“Creativity’s Key, I Love That” | Scottie Scheffler Press Conference | The 152nd Open at Royal Troon

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Scottie Scheffler speaks to the media ahead of The 152nd Open at Royal Troon.

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okay good afternoon everybody uh welcome to this afternoon’s press conference with the two-time Masters champion and a current world number one Scotty Sheffer uh Scotty it’s obviously been a fantastic season for you so far um you know we’ve won several times on tour obviously winning the Masters how much are you looking forward to the challenge this week and putting yourself in contention again yeah I’m excited U I’m excited to be back over here this year um excited for the week I think the golf course is great uh should get some good good win this week um looks like looks like should be pretty consistent you know some good Breeze which is you know I think increases the challenge of this golf course and it should be a fun week okay first question Dan Rory Rory was in here talking about how important he felt it was to play the Scottish open to get used to the conditions and the greens you obviously didn’t play what what went into that decision um I’ve done it the last couple years and I felt like it was more important for me to get over here to this golf course and prepare um getting used to the conditions of the grass the bunkers over here um okay and next question in front Scotty what do you feel like the process for learning lyx golf has been like for you it’s different for every player I’m curious like you’ve played in Far five now these what what do you think it’s been like this is my fourth um and as far as the learning curve goes I mean I just feel like you have to be more creative here and you know I love that part of it I feel like when I do come over here this is really kind of how golf was intended to be played um I feel like there’s a lot more opportunity for shop making and being creative around the greens um and I can just see how you know somebody who is either a bit older maybe not as talented as some of us out here like you take a 10 handicap you know that only carries it 200 yards and they can run it up and have fun and not really lose many balls but the golf course out here are still going to challenge players like myself and um so it really is fun to come over here and play and I feel like just getting more creative and I think the biggest adjustment was how much the ball spins off of the turf here it spins a bit more than it does at home and so when you’re playing shots into the wind it it it’ll typically have much more of an effect on what the golf ball does than what we’re used to so getting used to a little bit of the heavy air and just a little bit spin your Turf okay next question make for number four uh Scotty obviously you’ve had huge success back home do you come here with different plans based on what you have learned from the the two or three times you’ve been over here for the open do you have come here with different tactics of how you’re going to try and break down the course and attack compared to when you get back home in more American style conditions yeah well I mean it’ll definitely be different tactics out here but like you said um you know that’s why my preparation was a little bit different this year you know focusing more on this golf course than the than last week um getting over here feeling a bit more rested um and yeah as far as getting used to this place you know lyns golf is obviously a lot different than what we play at home and so getting used to the firmness of the fairways um you know getting used to the different bunkering and the speed of the greens is obviously a bit different as well and how how big a factor is the driver going to be this week do you think you you won’t be taking as many drivers off the te would it be two ions and stuff instead I mean it all depends on the Wind so like today we got downwind on a lot of the holes in the front nine and um you could hit some drivers if you wanted to and you could definitely hit some irons if you wanted to as well and it was a lot of it’s going to be a little bit of a game time decision just based on the wind but most of the back nine I’m going to be hitting driver just because the holes are significantly longer and um are supposed to be playing like slightly into the wind um and so being able to hit driver into the Fairway I think will be a big Advantage this week if if you’re getting the ball in play and driving it well um it’s been a wet year so far this year so the rough is thicker than it has been in years past so um it’s a bit more of a penalty okay next question back rate hi Scotty the consensus is that the front nine is the easier nine but obviously you’ve got this postage stamp hole which I think you’re familiar with now like 120 yards and you’ve got this longest hole you got the shortest and longest holes in the open could you just talk us through those holes I know you haven’t played it in competition but how do you see them yeah yeah um well you know you got number six the long par five and I think it’s a really good hole because especially when you get it slightly downwind you can get to the green and two um still just without firm the grasses you know if you carry the ball let’s say 300 yards in the air and it’s a little bit downwind it’s going to roll out on this Turf you know at least 30 yards unless it lands and do an up slope and so you’ll be able to get there in two um and so I like that it has opportunity um on that hole and then I think number Eight’s great you know the postage stamp I I get frustrated some sometimes when the solution to distance is just making holes further and further and then it only just encourages guys to try to hit the ball further and further and not worry as much about controlling your ball and number eight is a good little way to kind of almost step back in time and you know control your ball a bit more and you don’t have to make a part three 230 yards to make it a great hole it can be 120 yards you know I think a hole is like 12 at austa and 17 at Saw Grass I mean the best part 3es in the world are short part 3s they’re not overly long part 3s and um because it leaves opportunity for you to hit a great shot and if I don’t hit the green on number eight it’s most likely going to be a bogey unless you’re in the front of the green I mean if you miss in the right bunker or the left bunker I mean if you hit in the left bunker you’re going to be glad to be making a bogey because it’s probably going to plug and you’re going to be getting up and down for your bogey so I I think great little short holes like that are fun it’s I think it’s an underrated skill for guys nowadays to be able to control your ball and I think it’s something that we need to continue to encourage in our game not just building golf courses longer and longer I mean you can make a short hole with a small green and it’s pretty dang tough okay next question Tom in the front hi Scotty um what’s the most difficult conditions you’ve ever experienced on a on a Link’s course and how did you cope most difficult I can’t remember if it was two years ago or last year at the Scottish at Renaissance Club I mean the winds were blowing sustained like 30 m hour and gusts were blowing over 40 um and it was cold and so those were the toughest conditions that I can remember and most of it was just like I said earlier how the ball spins the touch more off this Turf it was getting used to how much the ball will actually fly into the wind because when it blows that hard at home and let’s say typically when it does it’s a bit warmer you know Springtime we always get high winds in Texas and you can kind of pinch it and hit it through the wind but with the ball being Spiner off the turf if I tried to hit that shot that I would at home it would almost spin even more off the turf and then go even shorter and so I had to learn how to adjust and shallow out a little bit and hit it low without as much spin um is so just one more for me is there when you’re out there and it’s and it’s blowing and it’s rainy is there a psychological game that you have to play with yourself to convince yourself that you’re actually enjoying that um I think if you’re playing well it can be pretty enjoyable and I think when things start to go south it um you know you really got to stick with it and just continue to grind I was always a guy at home growing up that I would play in whatever condition it was um and so I try to embrace that when I get out here and and challenge in conditions okay microphone number three is that you dog what Scotty what was your first ever experience with link scoff um when I came over here played the Scottish in I think it was in 21 played the Scottish and I played the Open Championship you never came over on any type of a holiday or a walker cup or anything like that no our Walker cup was in the states and um I never made the Palmer cup to come over here and play so um yeah didn’t play any Junior tourament or anything like that over here and then U secondly the the the bunkers here how much time do you spend in them I’m spending a good amount uh one of the things I liked that the RNA changed from this year from uh last year was the bunkering last year I thought it was a bit silly how they flattened out each bunker and the bunkers are still a penalty enough when the ball’s not up against the lip um it was kind of a little bit of luck whether or not your ball would kind of bury into the face just cuz you have a flat bunker and a wall it’s just going to go right into it and as long as you build a little bit of a slope into it you can allow guys the opportunity to get out of the bunker and if you’re around the greens it allows for opportunity for guys to either take on the lip or play smart and play sideways it leaves more opportunity for great shots and more risk and reward around the greens and in the fairways just because you have an opportunity to either hit a great shot or just play it safe and go out sideways and so I love the way that they changed how they rake the bunkers this year with the more traditional sloping coming off of the walls okay L okay you said earlier on you love being creative here now you play one of your creative shots from the eth or which you know where are you producing one of these um yeah well it depends on wind direction that’s that’s one of the things if number Eight’s playing into the wind then yeah I’m going to have to get pretty creative with what I’m doing especially since it’s an elevated shot you know it’s a shot that you have to try to hit without a lot of spin um and so that would definitely be like for instance today I think it was like 113 adjusted to the pin and my pitching wedge at home usually goes about 14 40 yards and I hit a shot that was a high 20s pitching wede with no spin or with less spin I call it no spin it’s my no spinning shot and so that’s kind of just one of the little creative things that you got to try to do which is a shot I typically don’t hit a ton at home sry you said what if you sorry I didn’t hear what you said at the end what’s that you were talking you were talking about the creativity of your short yeah and yeah yeah so like if I’m going to take 15 yards off of a club and not try to spin it that’s a lot different than you know hitting a stock shot yeah yeah okay microphone number two over here uh scoty as you’ll know the last person to win six in uh a year at this stage was Arnold Palmer 1962 his seventh that year was the open at trun it would be nice if uh history repeated itself with yourself yeah I mean that’d be great were you aware of the you know the fact that his seventh was no no I well I I really do mean that I try to stay off the internet as much as possible I like to when I’m at home I like to try to be at home and be present um and so I I love the history of the game and there’s certain things that I know and certain things that I don’t and that was something that for some reason I just never stumbled across and so I have no idea that that was a thing okay Bob Scotty um on its most basic level your your foot action is is that the result of you creating a lot of Club head speed or does that help you create a lot of Club head speed when when especially on the driver the the long shots I don’t really know exactly what it does for my club head speed I’ve tried to hit a few shots with my irons with what you would like call traditional footwork and I just felt kind of locked in felt a little bit too robotic and so I’ve always been a guy that loved hitting a lot of different shots you know changing the changing the curve and that’s how I play most of the time and um in terms of my footwork I just felt too kind of locked in and unnatural if I don’t do what my feet normally do because it may look funny to y’all but it feels totally normal to me I never thought twice about it um basically I didn’t really think much about it till I got out on tour and it really became something that I got asked about that was kind of my calling card when I first came out on tour was my footwork and it was something that I never really thought about cuz that’s just always I did is is um is in the end though the idea is to get the club square right and and and obviously this helps you you do that like if if you were to try to you know not do that did you notice that you weren’t as consistent I mean I did it maybe a couple times in a row and I just didn’t really like it and so it never really got any further from there the the last time I can remember trying to hit a shot with normal traditional footwork was falo came up to me on the Range a couple years at the Masters and he he’s like he was one of the guys that was I think pretty critical of it at the time and so when he came up he’s like well just he asked me why and I was like I don’t really know I mean let me hit one normal and see how it goes and so I hit one with traditional footwork and I turned around I was like it just feels like I’m locked into the ground I don’t really feel like I can hit my shots and so then I just kept moving my feet like I normally do so so is that a good sort of a good Mark of your coach who didn’t try to change you yeah I mean Randy is uh I mean he’s taught me since I was seven and so we have definitely made changes to my swing but that was something that he never never changed I mean I think the words he would use is that was kind of just the DNA of my swing and he doesn’t want to change you know what I did to try to work the ball um I think that was one of the things he liked about me when I was a kid was there was always a pull out on the driving range and I would try to hit it with a straight shot and then I’d try to hit it with a draw I loved being able to curve the ball and I think part of it is cuz I learned when I was a kid I I used to play in the house with a pingpong ball and a pingpong ball is super spinny right and so I would learn to curve it you know from room to room and spin it a lot and do and that was what was fun for me about the game and so as time went on you know I didn’t want to turn into a robot I wanted to do what I thought was fun and that was seeing and creating and trying to hit shots and you know I get bored sitting there on the drive range trying to hit every shot straight and so sitting there and learn how to curve it learn how to hit shots and that’s more fun for me than it is just sitting there and working on Club position thank you okay mhone number three I mean like you said you know you do you have always taken pride in keeping Golf and life relatively separate I mean this year though I mean you had people practically tracking the birth of your child you had the the Louisville incident you know just there’s more focus on you how much trickier has that gotten to to keep yeah it’s definitely been a bit a bit trickier um you know I think continuing to play better this year definitely especially at tournaments I think they ‘s just a lot more going on you know dayto day and I think I’ve had to almost lean into that more just continuing to improve my rest so that I’m it’s actually restful um I think that’s something that my wife and I are always working on you know when we’re at home getting rest what does it actually look like to be restful and that’s not necessarily always just sitting there and watching TV there’s a lot of different things that we do to get you know good quality rest um so that when we come back out here on the road and come try and play and do things you know I have the energy to compete I have the energy to um really the social energy to come out and interact with the fans and um you know do this kind of stuff sit in the media center um believe or not this isn’t you know my favorite thing in the world to do um but it’s part of the job and it’s something that I enjoy I I enjoy doing it I like being able to come in here and sit and talk to you guys and um you know do all the stuff that it comes with playing Great Golf um it’s a pretty cool feeling to be able to make somebody’s day just byy sign an autograph or taking a picture that’s a pretty pretty fun feeling and I’m trying to embrace more that side of it than then you know not being able to sign everybody’s autograph and then you know people are upset because you can’t you can’t get to them throughout the day that’s not a fun feeling so I’m trying to lean more into the uh the feeling of making somebody’s day just by simply signing something or taking a picture we’ll take we’ll take the final questions in the room starting with number two at the back hi Scot wondering if you’ve seen the house that’s in the middle of the chorus and um how unusual is that uh and have you ever seen something like that in in other places yeah I think it would be more I have seen the house I think it would be more unusual if there wasn’t all the stuff built around it kind of Blends in I think it would if I came here you know 6 months from now on all the tents and you know all the build outs gone I think it would be a lot more unusual but I’ve only seen the place with massive Grand stands and stuff so it’s hard to really tell how much it stands out out there okay M phone number one uh Scotty I know you guys are all trying to beat each other but when somebody suffers a a tough loss the walls tend to come down sometimes and people reach out um I was wondering if you’d reached out at all to Rory after Pinehurst and then what your toughest loss was and if if there was anybody who reached out to you that that that you kind of always remembered um as far as reaching out to Rory um I didn’t you know I think sometimes guys you know he took the next week off at The Travelers and you know it seemed to me like he wanted his space and so just felt like giving us his space was the best thing to do as far as my toughest losses have been um well you know it was a great one for Rory you know East Lake a few years ago I’d say was probably one of my toughest losses and um you know I remember immediately after I think Justin was was standing there and gave me a hug and he didn’t really have a ton to say but he just gave me a hug just because we’re good buddies and um you know there’s certain guys that I’m I’m very close to out here on tour and Justin’s definitely one of those guys and so it was nice to you know just to get a hug and I think that’s what’s cool about competing out here is you make some you know great friends for life especially being on team events with those guys and stuff like that um you know really have great friends for a long time we love competing with each other and you know sharing in successes and you know beating up on each other a little bit as well okay we go to Sean and then Doug beby final you and Sam popped down to Turnberry the other day a couple years ago you made a couple stops in Ireland I’m just wondering like what inspires you guys to stop at these top courses more over here than you maybe would at home in the states well really more of what happened this year was since I didn’t play the Scottish open um in terms of like the travel and the jet lag and everything you need to get here a bit earlier um in order to be ready to compete and so I didn’t want to come here and play trun that many times in a row before the tournament that would be outside of my routine um and definitely outside of Sam’s as well and so when we came over here this time it was like well let’s find somewhere else to go play on on Saturday and you know we were fortunate to go out there and play and we had a great time great Golf Course um had a ton of fun you know played with played with our Cates had some good good matches and um as far as Ireland when we did that it was for the mcmanis proam and um obviously wasn’t going to play a practice round for a proam and so they gave us the opportunity to go play some other golf courses and see some of the links courses there in Ireland and I mean it was I mean a tremendous lot of fun or tremendous amount of fun you know we played uh I think we played L hinch with with Jordan and Sam and then um I think Sammy and Teddy went over and played balet bunan the next the next day and um was just ton of fun okay Doug following from an earlier question if you go back from from corn fairy to your first win at Phoenix Masters and then everything you’ve done this year have you have you noticed mostly on the road uh being recognized more have you had any weird uh moments come up I’ve definitely had some weird moments come up it’ll be hard for me to remember them off the top of my head but there’s always some funny ones because I think like sometimes people don’t know exactly what to say and they can you know be a bit weird at times um but in terms of like one of the things that’s been really great about this year is um you know the fan support I’ve gotten um you know I really feel like the crowds this year have treated me wonderfully they’ve been been behind me and it’s you know I always dreamed of playing growing up playing on the PJ tour and so being out here playing in front of great crowds and having them you know scream your name and holler when you make putts and be truly rooting for you is is a great feeling and it’s something that you know always cherish for my time out here and um you know it’s one of the very special perks that we have of playing out here on the on tour is playing in front of great crowds and you know being able to feel their support do think couldn’t tell you okay on that note we’ll bring uh I mean I I guess you’d have to ask them I I feel like I’ve always been a guy that just let my golf clubs do you know all the talking for me I guess that’s kind of the cliche but I never really thought of myself of anything but a golfer I was never trying to be famous I didn’t want to be a celebrity or whatever I just wanted to become a good golfer and you know get the most out of myself and it’s brought me this far and so I continue to just try to keep my head down and um you know put in the work that got me here and just continue to to practice and hopefully continue to get better and as far as a crowd support it’s great like some of the things I I talk about like being able to take a photo of somebody or sign an autograph and you know have a good impact on their day is a really special feeling and I try to embrace that side a lot more now because when I first came out I would feel bad that um or I guess I should say when I first was having some success I would feel bad that I couldn’t sign you know everybody’s flag and then you spend a decent amount of the day telling people no and that’s not a great feeling you know so I’m trying to lean into the more of you know being able to sign the autographs and you know hopefully getting a good reaction instead of a bad one okay we’ll bring things to a close there Scotty thank you very much for your time and very best of luck all right thanks