After visiting the Louvre art gallery with his family, and watching some table tennis, Scottie Scheffler says the only reason he has come to the Paris Olympics is to win the gold medal
What kind of value do you place on winning an Olympic gold medal?
I try to place an equal amount of value on all the tournaments I play, but it would be very special to win a gold medal.
It only comes around every four years, so you never know how many opportunities you going to get to win one. I loved going to watch table tennis and gymnastics, but that’s not why I showed up here.
I feel like that any time I show up, I’m trying to do my best, and that’s definitely the case this week. It’s special to be part of the Olympics and I’m looking forward to the chance to compete for a medal.
What is the camaraderie like in the Team USA golf camp?
Yeah, we’ve all known each other for years. Collin [Morikawa] and I go pretty far back, all the way to junior golf. We were all part of the Ryder Cup team last year and we’re pretty close friends. We’ll play all our practice rounds together this week. We went out today and had a good game.
Team camaraderie is always good. We get along really well and had some fun. I think we are all just really excited to represent our country and looking for a medal.
What did you make of the course at Le Golf National?
I played 18 and played nine today. My caddie, Teddy, caddied in the Ryder Cup here in 2018, so he had a lot of good info on the course.
The rough is not nearly as penal as it was for the Ryder Cup and right now the golf course is not nearly as firm. We’ll see how the weather is for the rest of the week but I’m sure it will firm up a bit if we get no rain.
Teddy did mention how much the course changed from practise rounds to tournaments that week, so maybe it will be a little bit similar this week in terms of the golf course changing.
What are you most proud of as you look back over your performances this year?
I think mostly I’m proud of how I’ve been mentally. I think being in the spotlight can be challenging at times, and I felt like last year was fairly challenging in a sense of the questions I was receiving in areas like this, seemed to have more of a negative connotation and this year they seemed to have a much more positive connotation.
To be honest, I haven’t changed too much from last year. I’ve just been out here competing and I’ve been fortunate to have a few wins. But when I show up to a tournament, I don’t feel any different. I’m not trying to be any different. I don’t show up acting like the No.1 player in the world, and I don’t show up as anybody other than myself, and I just try to do my best to compete.
I would say I’m the most proud of myself in the last couple years of not being overly emotional with how my golf has been, whether it be too negative or too positive. If it was too negative, I would be probably a pretty miserable person to be around and if was too positive; if I loved myself too much, I would probably be a pretty tough person to be around as well.
I’m just proud of showing up and competing and having some consistent results this year.
Are you doing anything better this year than you did the previous year?
I think if you took a look at my statistics, I think my putting has gotten better than last year and I think I still have a lot of room to improve in that area.
Based on pure statistics, I went from losing shots on the green to I think I’m positive now. Seeing those little results like that can be really great for your confidence, knowing you’re working on the right things and working in the right direction.
I mean, sometimes the game is really just as simple as that, holing a couple more putts. Definitely this year I’ve holed some putts in key moments. I’ve looked back at rounds like I had at THE PLAYERS, holing key putts; like the Masters; making the putt to win at the Memorial. The margins out here are so small that sometimes you’re a good break away from winning a tournament and a bad break away from losing one.
This year so far I’ve been on the right side of things, and last year I would say I was on the wrong side of things for a while. Kind of just the ebbs and flows of playing in game for a living. It’s never that easy to win, and you know, sometimes you’re good at it and sometimes you’re not.
How do you see the vote swinging between you and Xander [Schauffele] for the PGA TOUR Player of the Year Award?
I try not to think about it. I’ve had a pretty good year and Xander has had a pretty good year as well. It’s for people to vote on. I’m proud of the year that I’ve had and the consistent results. Xander is another player that’s extremely consistent. I love seeing people like him have success because he does it the right way. He works hard. He’s not full of himself.
We were praying a practice round today and I was actually thinking about it like, man, Xander is the exact same person today after winning two majors as he was if he had lost them both by one.
We were having such a good time with the guys playing the practice round, I thought to myself, this guy won two majors this year, and things were still the same. You wouldn’t know that he won the US Open or Collin won the PGA. We were all out there having a good time. That’s why I love seeing people that do things the right way, work hard and have success.
I’m extremely happy for him and that’s one of the great joys I have out here competing with my buddies is being able to celebrate good moments like that with him and hopefully showing up this week and have a moment for myself.
The first round of the men’s Olympic Golf competition begins at 9am on August 1. For the complete field click here.
Full live TV coverage of the tournament can be seen on Discovery+