TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 24, 2026

Scottie Scheffler

TPC River Highlands

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome World No. 1 and 2024 Travelers Championship winner Scottie Scheffler to the interview room here at the Travelers Championship. Scottie, welcome back. Coming off a busy stretch here after the U.S. Open and getting back in the swing of things, how are you feeling entering this week.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, doing good. I got some good rest last couple days. Did nine holes this morning. This is a golf course for us where I played it a few times now, it doesn't change a whole lot year to year. So did nine holes today. Took most of the day off yesterday, came out and hit a few balls in the afternoon, but other than that took the extra day. And I'll go practice a little bit after the pro-am this morning and kind of get ready for tomorrow. But overall feeling pretty good.

THE MODERATOR: This is always kind of stated as a player family favorite this week. What makes this tournament so great and one of the favorites.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I would say this tournament is a favorite kind of across the board when you look at player support, you look at the caddies. This tournament I think does probably the best job on TOUR of taking care of everybody and it's a really easy tournament for to us come play in. It's really fun for us knowing that our families are taken care of our kids are taken care of the people that support us are getting taken care of as well. When tournaments ask me throughout the year, What can we do better, I'm always like, If you want to learn anything, just come to the Travelers Championship, just because they do it the best. So for us it's always fun, it's a great golf course, a good place to come compete, good fans as well. So for us it's just a fun event overall.

THE MODERATOR: Perfect. With that we'll open it up for questions.

Q. After a week like last week at Shinnecock, the U.S. Open, so challenging, such a grind, is it almost a refreshing to come to a golf course like this and have fun again where you can really go after it and make birdies? And secondly, does Teddy encourage you in that way to change of strategy in a way?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I would say I do, I really do enjoy kind of harder tests and sometimes the battle is fun as well. This golf course I think is interesting in a sense of you hit some different clubs off the tee, there's some strategy involved, but you got to show up and make birdies. When you look at the closing stretch on this golf course as well, especially if you're in contention on Sunday, you're not going to be able to just limp in, you got to go out there and you got to make birdies and hit some really, really great shots in order to win this tournament. So you always seem to have a really good finishes here and I think that's the nature of the closing stretch and how difficult it is to close on this course.

Q. After last week's sort of along the same lines, how much is this week a mental and emotional challenge as much as it is physical after expending so much energy on a difficult golf course being in the final group at the U.S. Open?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I think you kind of nailed it there with expending a lot of energy of the that's kind of why I said I took a little extra time yesterday as well. I think it's a nice tournament to have after the U.S. Open because the golf course doesn't change a bunch year to year. You're not showing up learning a totally new golf course and new conditions. It's an easy week for us in terms of my family gets taken care of, caddie gets taken care of. And it's nice to come down from all the adrenaline and the high of a U.S. Open to come here where it's a little bit calmer. We stay pretty close to the course, kind of walking around, eat dinners at the course, we spend a lot of time here as a family. For us we have great memories as a family at this tournament and so it's fun coming back year after year and just knowing that my family's going to be in a good spot as well. Because players, we always seem to get taken care of pretty well, but knowing that the family is taken care of, and when my son goes to TOUR School he's going to be doing very fun stuff and it's just a great week for the whole team, the whole team around us.

Q. Obviously yesterday was a big day for the PGA TOUR announcing their changes for 2028. Curious if you've had an opportunity to digest all the changes, what you like and maybe what you still have some open questions about.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I would say I think I have had a little time to digest it, I don't really have a ton to say about it. But I think we're moving in the right direction for sure. I think what people want is to get the best players playing together more often. I'm not sure if the smaller fields were a huge fan favorite, so getting fields back to 120-man fields, getting a cut back, I think it's a good changes. I think getting -- the more I think we can simplify it for people, the better. Especially when you're looking at tournaments stretched across an entire season. So kind of the simplifying of you're going to see the same, you know, 120 guys most of the time at the same tournaments across the country for throughout our season. I think it's really good. I think it's easier for our fans to follow. Hopefully it will make them more interested. I think the competition will get better. I think when you look at larger fields it will be much harder to win tournaments, it will be different than the old days on TOUR where you could win a tournament where there wasn't many of the top players playing. I think starting in 2028 there's a TOUR win in the Championship Series? Championship Series? Championship tournaments?

THE MODERATOR: Championship Series.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Championship Series. See, still digesting. When you win one of those tournaments they will have some serious significance to it because you'll have beaten pretty much all of the best players in the world in order to do it. So I'm excited about it. I think the competition will get better, play good golf courses and play against the best players in the world. I mean, for a player, I don't think you could really ask for much more.

Q. I noticed recently that you had switched from a narrow or sorry from a wide-soled lob wedge to the narrow-soled lob wedge earlier this year. You won so many times with both of them and I'm just wondering why you chose to switch, because you don't do it necessarily for course, it seems like you do it for long periods of time, right?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, that's a good question. I always switch and I'd be to Teddy like, Oh, yeah, I'll use it on these courses and then switch. And then I get something that I like and I'm like, Gosh, I like this. I'll use it wherever. The lob wedge is one of those clubs where you have to learn to play from so many different lies that I get like almost in a relationship with the club where you're like, I don't really want to let it go, I know it so well. It's just, like, I'm weird about my golf clubs, so that's funny that you noticed that, because I don't really have a strong rhyme or reason. Because I played 2024 mostly with a T-grind and then now I with the kind of narrower sole and then I played most of 2025 with a wider sole. There's no real rhyme or reason to it, I think just sometimes I put it in imagining, Oh, when we get to the firmer courses I'll use the narrower and the soft ones the wider one. And I use it in the first tournament and I like it and it's like, actually, I don't really want to change because I got to adjust to this new wedge and I'm like, oh, that's too much.

Q. So you're sticking with the T?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, sticking with the narrow one for now. We'll see. If I get an inkling to change it I will. But once it gets in the bag it's typically tough for me to take a club out.

Q. A lot of players talk about how much they hate making even tiny little tweaks to their grip especially in tournament, but you seem pretty comfortable doing it. You and Randy have talked about it in the past it working. Is that true, has that always been the case in terms of those little changes?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I would say like for me little changes have always been kind of a thing. Where like I can adjust something little pretty easily. My thing is if I can get a feel for where the club is, I can do what I need to do with the golf ball. So if I'm having trouble getting a feel for where the club is I'll make a little judgment to try to feel the club. That's why I talk to getting back to neutral and seeing and creating shots, because my goal is always to have a feel for where the clubhead is and then use that feel to curve the golf ball different ways and control it. For me it's very simple in a sense of like if I can just feel it, then I'm in a good spot. And if I can't, we're just trying to figure out how to find it, essentially.

Q. And I know it's kind of, it changes a lot, but like how often would you say you go through a little grip tweak like that?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I wouldn't say my grip really changes that often. I think sometimes it's my swing will start to change, my hands will move on the club to kind of neutralize the change. But it will kind of like -- I'm always doing stuff subconsciously I think in order to either feel the club or hit a shot a certain way. So sometimes for us, we're playing always different conditions, like I'm always -- that's why you see me with my sticks down, I always use the grip club, because I'm trying to get the same fundamentals down, just because they will change subconsciously as I'm trying to do different things. Just because I get really into playing golf versus trying to search or find things. When I get on the course in a tournament I'm just playing. So my swing will change, my stance will change, everything will change like pretty much on a constant basis, just because I'm trying to play the game and it's stuff that I'm not thinking about. I just see what I want to do and then when I set up I'll have done something to try and do what I want to do with the golf ball. So like I'm always trying to make sure I get those fundamentals down to make 'em try to keep my neutral to neutral. Versus like if we're playing a bunch of windy weeks in a row and all of a sudden I get back home my ball position will just move back because I've been flighting it down for so long. Always kind of trying to work on those fundamentals. So I wouldn't say it's really changing anything it's just trying to get back to the basics kind of week in week out.

Q. Can you talk about this golf course and what part of your game needs to be most dialed in to do well here?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think it's a golf course you have to be surprisingly patient on. Because they can put the pins in some areas of the greens that are pretty small. It's a golf course where bogey's going to hurt you pretty significantly. So keeping a clean card and giving yourself a lot of looks is I think underrated on this golf course. Everyone's like you got to make birdies and be super aggressive, but I think around this place getting a bunch of look seems to work pretty well for a lot of guys and you see 'em winning the tournament, guys typically not making a bunch of bogeys around this track. So keeping the golf course in front of you and then the closing stretch is, I think is one of the best we see on TOUR with you got a drivable 15, reachable 13 and there's some trouble out there as well. You look at 17th hole. 18 is a great finishing hole because if you hit the fairway you're going to get a short club in your hand and have an opportunity to make birdie. But if you're not in the fairway, then you're going to be struggling to make par. I think that's why you see so many great finishes -- like even last year I think it was maybe a bogey/birdie finish where Tommy had the lead on 18 tee and ends up missing the fairway, and then Keegan gets in there and makes birdie. So you never really know what's going to happen on this golf course and I think that's why you have such exciting finishes.

Q. On that point, is there a particular hole that you always look forward to playing here? Is there a favorite hole? Is it 18?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Favorite hole? No. Whichever one decides to let me birdie it that day would probably be the favorite (laughing).

Q. Along those lines, this obviously this tournament has gained a reputation over the years for exciting finishes for the fans, for us, for you guys. I was wondering, what's it like when you're in contention on 15, 16, 17, when not only can you hear the roars of what's going on but you can actually see the players you're trying to beat hit the shots they're hitting. Does that, do you watch that or do you just notice it if something happens?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think you more notice it if something happens. But like you said, yeah, it's intimate there between 15 through 18. I think it's also an interesting golf course in the sense of typically on Sunday they're not setting it up like the hardest pin locations. Like it's not -- when you think of Sunday pin, you always think of the hardest pin location. I think around this place it's not necessarily the case. So the guys in front of you typically are making birdies and so the leaderboard also will get really bunched just by nature of how the golf course is. So playing with the lead here I think is difficult and the guys in front of the you can put a lot of pressure on you and like in order to I know with the tournament you got to hit the shots.

You think of 13, that's a really good hole because it's a fade off the tee, more of a draw into the green.

15's drivable hole where, it's not a U.S. Open hole where a great shot will give you a par, it's a great shot and you're probably going to make birdie or have a chance for eagle. But either way the great shot is getting rewarded, which as players we love.

17's a similar hole where, if you hit the fairway, you're going to have a decent chance of making birdie, but if not you're probably going to be laying up. So overall I think it's a good balance of rewarding good shots and punishing bad ones and yeah I think that's why you have such good finishes.

Q. The fourth hole, how do you approach that hole and what are some of the challenges you fairways on that par 4?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think it's a tough tee ball. Especially when it gets down wind it's a tough tee ball. And then the green plays a lot smaller than it looks. So really important to get that ball in the fairway. A lot of it depends on wind direction too, because if that left bunker comes into play off the tee, that's basically a bunker where if you hit it into, especially the front of it, you're probably going to be laying up as well. So overall very important to get that ball in the fairway and then it's a challenging green as well.

Q. Later on today Will Ferrell is going to be here helping push his new movie. What do you think about that in general and how cool that kind of is, and also how over the last several years now golf has been much more of a subject when it comes to series and movies that are hitting a mass scale like that and I'm wondering about how you feel about the impact that that has on the game as a whole?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think it has a great impact on the game. Yeah, it's fun Will Ferrell is coming tomorrow. I'm a sucker for comedy, so love to laugh. So any time we get a comedian out here I think it's really entertaining. Yeah, I think it's great for golf to become more mainstream. I think you see, especially since COVID, there's been a tremendous growth in the amount of people that are playing golf. I think it's the greatest game in the world. You learn a lot about life. I met some of my best friends in the whole world playing golf. So for people getting involved in the sport I think is tremendous. Like I said, getting to spend four hours with somebody outside hanging out playing a game is something that's pretty rare in the busyness I think that we live in today. So getting out taking some time with your buddies and going to play golf is one of the most fun things you can do. Especially when you start playing, you learn a lot about life and how to handle things and it's a challenging game as well, so overall I think it's just a great sport for anybody to get involved in.

Q. As a player, is there a schedule cadence that you're looking for and is there a risk of cramming too many tournaments into too short of a period of time when you're trying to balance recovery and sharpness and the majors and family time as well?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I think when you look at this sport it's unique in a sense of like the amount of time we spend in front of people throughout a week. Like for me to play four days of tournament golf, from the moment I step out on to the driving range if we're playing at a four hour pace that's over five hours, five and a half hours if you include this part of my day, where we're in front of people. And doing that four days in a row in a mental sport I think can take a toll on you. I think that's why you see a guy like Tiger can only play so many events because I think mentally the challenge of just being in front of people for that long and being on and what it takes in toward to compete week in week out takes a lot out of you mentally. So for me playing more than three weeks in a row is extraordinarily difficult. I can't handle much more than that. When you look at the season now I think it, for family time it's great to have an off-season as well, just for us for me to be able to be at home with my family is important. As far as the cadence goes, yeah, I definitely have a cadence that I prefer when it comes to scheduling and there are definitely risks cramming a bunch of tournaments into little windows just because it's hard to play that many tournaments in a row. It's hard to be on for that many times. It's hard to get yelled at that many times in a row throughout a round of golf. It just is. That's why for me three weeks in a row is kind of my max.

Q. Sunday you told us that you felt like you're playing catch up all year long, just spotting the leader too many shots in the opening round and trying to battle back. Curious how you feel about going about and actually addressing that, because without actually forcing it or making it intentional and when you start Thursday?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I haven't looked at the statistics, but I think I've been pretty good in first rounds over the course of my career, especially the last couple years. I think for whatever reason I haven't gotten out of the gates as quick I want this year. And that could be the nature of waves, tee times, a lot of it on me, there's different factors that go into that. But overall I think my approach to how I play tournaments, I don't think that really needs to change at all. I think, you know, I feel like I'm in a pretty good spot. I think just try and get out of the gates a little quicker. Like you said, can't really force it. I'm trying as hard as I can, you know (laughing).

Q. You mentioned your love of comedy. I just got one question for you. What percentage of Ted's jokes are bad and what percentage are really bad?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: What percentage are bad and what percentage are really bad? I would say 10 percent of them are like really bad in terms of like, Ted, that's not even funny. But those are more rare. Ted, he's pretty sharp, I got to give him a little bit of credit. His dad jokes, like I said, I'm a sucker for comedy, so I'm an easy audience.

THE MODERATOR: You got done with your pro-am a special guess inside the ropes with you, what was had a like?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: We had some fun. I had Caleb and his family out. We had some laughs. Caleb got to hit some shots on the course. Got a new set of clubs. That's always a good day when you get a new set of golf clubs. Got to test 'em out, so it was fun.

Q. When you're struggling on the golf course what are your favorite bible versus that help you get back up?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I would say like when I'm struggling in whatever it is in life I think it's always important to remember the why. Like, why am doing this. Why do I play golf. Why am I so passionate about it. I think remembering your purpose and why you're doing it is always the most important. For me that's a daily battle is remembering the purpose of why I play. Like, why I love to compete and love to play golf. And any time I can kind of reset towards that baseline of the why always helps me to reset and get back to a good place and not take myself too seriously. I think throughout competition I'll get, you know, I think I just get so into it at times that for me it's better to take a step back and just remember why I play and it helps me kind of enjoy the competition a little bit more.

THE MODERATOR: Scottie, thank you for the time. We appreciate it.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: All right. Thanks, y'all.