PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 12, 2026

Scottie Scheffler

Aronimink Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome back to the 108th PGA Championship. We're very pleased to be joined now by the defending PGA champion Scottie Scheffler. Scottie, welcome to Aronimink and your seventh PGA Championship. What are your thoughts on the golf course and the game as you prepare for Thursday's opening round?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I didn't realize this was my seventh one already. Golf course is good. It looks like the forecast is starting to clear up. Right now with it playing firm, it's playing really nice. The fairways are hard to hold, and the greens have a lot of slope and a lot of pitch to them. So it's going to be challenging.

If they can stay firm like this, I think it's going to be a pretty awesome test.

Q. Based on just you playing here throughout your golf career in the times you've been out here in the Philadelphia area, what are your perceptions of Philadelphia golf and its culture? Then the city as well.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Gosh, you gave me the tough one first. I don't know if I've ever been here before, to be honest with you. I'm not sure I've been to Philadelphia to play golf. That's a tough one. I haven't seen much of the city yet this week either.

No, it's all right. I was actually telling my wife when we were coming here it's a great city, it has a lot of history. Sadly, I'm not going to get to see a lot of it this week. The majors are pretty busy, and we're staying pretty close to the course. Kind of eat meals at home and keep a low profile. Sadly, I won't get to see a lot of the city.

But as far as this golf course goes, I think as long as the weather holds, it should be a really good test. I think when Gill redid this place, he imagined it playing firm and fast. For him to get the conditions that he wants for the golf course, I think, is a good thing.

Yeah, maybe I'll have a cheesesteak or something for lunch, I don't know. I've got to get some Philly in me before I leave.

Q. I've got an easy one. If you could give one piece of advice to young golfers and their parents, what would it be?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: For young golfers and their parents especially -- I'll say for parents. I had two great parents, and my parents never pushed me to be something at golf. They never wanted me to be anything other than the best version of myself. So that included having a good attitude.

I think there were more important things for them than my golf game. I think growing up, especially when you look at youth sports today, I think you see a lot of parents that are overzealous. That's not from a place where they don't care. I think they want their kids to have success. I think they want them to do well. I think sometimes pushing them towards something is the best way to do it.

Maybe it isn't in some cases, but I think I did my best when my parents would drop me off at the golf course and let me do my thing. One of the first things that Randy taught my dad is when Scottie gets to the golf course, he takes his own bag off the golf cart, he sets up his own area. He doesn't need you out there, this is his thing. I think they did a good job of guiding me along, helping me when I need help, but not pushing me to be anything other than a good student and a good person. It wasn't all about golf with them.

I would encourage parents today to support kids and help them do their best. My mom always did one thing that was interesting. She never asked me what I shot. She said, If you want me to know what you shot, you'll tell me. I don't have to ask you what you shot.

That's a long-winded answer, but that's what I'd tell them.

Q. You said major weeks are really busy, but I think one of the things your peers admire most about you is that you seem to treat every week sort of the same. Do you treat major weeks the same as normal tournament weeks? Is it possible to do that?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I wouldn't say it's possible to do that, just because of the environment at the tournament. I think each one has kind of their own feel.

When you look at the Masters, you look at the practice rounds there, and the Masters is like the only place on earth where people actually follow the rules because they're just afraid to get kicked out all the time. So those practice rounds are actually quite calm in terms of there's not a lot of yelling, there's nobody running around, there's not a ton of noise. Except when you're swinging, there's camera clicks on every single shot because people are allowed to have real cameras out there. So you're at the top of your back swing, for every practice round it's just camera clicks.

You come here and there's a lot of noise and a lot of energy. That's why you can't treat them quite the same because there's so much energy around the tournament. You come into the press room, there's more people, more fans, more noise. There's just a lot more stuff going on.

But over the course of my career, I felt like, if I show up to a tournament, I'm there to give that tournament my best. In that sense, I feel like I've done a really good job of approaching a lot of the events with the same mindset, and that's to go out and do my best. If I want a week off, I'm going to stay at home. I'm not going to show up at a tournament to have a week off. Just because it's a lot more restful to be at home.

I love playing competitive golf. I wouldn't say it's super restful coming out and doing it every week. So I have to have my weeks at home. Yeah, does that answer your question? I don't know.

Q. First of all, how often do you tell your mother the score?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I don't know. My parents like -- I'm sure if I did something great, like I'd want them to know. I remember there was one specific tournament growing up where I went to go play in an AJGA qualifier, and my dad said, You can play in the qualifier as long as you promise to not play in the tournament. Because at the time you had to qualify for the tournaments, but you could use it somewhere else. The qualifier was a couple hours from my house, so we could get there, and I could play the qualifier.

He drops me off at the qualifier. I call him when it gets done. He goes, I don't like this. This is not something I want to hear. I said, Well, dad, I won the qualifier. So if I win the qualifier, I get into the tournament, and I get to save the exemption. So I'm like, I got to play in the tournament. He's like, Scottie, I told you, you can't play in the tournament. I'm like, But dad, I won. So he ends up letting me play in the tournament and I remember calling him when the tournament ended, because the tournament was a couple of hours away, and he had to leave me there for a period of time. I was like 12 years old. He's probably not going to be happy me telling this story.

I called him after the tournament, because the tournament ended, everything's cleaned up, and he's not going to be back for another hour or two. So I'm just out practicing after the tournament. I called him, Well, dad -- I told him what I shot, finished fifth. Now I'm fully exempt. We don't have to worry about the qualifiers anymore. He's like, Okay, great. I'll be there in a couple hours. I have told them before, but it's only if something crazy like that one happened.

Q. My actual question, which is probably not nearly as good as that one, but what kind of expectations do you have at a PGA Championship? Not your expectations, but what kind of expectations of the test that the PGA presents? How would that differ, for example, from the U.S. Open, the other course that rotates quite a bit?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think a lot of it depends on the golf course. A lot of it depends on the conditions. If you look at this golf course specifically, between it being soft and firm, I think is two totally different tests. If you're looking at this golf course when it's soft, I think there's a lot of stuff you can kind of get away with in terms of like you can hit it pretty far offline. There's not many things to block you. And if you hit it really far offline when there's no trees, you can just get to the crowd and you have a cleaner lie than if you're a yard or two off the fairway.

Then with soft greens you're able to play a pretty simple strategy of golf where you can kind of play that sort of bomb-and-gouge-type strategy.

That's probably what works best because, when you have greens that have a ton of pitch back to front and they're really soft, it's easier to take off spin when you're in the rough. So the reward for hitting the fairway is not that great, but if you look at this golf course when it's firm, the fairways are hard to hit. Then if you want to get the ball close to a lot of these pins, you have to control your spin and control your distance really well, which is not that easy to do out of the rough. It's easy to take off spin, but it's not easy to control the spin, if that makes sense.

There's certain spots on this golf course where I think it can get really challenging if it's firm and fast. A lot of it depends on conditions and golf course setup. If they decide to water the greens, it's going to be a completely different setup than it is if the greens are quite firm.

A lot of it is golf-course dependent. I wouldn't say it's necessarily major dependent because I think most golf course, trying to make it as hard as possible these days.

Q. You spent a week at home, and you like taking that week off before a major. Was there a particular focus to what you wanted to work on at home?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Not really. I think a little bit of that is just studying, getting ready for the golf course and just making sure -- I'm just kind of going through my checkpoints.

I had played some pretty decent golf over the few weeks leading up. So sometimes if my game feels like it's in a pretty good spot, a lot of it is checking the boxes and making sure things feel the way they should feel heading into a tournament like this.

There's other times throughout the year where maybe I don't feel as good with where my swing's at, and maybe not hole a lot of putts. But overall the last few weeks I've played some nice golf. So a lot of it was make sure I got rest, made sure I checked the boxes, and made sure things feel the way I want them to feel heading into a major championship. And just get the mind right to come out here and play.

Q. Three seconds in your last three starts. Do you take a lot from that positively as badly as you do want to win? Or is it something that kind of gets under your skin a little bit?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think it was last week my wife was like, Hey, Scottie, you're like the first guy in PGA TOUR history to have three solo runner-ups in a row. I'm like, yeah, it's probably because the guy that was playing that good figured out a way to win one of those, he didn't come second in all three.

A little bit of it is bittersweet. Finishing second in a golf tournament is not bad, but, I mean -- especially in the way I did it in a couple of them. I was spotting guys so many strokes going into the weekend, mainly the Masters. Didn't have a very good chance going into the weekend there.

Hilton Head, didn't have a very good chance going into the weekend there.

Cadillac, I finished solo second, but really didn't have -- didn't really have that good of a chance.

So just different things. Overall, yeah, I'd say a little bit bittersweet. You know you're playing good golf, and you'd love to get some wins. Finishing second hurts, but I think when you reflect and you're looking at things to work on, there's a lot less to clean up when you're finishing 2nd than there is when you're finishing 30th.

Q. Your driving stats are awesome this year obviously, but one thing that's a little different I've noticed is that your left-right misses are more like 50-50, whereas last year they were more 70-30. I was wondering if that's something anecdotally that you see or is that kind of noise in the data that isn't telling the full story?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I would say the data this year would be a little bit more noisy in terms of like I used a different driver for a couple weeks and was doing some testing at the start of the year. I know we're getting close to the halfway mark in the season. How many events have I played by now? About 10?

Q. About that.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: So it's still the halfway mark. That's kind of a small sample size, and I would say there's a bit of noise in the data.

Q. First, to follow up on Doug's question, why did your dad not want you to play in the tournament?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think he had other stuff going on, like with my sisters. So like there was something important for my sisters going on, and so he was like, You can't play in the tournament because we have this. Like, I can't bring you to the city where it is.

Q. Then secondly, when you talked about the different conditions of the golf course, being soft or being hard, what do you feel reflects better for you in your game?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I don't think it matters a whole lot. I think when you look at golf courses, you just want to see a really good test. I think what's great about life on the PGA TOUR is the different types of tests that we see.

Like you look at the stretch -- the last two events I played after the Masters, just between Hilton Head and Doral, they're two completely different tests of golf, different grasses, different golf courses.

You look at Hilton Head, it's a tight golf course. You've got to work the ball both ways. You've got to hit a lot of really, really sharp iron shots, especially on the par-3s. Curve the ball both directions off the tee, hit a lot of different clubs off the tee.

Then you look at a golf course like Doral, it's more of a modern test in terms of a lot of drivers, tough driving course, very big greens. You don't have to be as accurate with your irons if you want to make pars, but you have to be really accurate if you're going to try and make birdies. A lot more drivers, bigger golf course.

Then you look at Hilton Head, it's a tighter feel because you're in the trees and looking in both directions.

I'm not sure if one is necessarily better than the other if we're going to play it each week, but what I love about the PGA TOUR schedule is getting tested in a variety of ways across different styles of golf.

Q. As the No. 1 player in the world, you get a lot of questions about a lot of things big and small. I'm wondering how you feel at times about having to kind of be a spokesman on big-picture issues, whether it's LIV or rollback or these big things that are beyond birdies and bogeys. How does it feel to have to be this philosophical spokesman because of being the No. 1 player in the world?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think when it comes to like the bigger issues in the game of golf, like I just try to answer them as honestly as I can. I think there's also like a time and a place for them. I think in a forum like this where I'm going to be sitting and talking for a bit longer, it's a lot easier to talk about those types of discussions.

Also, if I'm sitting one-on-one with somebody, that's a lot easier for me to talk about something as complex as the golf ball rollback. That's a complex issue, I think, in the game of golf. The fix is a lot -- it's simpler, but it's also more complicated when you look at -- it's just a longer discussion.

So I think there's a time and a place for it. But when I get asked questions, I try to answer them as honestly as I can. I don't really feel like there's any sort of extra things that I need to do. It's just if somebody wants to ask me a question about LIV guys or the golf ball rollback, like I'll try to give you the best answer I can in the right forum.

Q. In recent years, you've done some interesting things off the course, like buying the fishing team or taking some equity in some of your endorsement deals. I know you have a great support team around you, but I'm curious, how involved are you in some of those endeavors, and how interested are you in building out that side of your portfolio?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, I'm definitely interested in other things. I would say, when it comes to a lot of investment type stuff, like the fishing team -- the fishing team is really fun. That's something really interesting for me. I love being able to see that. I would like to be able to go to one of them one day. Something like that for me is really fun.

When you look at a lot of the other type stuff, like I don't really get involved in something off the golf course unless I'm really passionate about it. So when I look at a lot of the partnerships that I have, it's stuff that I really believe in and I'm passionate about. The fishing team is a good example.

When you look at my golf bag, there's a Golf Forever logo on there, that's something I'm very passionate about.

TaylorMade has been a great partner. Nike has been a great partner. I don't want to sit here and name all my partners just in case I leave one out.

I typically won't something do off the golf course unless I'm very passionate about it. And then a lot of the outside business stuff, like I couldn't tell you any sort of financial information or anything like that. I have a financial adviser that spends a lot more time focusing on that stuff than I do. I'm good at playing golf.

Q. Have you become a better fisherman yet?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: No, I'm still terrible.

Q. Scottie, sometimes players of your stature are victims of your own success. An example is having to answer questions about not being in the top 10 when other guys would celebrate being in the top 10. Is that -- obviously you want to be successful, but is that difficult to go through some of those periods?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Not really. I think if -- I'd much rather it be that way. I'd much rather have to sit here and be like, Hey, how come you didn't win last week, versus, he finished 15th, like that was a pretty good start for you, game's starting to turn around. It's a lot better playing good golf. Good golf is always better than bad golf.

If you're in a position where you guys feel like I should win every week, and I've got to sit here and answer questions about how come I didn't win, honestly it's pretty easy sometimes to figure out why you didn't win, like there's usually something going wrong. In golf that's a pretty easy question to answer. Why didn't you win Cadillac? Well, I played with Cameron three out of the four days, and he putted really good and I putted really bad. That's how you lose by six or seven shots.

Then you look at the week before that, it's like, Well, Fitzy played some really nice golf, and hit an incredible 4-iron, and I kind of pushed my 6-iron out there to the right and that's how I lost that one.

I spotted Rory like a dozen shots at the Masters and gave him the best shot that I could, and he still clipped me.

I think those questions are easier to answer. I guess it's just part of the job. That's how I would answer that. I'm not really sure.

Q. Speaking of Rory, you and him have not had that major Sunday final pairing kind of head-to-head matchup yet. Obviously you're playing the course, you're playing the leaderboard, but does that kind of individual head-to-head matchup compel you? Does that drive you? Is that something you'd like to see?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I would not say that it drives me. I think, when I look over the course of my life, my sources of motivation have always been internal. I talk about my parents not pushing me to be this great golfer. Like Randy has taught me my whole life, but he's never said, Hey, you're going to go out, you're going to win these tournaments, you're going to do this. It's like, Hey, let's do what we can to do in order to get better.

I've always loved that part of the journey. For me getting better at golf is such an interesting and fun thing to try to accomplish. You're always toeing the line between getting better and getting worse. When I can go out by myself and practice and have something that I want to work on and improve on, that's one of my favorite things. I love trying to figure things out. That's always been what's driven me.

I also love competition. I don't like losing. But at the end of the day, I think the preparation, getting ready to come out here and play is something that I really enjoy. I don't really think about much else other than that when I'm at home practicing. I'm not thinking about something that somebody else is really good at. I'm seeing how something that I'm doing and how I can get better at that.

I don't really need -- I don't really look for a lot of sources of outside motivation, if that answers your question.