Interview with World Number 1 in 2025, CJ CUP Byron Nelson winner Scottie Scheffler
Q. You just captured your 14th PGA victory, first of the season, and here at the Byron Nelson where you made your PGA TOUR debut. What does it feel like?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: It’s pretty special. This tournament means a lot to me. I grew up coming here to watch. It’s very special to have won this tournament.
Yeah, I don’t really know how to describe the feeling other than it’s really fun to be able to play here in my hometown in front of the hometown fans. It was a really fun week, really special week, and I definitely enjoyed it.
Q. A historic wire-to-wire win, entered the final round with an eight-shot lead. Tell me about thoughts coming into the final round and pushing.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: This is a golf course where you can kind of make a run, and I knew that I couldn’t just coast to the finish line today. I knew I had to put together a good round.
Let’s say I played super safe today and shot even par, Erik would have chased me down there. I knew I had to get out and make some birdies. Did a good job on the front nine and was able to play some consistent golf here. I made the mistake on 3, but responded really well with a bunch of birdies after that.
All together, a good week.
Q. In the middle of addressing the fans, you got choked up. I was just kind of wondering what was it that entered your head that caused you to have those feelings?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: When I think about this tournament, I think about a lot of different stuff. I grew up coming to watch it. This was my first start on the PGA TOUR when I was in high school. The girl I was dating at the time is now my wife. We have one son. My sister was caddieing for me at the time. She was here today. She has two kids.
My family was all able to be here, and it was just really, really special memories, and I think at times it all comes crashing down to me at once. We have a lot of great memories as kids coming to watch this tournament. I just dreamed to be able to play in it, and it’s more of a dream to be able to win it.
I never really got this far to be honest with you. I always just dreamed of playing golf on the PGA TOUR. I would come out on the driving range and watch these guys practice, hitting their brand new range balls. That’s all I wanted to do was come out here and play a golf course that was in great shape and compete on the best golf courses in the world against the best players.
It really is a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice from a lot of the people that I have around me, and my family is obviously the starter for that. Yeah, I guess when my family is here, I always tend to get a bit emotional.
Q. Scottie, pardon me if I didn’t dig this up in research, but in 2010, you’re 13. Were you here when Jordan sort of did his thing as a 16-year-old or not? Do you remember?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I’m sure I was here. I would always like to come to the tournament and watch. I would come to this tournament, and I would typically tried to go to Colonial a bit as well. Colonial was a little bit farther for us. Sometimes after going to Byron, I would get the golf bug and want to go out and practice.
I think, when you come here as a kid and you see the guys hit balls on the driving range and see what they do on the golf course, they’re all so talented. I just wanted to be like them. I think after coming to this tournament for a couple days, I would probably be hard-core practicing for the next week or two.
Q. Is there a favorite memory that stands out as a kid?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Favorite memory, I’m not really sure. I have difficulty remembering specific instances, but I definitely remember coming out and sitting on the driving range a lot. I always liked to try to go to the driving range because that’s where you could watch the most golf. I always wanted to come to practice rounds because there would be nobody out here and it was always a lot more relaxed. You could see guys hit all kinds of shots.
I think the lasting memory I have as a kid was just being able to play in the tournament and what it meant to me at the time. It really inspired me to come out here and try to do this for a living even more.
I grew up watching guys that played on the PGA TOUR at Royal Oaks and was inspired by them. Coming out here and being able to play in this tournament, it really fired me up to come out here and try to do this for a living.
Q. Are you going to give Jordan grief about winning this tournament before he did, or are you going to go easy on him?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think I’ll take it easy on him.
Q. Scottie, did you see Tiger play out here? Did you ever come out here and watch Tiger play at the Nelson?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I’m not really sure. I did come out and watch, I think, in the years in which he was here, but I don’t have specific memories of watching him.
Q. As players, you’re always onto the next because it’s an ongoing thing. You’re not playing next week, you’re at home. I was wondering what you had in mind for a celebration. Go over to Royal Oaks with the hamburger guys, or what have you got planned for a celebration?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: That’s a good question. I don’t know what we’re going to do for a celebration. I know we’ll eat good food, hopefully tonight, and we’ll push into Bennett’s bedtime little bit, but we’ll see. We’ll definitely celebrate. Being here at home is pretty nice.
A lot of times when you finish a tournament, you’ve got to catch a flight home. It’s really nice to be able to hop in the car and be in my own bed tonight.
Q. Last year Rory talked about how you inspired him, and seeing what you did, that really kind of pushed him. Now Rory has won THE PLAYERS, which you did, and the Masters, which you did. Has Rory inspired you this year?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think any time somebody has beaten any of us out here, I think we’re all — I guess you could say inspired, but I think we’re all fired up to come out here and compete. I think that’s what’s great about our game. Week in and week out, we get to come out here and compete. This week I was the best player. I have the week off, and we’ll see the week after who is the best player at the PGA.
Rory has been playing some tremendous golf this year. The career grand slam was really special to watch. I was glad to be able to be there for it. I think any time you’re getting beat, you’re always fired up just a little bit extra to go out and practice.
I feel like my game is trending in a good direction. I’m excited to start the rest of the season.
Q. Scottie, I wanted to ask you, I was out watching you today from a distance because of the crowds were huge. I was just blown away by your golf. It was kind of a strange week. You had like a ten-hour round on Friday, and then you played in the dark last night. Is it just — describe what it’s like to be playing so well and ahead and how you stay in the moment. Did you finally let your mind wander a little bit on the last couple of holes?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Maybe on the last couple of holes. This is a golf course where there is some trouble. There’s water coming down the stretch. With the heavy rough, you can make some mistakes. There’s always birdie opportunities as well. I never really felt like my lead was too comfortable. I always tried to keep pushing, hitting good shots.
Really I felt like — in ’22 at the Masters, I would say I lost focus on the 18th green and four-putted. So if I was to start looking around and looking at the crowd and doing all the different things out on the golf course, I’d probably start hitting golf shots offline and start screwing it up and do silly things out there. I did my best to stay focused. I kept being committed to each shot and tried to shoot the best score I could today.
Maybe on 17 and 18, maybe the frustration from making bogey on 17, it was almost more like going down 18, I’ll try to soak this in a little bit more. At the end of the day, I was just trying to be committed out there. It was a lot of fun for me to be able to play in front of the home crowd, and it was a really special week.
Q. This is unique to have the Korean letters on the trophy, and they will actually change the gold letters to your name, the champion’s name. How do you feel about this trophy? And then you will have the name with the other champions.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I think it’s a really cool trophy. I’m proud to be on this as well. I’m definitely going to have Si Woo teach me a little Korean in order for me to be able to read it.
Yeah, like I said out there, I’m really thankful for CJ’s support of this event. This event means a lot to me and means a lot to our community. CJ has done a great job sponsoring this event and being a great partner for the club here. We’re really thankful for their support of this event and the PGA TOUR.
Q. I heard from the chef on Friday you ate two meals on Friday when you were waiting long. Then he called to the chef and give them the autograph. How come you do that for him? To express your thanks for the chef or something?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: The food was really good. I did have a few plates on Friday. Thanks for letting everybody know that. It was a long rain delay, I will say that.
The food was really good. There was like 20-something chefs out there cooking a bunch of food. They were working really hard this week. A few of them came out and asked me for an autograph. I’m not going to turn down someone who’s been serving me free food all week, especially food that was that good. I had a lot of Korean food this week, and it was all really good.
I had a lot of that short rib and then some vegetables. I had some good grilled chicken. Then I had the spicy chicken, which was some fried chicken. I had probably a bit too much of that this week, but it was pretty good.
Q. Scottie, we talked to Erik earlier when he finished, and he said that, when you holed that putt on 9, he just kind of shook his head because he was in there close. Did you guys exchange looks at that point?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I do remember walking off the green like towards my bag, and he was kind of just like standing there, and I could like feel him looking at me. I kind of just looked up and smiled at him, and he just smiled back.
I knew he was going to come out and have a good day. He’s a really good player. He’s an extremely hard worker. Like even when we sat down in scoring, I think he liked — he saw the way I hit the bunker shot on 18, and I think he liked something about it because he asked me, hey, what club do you use? He’s always trying to get better, and he works really hard.
He’s a good buddy of mine. I played a lot with him when I first came out on TOUR, and he’s a super nice guy.
He had a really good front nine. It was going to take something special for him today in order to catch me. I think he did his best to put up a special round. I just played really well as well.
His game is in a good spot, and this definitely won’t be the last time you see him up on the leaderboard.
Q. Does it irritate you at all that he beat you by a shot over the weekend?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Didn’t know that.
Q. Doesn’t sound like it does. I wanted to ask you about the shot at 17, the chip shot. What was your reaction when that happened?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: The first or the second?
Q. The first one. And the second one. You can talk about that too.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I had a really weird lie in there. I was trying to play a little low shot. I thought I was going to come — with a 56 degree, I thought I was going to come out clean even through the weird lie and just didn’t. That’s about it.
Q. For the top players in the world, the timing of this tournament doesn’t come at a great time. You have a big event next week with the PGA. So it takes — it is your hometown tournament, but it takes quite a commitment for you to play it. I just wonder if you’re cognizant of just the fact that you played it and now the Number 1 player in the world has won this tournament, how it raises the stature of this tournament at a really critical time for the tournament?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: When I think about this tournament, I think about Mr. Nelson. I think about what he did for the game of golf. He was a man of faith, and he was a great person as well off the golf course. He was a person that I’ve read a lot about. I’ve had the opportunity to meet him a few times when I was a kid, and I know a lot about him. He was a tremendous player and a tremendous person. So we look up to him in a variety of ways.
I’m proud to be here supporting his tournament and his legacy. We have some great legacy tournaments on the PGA TOUR. I believe that Mr. Nelson also did a lot for the PGA TOUR. For his tournament to have a lasting legacy here, not only in Dallas but on the PGA TOUR as well, I think is really important.
When I grew up wanting to play in this tournament, I never really dreamed of being the Number 1 player in the world, I never thought about that stuff, but I hope it does well for the tournament. I was proud to be able to support it this year.
It’s a tough time of year overall. When you get into the heart of the season, there’s major championships and the signature events. It’s a busy time. You kind of have to pick and choose your schedule.
I would love to play every week on TOUR. We have so many great tournaments. You have to pick and choose. This was a tournament this year that I really wanted to be a part of. I’m going to take next week off and get some rest and get ready for the PGA Championship.