PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 15, 2026

Scottie Scheffler

Aronimink Golf Club

Flash Quotes

THE MODERATOR: Scottie Scheffler is with us now at the 108th PGA Championship. We'll jump right into questions.

Q. Just talk about the start of the day. It seemed like you hit good shots, didn't get good results, but you hung in there. Can you sort of sum up what I just said?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I mean, I didn't hit many fairways to start the round. I hit a good tee shot off 10, where I thought it would be in the fairway, and ends up in the rough. I can't get it to the green. That's probably the hardest fairway to hit on the golf course, just because of the pitch in it.

And then I hit it okay to start. It was just really, really tough. It was blowing really hard, and it was quite cold as well. So the golf ball wasn't really traveling anywhere. It was just a really challenging morning overall.

After the first, I think I was maybe 3-over through 4, and the par I made on 14 was extremely good. That was one of the craziest pins that I've seen just in terms of it wasn't -- your ball wasn't going to roll off like 50 yards away, but that was like they put the pin on like this microphone, like it was just like a high point. I hadn't seen anything like it. You saw, I made a really good 3 1/2-footer there, and if you don't start that perfectly online, it's probably not touching the hole.

You saw it with Fitzy and Rosie in my group, both of them missing a couple of putts inside 10 feet with when you got guys who can put putt the ball like that, that's pretty rare. So you knew there was some activity, I would say, around that hole.

And then hit the really nice shot into 17 to kind of get things going. Definitely feel like stealing at least a shot there with how hard that hole's playing with the wind in off the left.

Was able to make a few birdies on the back nine I wish I could have taken a couple more shots there going to the easier side of the course. As the conditions were getting better I wish I could have gotten a few more there. But overall, I did some good stuff. It was still pretty gusty as we played our back nine, which was the front nine as well. So overall just a challenging morning.

Q. When the pins are this challenging, like how does that affect strategy and the way you're thinking about even like a basic wedge shot, I guess?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, like 10's a good example. I'm sitting there, the wind's blowing 20, 25 miles an hour right-to-left, and I got a green that goes like down right-to-left into a valley, up left-to-right, back right-to-left, and then the pin is quite literally, if I hit that chip shot and the pin's here and it goes to there, it goes all the way over the back of the green, and now I have a very, very difficult up-and-down for bogey.

So you just have to play smart and patient and understanding that I hit good shots on the 10th hole, but there's sometimes, especially around a golf course like this, where you're going to hit some good shots that aren't quite good enough and you get punished pretty severely for it. I guess a lot of it is you have to be a little careful is how I would say it.

There's also just some things that are out of your control. You just got to continue to try to hit good shots, and most of the pins today were, I mean, kind of absurd. They were just so far into the areas where we thought the pins were going to be, and then they just -- like the one on 14 was probably the hardest pin that I've seen in a long time just because, I mean, there's literally just like a spine and they're like, oh, we'll just put the pin right on top of it. And you're like, all right, well, I'll see what I can do. And just you know, just challenging.

Q. You talked about patience a lot yesterday. When you have the start you did today and the wind is the way it is and the pins are the way they are, what's your process to stay patient and not get frustrated?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I feel like if it's hard for me out there, then it's going to be hard for other players. It was pretty obvious to tell this morning the conditions were pretty tough, and so I just kept trying to remind myself of that. I think also when the pins get this hard, you really have to choose your moments when you're going to try and maybe get after a pin or try and play a little bit smarter.

You look at -- like a good example would be the difference for me between No. 2 and No. 4 today. Like No. 2 we get into that fairway and that pin's tucked pretty far into the back of the green. I only got like 140 pin, but I hit what I felt was a pretty good shot there to 30 feet.

And then we get to the 4th hole and I have almost the exact same number with a slightly different wind direction, and it's like, okay, I just hit this shot two holes ago, and if it's the exact same shot here, it should work out perfectly. So now I'm going it to try and hit a shot where I can get it towards that pin.

Whereas on the 2nd hole with how much the wind is blowing and where the pin is located, this isn't really the time for me to try to shove one back in there. Just get in there about 30 feet and 2-putt and get out of there and maybe you can steal one with a long putt.

And then get to the 4th hole, get the right number and it's like okay, let me try and get it in there a little bit closer. A lot of it is just kind of managing your way around the golf course.

Q. Did anything unfair happen to you out there?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I mean, not unfair. I mean, I think the only time in our game where it's unfair is like if you get wind starting to blow the ball off of greens. I hadn't seen that yet. It looks like the wind's going to die down as the week goes on. I don't think we'll see that this week.

It's funny sometimes, I feel like the thing in our game right now, which I do enjoy, I love hard tests of golf, but it's also the hardest game in the world and we're trying to make it harder, and there's different ways you can do that. You can do that on a golf course like this -- I mean, I truly believe they could have the winning score be whatever they want it to be. It could be over par if they want it to be, just based purely upon pin locations.

Is that the best test? Who knows. It's a different test. I think that's what's great about our game is very rarely do we play the same golf course, and even when you do at a place like Augusta, it's different each and every year. So conditions are always changing, the golf course is always changing. I think it's the hardest game in the world and still just trying to solve a bit of the puzzle.

Q. Does it negate some of your advantage if some pins just simply no one can get to?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Not necessarily. I think a lot of times, if I was to hit 14 fairways and 18 greens today, my score would be different than 1-over. It's not like -- there's always spots where you can hit the ball, sometimes it's just a matter of whether or not you want to take it on or if you want to play smart.

That's why I talk about getting the right numbers. There's spots where I would try to attack and there's other spots where I might want to be a little more careful with this pin location. But definitely, I wouldn't say there's anything unfair out there.

Q. Hard to know how the wind's going to feel until you're out there, but coming into the week and practicing, did it feel like it was going to be this hard of a test for you, and is that surprising now that you've done two rounds?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: You talking about the wind specifically?

Q. Yeah, and the pins just the entire test, I guess?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, you never know going into a tournament how things are going to be. You just get a feel for the golf course and how firm the greens are, and I was a bit surprised how far they pushed a lot of these pin locations.

But I mean, after when you're looking at the pins Wednesday night you see it, you're like, oh, wow, they're pushing these things as far as they can, and you go, okay, great. Then you know going into it.

I was a bit surprised how windy it was. When we went out to play our practice round on Wednesday, there was guys that even elected not to play just because of how windy it was on Wednesday, and it was fairly comparable to or comparable to how it was this morning. And I was glad I went out there and played on Wednesday because I think that experience on a new golf course and a lot of wind was helpful for me going into today's round.

Q. In terms of the pins, does it feel different than recent PGA setups, or does it feel just a little harder just for the sake of the particular golf course?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I'm not -- I didn't follow that.

Q. The setting up of the pins, does that feel harder than recent PGA Championship setups.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: This is the hardest set of pin locations that I've seen since I've been on TOUR, and that includes U.S. Opens, that includes Oakmont. I did ask, I asked Fooch, who caddies for Justin Rose. He's been around a long time -- and I asked Teddy too -- have you seen anything like this before? They said maybe Shinnecock is the only place they have seen that has pins that could compare to this.

But it's different in a sense on this golf course, because Oakmont, their greens are extremely severe, but they're extremely severe in one direction. Here, it's like the green may slope all this way and then we put the pin down here and then there's also a slope this way. And like it's not as, how would you say, natural to the slopes that are there. There's a bit more, I think, that's manufactured into the greens, and it's just very difficult.

It's difficult to get the ball close to the hole. It's difficult to hole putts, especially when you have big slopes and wind, and I think that's why you see the scores so close to par.

Q. We were just -- most of this we discussed about how difficult the course is and the conditions and the pins and whatnot. When you look up and see a 65 for Gotterup, for Chris for today, did you see a 64 out there, and how good of a round do you figure that was?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think you can always see it, and I think that's what is great about the harder tests. A lot of times you see somebody figure it out. Like you see that in a lot of U.S. Opens, you see that in a lot of these tournaments. And, like you see it on a golf course like Riviera, like somebody always figures it out. I think that's when you see a really good test. I think a lot of times you see the scores get so close together it may not be as good of a test. So when you see a score like that from a guy like Chris, he's obviously a really talented player -- and I think that's a good thing. It's got to be a heck of a round. And, yes, I did see it out there, but I was six shots off of that, so that was a pretty good round.

Q. How well have you gotten to know Chris Gotterup along the way here, and what do you admire about him?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I played with him first couple rounds in Phoenix this year where he won. One thing that has impressed me about him is just his attitude, the way he goes about things. He's not a guy that's really going to get very flustered. He may get frustrated from time to time, but he's never going to be a guy that is going to get overly frustrated and have it affect his next shot. He just has a really good attitude about the way he goes about things on the golf course, and in life, too. He's a great guy to be around, fun guy to hang out with. He just kind of likes to have fun, he happens to be really good at golf, and that's pretty much it. He just likes to have fun. And I feel like that's kind of his personality is just like, yeah, I play golf, I'm pretty good sometimes, and other times I'm bad. I think that's kind of how a lot of us feel. But I would say his greatest strength is probably his attitude.