Eight players are tied for the 18-hole lead, the most on the PGA TOUR since the 2011 Genesis Invitational, and is the most in Charles Schwab Challenge history. One of the leaders is Scottie Scheffler, excerpts from an interview:
Just wanted to get your thoughts on the opening round and how the course played?
Scottie Scheffler: I thought it played good. The course is playing harder than it does in a typical year here. Yeah, I felt like I did a really good job of managing myself around the golf course. Anytime you make no bogeys, it’s going to be a good round.
Your drive on No. 11 wound up in a pretty crazy spot and you made par. Talk us through what happened on that hole and your reaction to seeing where your ball ended up.
Scheffler: Well, I tried to hit like a hard cut and I hit a draw, so that for starters is not good, and then it hit somewhere on that tent and went way left. I don’t know if that’s a good break, bad — whatever it is, I got it back in the fairway, and I really could have made birdie from where I was. Thankfully it was a par-5, and I could hit another shot to get the ball back in play and have a chance to score on that hole.
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You kind of had a bit of a bumpy start at the Nelson before you finished strong, and obviously the PGA last week. What do you make of the stretch you’ve had back here at home and with the PGA, the last few weeks how you’ve played?
Scheffler: Yeah, I played solid at the Nelson. On that golf course I think I had one bad hole, which really kind of makes things difficult out there with how many birdies there are. The PGA, I just kind of got on the wrong side of things and I didn’t play good, and I just made too many errors, and that’s what’s going to happen in a Major championship.
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Coming back to the D/FW area, is it kind of hard handling that pressure coming back home or do you enjoy having the extra eyes on you now back in the Dallas area?
Scheffler: Yeah, I think I enjoy it. It’s a lot of fun, definitely, to have people cheering for you versus against you, so it’s definitely good to have some fans out here now. But I love being here at home.
Like you said, you got a little bit on the wrong side last week. How does it feel to post a 66 and get an early start?
Scheffler: Yeah, it’s good. I was very frustrated obviously with how last week ended. You never want to miss a cut. I hadn’t missed a cut in a while up to that point, so I think it makes it even more frustrating just knowing that I was playing really good golf and I just didn’t have it that week. That stuff happens. If I didn’t like bad draws or making crazy mistakes and stuff like that, I would have played a different sport. A lot of weird stuff happens in golf. So for me it’s just one week, and I hate missing cuts, but it’s good.
What did you do last weekend when you came home when you thought you’d be playing?
Scheffler: You know, for the first time in a while I actually watched the golf tournament. I typically don’t ever watch golf, but it was nice. I relaxed all day Saturday, and Sunday went out and practiced, just put the tournament up on my phone and kind of watched. Will was really close and JT is a good buddy of mine, as well, and my old caddie was caddying for Mito. For me I had a lot of different guys I wanted to watch, and it was fun. The golf course looked really tough on the weekend.
Kind of off the beaten path, you’ve been pretty open about your faith. Has this year challenged you or grown you in that regard?
Scheffler: Yeah, I mean, I think there’s just a lot of different stuff going on that comes with success, so there’s the good and the bad, and I’m just trying to manage it as best I can.
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