Reigning RBC Heritage champion Scottie Scheffler shares his thoughts on returning to Harbor Town this week and reflects on the Masters.
Q. What’s it mean to you to defend your title here this week at RBC Heritage?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It’s fun being back here in Hilton Head. We have special memories here from last year’s tournament. It’s good to be back in town. Like I said, the food’s really good.
It feels like a really easy week for us coming off of Augusta. The golf course is really great. It’s a simple week for us. Most people rent houses here in the community. It’s easy to get to the golf course. It’s a simple, calm week for us, and it’s a lot of fun as well.
Q. This course is not as long as Augusta. Does that play more into shot shaping and give players who don’t drive as much, I don’t want to say an advantage, but a chance to score as well.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It’s definitely a positional golf course for sure. This golf course is much more about control and putting your ball in the right spots and staying out of the trouble.
The fairways here are much smaller than Augusta and a flatter golf course overall. A bit of a different test, but definitely still a good test.
Q. Your head space was a little different last year. You were right there ready to have your first kid. Over the last year, how has your perspective of the game of golf and maybe life in general changed since a big milestone in your life?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Having Ben around is pretty awesome. He’s a lot of fun. It’s fun for us to have him here this week. This is the third year I’ve played this tournament, and we have some good memories here. It’s very exciting.
Took him for a walk on the beach last night. We’re getting to really enjoy being in the community here, and it’s been a lot of fun.
Q. You heard, I’m sure, about the firing of the cannon into the Calibogue Sound. Now that you’ve experienced it, can you talk about that a little bit?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Fortunately, I had some ear plugs. It’s always nice when a cannon is going off. It’s also the first time I’ve hit a tee shot while the cannon is going off. It was definitely a unique experience. I was definitely glad just to be able to make contact with the ball and not embarrass myself out there.
Q. What was it like hitting that little club?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It was a different feeling. No glove, had a pretty big jacket on. It was definitely unique but a lot of fun.
Q. Was it a lot heavier?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I couldn’t tell you because I was wearing a jacket. Everything felt weird.
Q. You’ve had the opportunity to be involved in quite a few ceremonies the last several years. How does this compare to it, and is this the loudest one you’ve participated in?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: This is the first opening ceremony I’ve been a part of. This is something that’s unique to this tournament. It’s a very cool tradition and unique to be a part of.
Q. The official announcement of a mixed team event in the Olympics. Your feelings about that?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Well, it sounds like some of us may have another opportunity to win a gold medal for our country, which is always cool.
As far as the Olympics goes, any time you get to go and represent your country, it’s a really special feeling. I haven’t heard much about the format or anything like that. A mixed team event should be fun. I don’t know exactly what it will be, but I think any opportunity you can have to win a gold medal for your country will be pretty special.
Q. The first week they’re using distance measuring devices. Are you going to use that this week, and do you think it’s going to help?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: You’re not going to like this answer, but I kind of forgot about that.
(Laughter.)
I’ll trust Ted what he wants to do. I don’t really care. He’s the one that gets the number. I’m sure we’ll have it in the bag.
We’ve been using it PGA the last couple years, haven’t we? Is it going to help pace of play? Maybe a few minutes. Will it be anything significant? No. This tournament, what affects the pace of play is walking the golf course. I think we’re playing twosomes all week, so it will go from a five hour round to maybe four hours or less.
When you see the biggest changes in pace of play, it all comes from going from three guys to two guys in a pairing. It’s just easier to get around the golf course.
Also, the distance walking from green to tee is a big factor as well if you’re going to save 15, 20 minutes off the round. This golf course is pretty simple in terms of getting around.
Q. Do you think they should be used?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I don’t really have a strong opinion on it. If you get a golf course like this where it’s hard to really get offline. If you get offline, you’re just in the forest.
If you’re just punching out and hitting weird shots, I think on some of the bigger golf courses when you get pretty far offline, it can be a little bit of a — a less advantage to a great caddie who maybe has a way of doing the numbers better than other caddies, or maybe has put in the work to get numbers from certain areas. So it could take away a little bit of that.
I’m not sure if it will have a significant impact on pace of play, but we’ll see. It’s something we haven’t tested out before. Will it save a few minutes? I don’t think it would hurt pace of play, but you never know. My answer is we’ll see what happens.
Q. What’s your personal preference on that? What would increase the pace of play on the TOUR?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think the only way to have a significant impact on the pace of play, if you look at the average round time last week — Thursday and Friday you’re playing in threes, Saturday and Sunday you’re playing in twos — there’s going to be a significant difference, probably over an hour difference in pace of play.
The pace of play debate is funny. I think people want to watch exciting golf. I think that’s what it’s all about. Let’s say if we do all these changes and we save 20 minutes off of a round of golf. Is somebody going to sit down on the couch on Sunday and go, well, I didn’t have five hours to watch a round of golf, but I’ve got four hours and 40 minutes. Now I’m in.
I think, if we’re going to spend a lot of time and energy, I think where I would want to spend it is get more people involved in the game of golf, more people able to come and play. It’s a great game. It’s a great sport. You learn a lot of life lessons playing golf.
What’s most important for me as a player, where I want to spend the most time and energy specifically in the game of golf is getting people involved. I’ve met some of my best friends in the whole world playing the game of golf. It’s a really special game that I think more people should want to play.
Q. Any highlights stick out from being in the Butler Cabin with Rory?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: In that moment, like it was such an emotional day for him, I kind of just tried to stay out of the way and basically get the jacket on without embarrassing him or myself.
I got to watch the whole celebration. I watched the finish. It was really cool for me to be able to see because I have — I don’t have the understanding of what it’s like to be asked about the career grand slam, but I have a small understanding of what it’s like to be asked, hey, you accomplished this, but you haven’t accomplished that. It can be very taxing on people sometimes.
It was cool to be able to see Rory get the job done. Definitely from the outside it looked a lot more like relief than anything. Rory has accomplished everything in the game of golf, and that was really the last thing for him to accomplish. The guy has won FedExCup, THE PLAYERS, all four majors. Maybe the only other thing would be the Olympics is what he would want to win.
So for him, it was really cool for me to be there in that moment. He’s a good friend of mine. To be able to congratulate him and just see the joy on him and his family was really cool.
Q. What do you bring from last year’s win to help you this year?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Last year, I came here pretty tired from the last week, and I did a good job of managing myself and how I got around the golf course. Definitely will reflect on how I played and struck the ball last year here in terms of getting ready for this week’s event.
Q. Are you less tired now?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah.
Q. Seems like a pretty exhausting week.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It was an exhausting week, but it takes a lot out of you to win a golf tournament emotionally. On Sunday, yeah, I was in the tournament. It takes a little bit out of you, but the adrenaline you get from actually winning the tournament is a lot different than getting close.
I’m sitting there on 18 fairway last week, and Rosie was at 10-under. I’m thinking to myself, I’m going at this pin. I’m going to try to hole this, and then he makes it, and you’re like, well, tournament’s over. I lost. Didn’t win, lost, whatever.
I was looking at Teddy, and I’m like, all right, Teddy, I guess I’m going to aim at the middle of the green now. He’s like, yeah, aim at the middle of the green. Let’s get out of here.
For instance, if Rosie misses that putt and I hole it, huge adrenaline rush, and that takes something out of you. Kind of like the adrenaline rush you get from getting arrested. It takes something out of you.
(Laughter.)
As far as being spent, I’m not nearly as spent as I was last year. The party on Sunday looked slightly different than it did last year. I still had fun with friends, but it’s just a different feeling. Last year, for instance, we flew home, was home for a day and a half and traveled and got in an airplane. That takes a toll on your body.
For instance, this year we hung out at Augusta on Sunday, drove over here yesterday, had some lunch, got some treatment, slept in today. Feel ready to roll.
Q. Your immediate takeaway from yesterday was just not having your best, which happens, and hanging in there and fighting pretty hard. Anything change in the last day in terms of any of your thoughts? And do you have any idea why the ball wasn’t going where you wanted it to?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I told Meredith one night, one of the hardest parts of today is, when I aim the golf ball this way is it either went that way or that way. It very rarely went that way.
It was a taxing week for me, but like I said, I haven’t had my best stuff this year, but I feel like I’m learning a lot. Each week I feel like I’m improving and continuing to learn. It definitely is nice to be here at a tournament — I hit some balls before I came over here today. I feel like each day I come to the range, I’m getting a little bit better. Things are starting to feel more the way they should.
I’m excited for this week. It’s a really good test of ball striking, this golf course. You’ve got to curve it both ways. You’ve got to hit shots. We’re going to get some wind. You have to control spin, control trajectory. I’m looking forward to this week.
Q. Scottie, can you talk about your family being here and this whole — the whole atmosphere, family friendly, and being able to bring your family here this week?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: This is a tournament where a lot of players will bring their family. It’s very easy for us to be able to rent a home in here, just enjoy the week. It’s a great walking neighbourhood. You stay close. The restaurants were great. We’re staying close to the beach this week, so already took Ben on a couple walks on the beach. He ate some sand yesterday — a lot of sand yesterday actually.
It’s a lot of fun. It’s nice for us. We have some friends coming to town to stay with us this week. I’m just looking forward to a relaxing week, get to enjoy some competition.
For us it’s an easy week, and it’s fun. You get to bring your family. I don’t really know how to elaborate other than it’s a lot of fun.
Q. It’s not really a looking back question, but considering you basically started the year a month late, did you find any sense of urgency in trying to catch up with Augusta? Is there any part of you going forward that, now you’re almost back to normal in terms of catch up?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: There’s definitely an aspect to that, not only because I started a month late, but I was set back four weeks by injury and not being able to do the stuff I would normally do.
For instance, when you look at the off-season, I have things I try to improve on, accomplished what I wanted to accomplish, feel ready going into the season. All of a sudden, I’ve got to take a month off. A lot of that time, it feels like you’re starting over because you lose strength, lose mobility.
I did my best to keep those things up, but there’s only so much you can do with one hand. I don’t want to do a bunch of workouts on this side and then come back and this side and be even weaker.
Taking four weeks of golf is an extended break. I would typically take that right when the season ends so I have time to build back into the course of the regular season, and this year I wasn’t able to do that. So I was playing a bit of catch-up.
Like I said, I feel like I’m improving each week. Body’s starting to feel better. Swing’s starting to feel better. I feel like I’m working towards having another good season.
I haven’t had my best start this year, but I’ve had some good finishes. It was definitely good to be back in contention last week and in Houston. The feeling of being in contention at a golf tournament is a lot of fun, and I’m hoping to do that this week.
Q. Do you take some inspiration seeing Rory win the career grand slam?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I feel like, when I see somebody winning a tournament, the feeling you get from winning a tournament is a pretty special feeling. For me, I wish it lasted longer than it did. It doesn’t really last very long.
I feel like watching anyone accomplish anything in the game of golf, it takes a lot of work. I don’t think very often about career goals or anything like that. I try my best to stay in the present.
Was it pretty awesome watching Rory win the grand slam? Of course it was. But as far as my life goes, I try to stay in the present. So right now I’m focused on this week, and when I get home next week, I’m going to be preparing for my next tournament.
At the end of the day, my motivation is all internal. Was it really cool getting to see him accomplish that? Yes, of course. Winning the career grand slam, I think that’s something that any golfer would dream of, but at the end of the day, I’m just trying to get the most out of myself. That’s about it.
DANIEL MEARS: I’m Chef Daniel Mears of Fraser’s Tavern, and this is the burger you created for us. It has got our brioche bun with sesame seeds, Old Bay aioli, pepper jack cheese, crispy applewood smoked bacon, crispy onion straws and of course the jalapeno peppers.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Actually, I’m starving. So this is perfect.
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