“Pretty Frustrating Day”: Scottie Scheffler’s Honest Round-1 Take

Scottie Scheffler called Round 1 “pretty frustrating”—he felt he did plenty right but didn’t get rewarded. He explains the 18th-hole situation (stuck behind tents/scoreboard, potential relief into the rough, chose not to), the Ryder Cup vibe with U.S. teammates clustered in the draw, and exactly what it takes to score at Silverado: find fairways, manage a course with some quirks, and handle late-day poa annua that can get bumpy—especially on steep, pitched greens.

Scottie also opens up on his chemistry with Sam Burns: why Sam’s a mentally tough, free, instinctive putter (quick AimPoint, then commit), and how Scottie’s trying to be more visual/athletic on the greens. Big picture? He’s glad to be competing instead of taking four weeks off before the Ryder Cup and is eager for an early tee time to attack fresh putting surfaces.

Highlights

Honest recap: “pretty frustrating day,” doing some things well without payoff

18th-hole ruling choice: relief existed, but it meant rough—not worth it

Course keys: fairways, accept quirks, manage bumpy poa late

Ryder Cup adjacency: a slightly different feel with teammates in the wave

Sam Burns insights: quick read → instinctive stroke; Scottie adopting a more visual putting approach

Why playing this week matters: no real drawbacks, valuable competition reps

Scotty, how would you uh assess that round and what was the vibe like for you out there today? Um, I mean, I think it was pretty frustrating day overall. I felt like I did some things well out there. I just wasn’t quite getting the reward. Um, yeah, it’s pretty much it on my end. On three. Your third shot on 18. Sorry. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, I was behind me. I was behind all those tents and a scoreboard, and I would have liked to have been able to see the pin when I was hitting my approach. Um, granted, you should probably be on the correct hole while doing that. Um, but I could have gotten relief from the scoreboard or the uh the like the tent grand like the whole grand tent area, but either one of them would have brought me into the rough, so it wasn’t wasn’t quite worth it. you know that there’s so much focus where there’s some focus on you play with these guys all the time but it feels um I yeah I think it was a little different today just uh you know knowing that all of us were kind of paired in the same little little area of of tea times and um you know we’ve obviously been spending a lot of time with each other this week so it definitely feels slightly different than it would have if this tournament was in March you know the RER is is right around the corner. Scotty, can you? Not really. I tried. Scotty, can you put into words kind of the chemistry that you and and and Sam have and kind of how it developed and and what is it about him that makes you guys tight as friends and and Yeah. Well, I mean, Sam Sam’s a great guy. He’s a great person off the course. You know, he’s extremely competitive on the course, but he’s a guy I’ve known since since junior golf. I’ve known him for a long time. So, we’ve had a relationship for quite a while and been been good buddies. We were good buddies in junior golf and um you know, we’re still good buddies to this day. Just as a follow on his putting, everybody obviously he’s kind of acknowledged for for what Furry does on the greens and how good he is. What what in your opinion makes him such a good putter, whether it’s technical, mental, what you know, what are the things that you analyze when you look at I mean, I think mentally he’s really tough. I think he does a really good job of staying free and loose while he’s putting. Um you know, he does his little aimoint stuff. He does it very quick and uh you know he kind of gets an idea where he wants to and then it’s like everything else shuts off and he just hits it. Um so it it’s pretty impressive. I’ve talked to him about it numerous times the way he does it and you know that’s kind of something that’s that’s helped my putting as well trying to become more athletic, be more visual and that’s something that that he does really well. So you try to glean whatever you can out of that as much as you can. Well I mean I think I think we all can learn from from each other out here. Um you know just because you’re good at one thing doesn’t mean you can can can’t learn from somebody else. So, I feel like I’m always trying to learn little bits and pieces from guys when they’ll when they’ll give up some information. Scotty, what do you think of this course and what’s important? What what are the important things to finding success here? Well, you got to got to get the ball in the fairway. Um, you know, there is a little bit of quirks to the golf course, especially as it firms up. The the greens can be pretty challenging and um late in the day, you know, poetic can get fairly bumpy. So, especially with the amount of pitch they have in these greens. So, the greens were were pretty difficult to putt and uh kind of found myself on the wrong side of the hole a few times, but but overall felt like I learned a good amount about the golf course today and excited to get out early tomorrow and see what I can do. Scotty, we talked yesterday about the benefits of playing this week. Are there any drawbacks to playing this week? Any drawbacks? Um, I couldn’t really think of one. Um, I mean, you could maybe nitpick and say, you know, you could use some rest, but like I said, it was more important for me to be here instead of having, you know, four weeks off before the Ryder Cup. Good. Thanks, Scotty. Huh? What’s your history with POA? You like it? Yeah. Golf.