to make some birdies, and I think putting yourself in position as many times as you can in order to get some looks and hole some putts I think is most important. I think if you start forcing things you can still get in some trouble. It's still golf, it's still quite difficult, believe it or not, even show though the scores are low. You just have to keep putting yourself in position and give yourself opportunities.

Q. What are you most excited about heading into the next two days with your game?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Off to a good start, maybe be a little sharper with the ball striking tomorrow, but I was pretty sharp on the front nine today. Maybe hit a few balls and get a good feel and get ready for tomorrow.

Q. When you get off to a hot start like that are there certain sort of indicators in your game that you tell yourself this is going to be a good day?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Not really, it's just nice -- I got off to a good start there on 1. Hit good drive, nice little wedge in there and holed a putt.

No. 2, hit a good approach shot in there and holed a pretty difficult putt.

5 and 6 are pretty gettable which you, if you don't make birdie, you almost feel like you're falling behind. It was just nice to hit a lot of greens. Didn't feel like I struggled very much for par today. Mentally it felt like an easier day in terms of, I wasn't necessarily getting up-and-down a lot and having to grind out pars, I was able to get a lot of looks and take advantage of some of those looks.

Q. The back nine you weren't playing out of the fairway, but still scoring well.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, missing on the correct side of the fairways, for sure. Kept the ball out of trouble and, yeah.

Q. When did you know you had it going on?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I don't know. (Laughing). I got off to a good start and I was pretty sharp on the front nine. I think I was maybe 6-under on the front, and kept it going a little bit on the back as well.

Q. Anything you want to clean up going forward the rest of the week?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Felt I could have hit a few more fairways on the back nine, give myself some more opportunities. Even the fairways I was missing, I was missing on the correct side. The out of bounds can sneak up on you a little bit on this golf course. And it was nice, to, even though I wasn't hitting it my best on the back, but to keep it in play and give myself some opportunities.

Q. When it's like this, the weather's like this, and the conditions, does this feel like a really great round or something you're supposed to be doing?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: You got to keep pace out here. I think the hardest part about these tests where you have to shoot so low is you can only shoot so many under par in a round of golf. I think, when you look at the harder tests there's always a couple guys each round that are able to shoot something really low. The easier tests, where the scores are crazy low, if you start falling behind it's a lot harder to keep up, so you have to keep pace out here.

Q. So that could be a 68?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It is. If you show up out here and shoot 68 you're probably falling behind the pace.

Q. Internally is there more pressure or urgency to play this and need to shoot 65, 46 to keep pace, or a really strong test at Torrey South or Bay Hill? Do you think it creates more stress on you, do you think?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: The harder tests I think almost are less stressful because you're never quite out of it. I think in these -- like if I showed up today and shot even par, I may not feel that bad, but I think it can be challenging. If you fall behind here it's a lot harder to catch up.