SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER     ( -19)

Scottie, captured your 19th PGA TOUR victory, sixth this season and first in the state of California. How are we feeling after the win?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  Yeah, feeling good. Overall it was a good prep week getting ready for the Ryder Cup.

As far as the tournament went, I did some good stuff over the course of four days, especially over the weekend. Felt like my game got better as the week went on and played some really nice golf Saturday and Sunday to be sitting here.

MODERATOR:  Coming down the stretch, what was your plan and when did the round really start to pick up for you today?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  Well, my plan was to try and make some birdies but the golf course, the golf course gets really challenging late in the day. The wind picks up, started swirling a little bit, and the greens get pretty challenging. There's a lot of slope and the afternoon poa is always tough. But overall I think I did a good job, made one bogey today and then bounced back real quick with birdies on 12 and 15. Felt like I really needed to birdie 18, but fortunately par was enough.

Q.  How big of a week is this for you, for your teammates on the Ryder Cup team, winning here, and does it provide some momentum to go back to Bethpage Black with so many of the Ryder Cup players who not only made the cut but really got on that leaderboard and played well?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  Yeah, it was definitely nice to see some of my teammates on the leaderboard. Ben and I had a good battle today. As you said, it was a good prep week, the guys definitely stayed sharp this week.

I always focus as much as I can on my preparation going into tournaments, that's what gives me confidence, and I feel like I'm as prepared as possible for the Ryder Cup, and I think we're all excited for the tournament to get started. We've got three days in New York to compete and have fun. We're all looking forward to it.

Q.  Piggybacking off that, you said you got what you wanted to out of this week as far as preparation for Bethpage?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I don't really know how to elaborate on that, but it was definitely good prep. It was nice to get all the guys together. We had some fun at the beginning of the week, played our practice rounds together. once the tournament starts it's pretty much business as usual for us, but overall it was a great week. We could all hang out and stay sharp.

Q.  Obviously lighthearted with the jokes about first time in California, but I'm curious do you ever find like little things like that to motivate yourself or little things you want to achieve (inaudible)?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  I think I try to keep it as simple as possible. I had no idea that I never won in the state of California. It didn't really bother me very much. I don't think I've won in Oregon or Washington, you know what I mean? I think y'all's job is to try to find something to write about, which is a good thing for me, I try to stay out of it. Approach each week individually.

This was a week in which I was playing a new golf course, a golf course that was pretty challenging to play for the first time. Did a really good job of kind of staying in the tournament the first two days and then the last two I played some really good golf in order to be in this position.

Q.  You had a (inaudible) with Ben as you were walking off, a tough finish. I'm curious over these last two months when a guy starts playing as well as him and suddenly you realize he might be part of the team, do you like have to make an effort to oh, I need to get to know that guy more?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  There would certainly be an aspect to that if, I mean, if he was a very new guy on Tour. Ben's actually a guy I spent a lot of time with in junior golf. We used to play practice rounds together in junior and amateur golf. He's been a buddy of mine for a long time.

I feel like the Tour sometimes is just like a little bit of a traveling fraternity. We see the same guys week in and week out. We travel the country and world sometimes together. We have a good time. It does feel like a fraternity at times.

I have some of my best friends in the whole world out here on Tour, and I feel like I know a lot of the guys out here really well. So it would be very rare to have a guy coming into the team room that we didn't know very well just because we see each other week in, week out out here.

If a guy's ‑‑ typically if you're playing well enough to make the team, you're going to be playing a lot with other guys that are playing good enough to make the team. It would be pretty rare there's a guy that's not towards the lead a lot of the time throughout the year, if that makes sense.

Q.  Something else as usual but on that note, is it impressive to you at all that the last home Ryder Cup, your debut, that Ben was like filling out his exit papers at a loan mortgage office and here he is?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  You know, I think Ben always had the belief that he was going to be out here. I don't know if he was an accountant or whatever for that long.  I don't know what he was.

Q.  Loan mortgage officer.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  Loan mortgage officer. When you talk to Ben, he's a guy that has a lot of confidence, he's got a lot of self belief. That's what we love about him being a part of our Ryder Cup team.

Like you said, that's kind of a weird thing to think about. Like I said, I grew up with Ben. He always had the talent to make it out here. He's been a tremendous putter for his entire ‑‑ as long as I've known him, and his ball‑striking has really come around, and he's also picked up some speed.

Ben's a guy that has always put in I think a ton of work and he's always looking to improve. He's never lacked confidence and he's going to be a great part of our Ryder Cup team this year, and I'm sure he'll be a part of many teams going forward as well.

Q.  And for the birdies, at least two of the par 5s that you took care of, I'm just curious how important 13 was for you? 14, sorry, 14.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  Making par today?

Q.  Yeah.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  Yeah, I made a nice little 5‑and‑a‑half footer for par.

Q.  Hard spot to be in it looked like from where you were in the fairway, straight down the hill.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  Yeah, I mean, it's a tricky hole and I executed two shots I felt like how we wanted to and just got a weird gust of wind. That's part of playing this golf course. Did a good job of staying patient and holed a really nice putt for par there.

Q.  You won 19 times now on the Tour. That's a number that Ben Crenshaw, Ernie Els and Tom Kite have also gotten to. What does it mean to have your name among that group?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  Yeah, Ben and Tom Kite, a couple awesome guys, a couple Longhorns. It's always fun to be in their company. Those are two guys that I've looked up to, and Ernie as well. Ernie has been nothing but great to me since I turned pro.

It's pretty weird to be in the same realm as those guys just because I've looked up to them for such a long time. Yeah, it's been a nice last few years. I feel very fortunate to be sitting here holding the trophy. It was a hard fought week and definitely fortunate to be mentioned with names like those.

Q.  Scottie, what was it like just coming to Napa, Silverado, this part of the world and spending the week here and playing before these big, big crowds? Greatest field I think they've ever had here and greatest week they've ever had here. What was that like summing up the week here in Napa?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  Like you said, the crowds were great. We felt so much support from them. There was a lot of noise out there. Our groups were all kind of one part of the golf course out there Thursday and Friday and there was a ton of people out there. It was really fun to be able to play in front of the crowd. We heard lots of USA chants and lots of good luck wishes for the Ryder Cup.

Yeah, as far as Napa goes, I didn't really do too much of the winery scene, but it's a beautiful part of the country. California's amazing. Every time I come here I love it so much. We had a great week here at the course as well. Yeah, overall it was very fun.

Q.  And to put your name alongside, there's been some great winners over the years, Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Ben Crenshaw, you go down the list going back to the '60s. What does it mean to join that kind of a winner's circle of people who are in the Hall of Fame?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  Yeah, anytime you can get mentioned in the same breath as guys like that, it's typically a good thing. Like I said, it's four hard fought days this week and I'm fortunate to be sitting here with the trophy.

Q.  Just curious, you speak so consistently about staying in the present. Have you ever checked a football score in the middle of a round?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  In the middle of a tournament round? No. In the middle of a round at home?

Q.  That doesn't count.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  Basically all the time. I was pretty clued into the Cowboys game today before we were teeing off, and last I saw we were punting it away with two and a half minutes left in overtime. Last I heard, we won. I heard that from numerous people out there on the course, so if they were lying to me I'm going to be kind of pissed. I don't know if they were telling the truth.

Q.  We're a year out. Do you come back to defend this?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  I mean, I barely know what I'm going to do tomorrow let alone a year from now. It's always nice to have an opportunity to come and defend your championships, but we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there. I've been pretty consistent with that over time. I don't like committing to tournaments unless I know for sure I'm going to play. Backing out from a tournament is not a good feeling when you've already committed.

Q.  Right. I guess what I was looking at, is this something that you could see happening going forward since the Presidents Cup is kind of in the same spot, late September, nothing going on between Atlanta and that? Can you see this being a thing for a U.S. team?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  I mean, when I look at my experience from the last few team events, it's weird to have such a long break after the season ends to one of our biggest events being either the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup. Those are huge for us as Americans and something we take a lot of pride in. I find it really weird there's four or five weeks between the end of our season and a huge team event.

So staying sharp is something that's always important to me, but it is important to also get rest at the end of each season. I mean, playing tournament golf out here for an entire year, being in contention, it takes a lot out of you physically and mentally.

So there is a balance between rest and getting ready for the team events, but going into this Ryder Cup I felt like for our preparation this was something we needed to do was come here and play this week. Like I said, I think we're all feeling very prepared to go into Bethpage and excited to get that week started.

Q.  (Inaudible) this spot on the schedule?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  It was something we discussed at the beginning of the year. We floated the idea of doing a scouting trip to Bethpage or coming here and playing this event. We felt it would be a little bit more valuable to get all the guys together here this week to play tournament golf in order to stay in shape.

For me there's just a difference between practicing and playing at home and getting under the gun in a tournament. Especially going into a team event where you play formats that you're not totally used to with it being match play on Sunday and playing had a best ball and an alternate shot. It's a little bit of a different format than we're used to. So I think it's even more important to stay sharp going into a tournament like that.

Q.  (No microphone.)

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  I mean in contention? Yeah, anytime ‑‑ I mean, that's the stuff that I think as competitors we live for. It's the most fun. Finishing 15th is not really all that interesting at times. It's much more fun to be coming down ‑‑ what did you say?

Q.  (No microphone.)

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  It's much more interesting to be coming down the stretch having a chance to win the golf tournament. It's a ton of fun. Ben and I had a great battle today. I was fortunate to be the winner this week, but he's going to bounce back.

I'm excited that he's going to be on my team in a couple weeks. I'm excited that I don't have to play against him.

MODERATOR:  Final questions?

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  How come Doug gets like five final questions?

Q.  (No microphone.) is there anything you're going to do mentally going into the weekend than you would ‑‑

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER:  Anything that I would do mentally? Not really, but it is a different approach to ‑‑ I think if you're winning by five or six shots, there's not really too much you got to really think about. Like what I did is I kind of assess the first couple rounds of the tournament, figure out what I did good figure out what I could have improved on. I did a much better job staying patient and being committed over the weekend than I did the first couple days of the tournament.

MODERATOR:  Perfect. That's all the questions we have. Again, congrats, Scottie.

BEN GRIFFIN   ( -18)

Q.  Ben, how would you describe that round today? It looked like it was pretty steady but was there a different feeling to it today?

BEN GRIFFIN:  I got off to a great start birdieing the first three, kind of gave me some Charles Schwab final round vibes. Got off to a great start and was kind of struck in neutral for a while. Felt like I was giving myself a lot of decent looks, not great looks. Made some pretty easy pars. Down the stretch I hit some ‑‑ had a mix of great putts that I hit and a mix of some missed kind of five‑, six‑footers that you've got to make when you're trying to win. That's a bummer, didn't make some of those. I'll get back to work and start making more of these inside six feet.

Q.  That 18th hole hasn't been kind to you on the weekend. Would you like to play that again a couple times?

BEN GRIFFIN:  I don't really think of it that way. I just try to hit good shots. There's a lot of hard holes I play, a lot of easy holes I play. I mean, I'll get 18 back if I have a chance at some point in my career, otherwise it's all good. I gave myself a good chance.

I was trying to make eagle, putt was just a little slower than I expected. I don't know if I hit my line on the last, but I looked up and it looked like it was breaking pretty good to the left and I tried to play it straighter to right center. It's tough late in the day. Again, I said it yesterday, late in the day on poa annua greens you're just trying to put a good stroke on it and see what happens. I felt like just wasn't quite as sharp from short range as I needed to be, but I'll get to work this next week and hopefully make every single one of them at the Ryder Cup.

Q.  You have a very admirable positive attitude, had a couple of wins this year but you've been on the back end of it too a couple of times, a couple of runner‑ups, and this is the third one this season. Does this one sting a little more or is it not as frustrating?

BEN GRIFFIN:  Anytime you finish second it sucks, but I'm so grateful to be playing golf, so grateful to have opportunities down the stretch. I just need to execute a little bit better.

Every time I finish second I feel like I've learned something. I just really got to make more of those five‑, six‑footers on Sundays. Those are the ones that help you win the tournament.

I had a couple on the front nine that I missed, and then I had a couple down the stretch that I missed from mid range. I make a good amount. It's just a bummer, seems like it's a consistent thing. I'll look at it, I'll watch all my ‑‑ there's my putt, yeah, just broke a little bit. Shit happens, I'll bounce back.

Q.  How hard is it when the World No. 1's doing that on the leaderboard?

BEN GRIFFIN:  Well, you know, you expect it. I knew I needed to shoot a lower round. Just the fact that I had a chance shooting 2 under, 3 under, I honestly thought I needed to go a little bit lower today. He's a hell of a player, he's got the resume that's better than pretty much everyone here. He's just like every other player, everyone can beat everyone, you've just got to play better.

Q.  He obviously got off to that great start. Was it as simple as you said, some of those 50/50 putts, or did something feel off down that stretch?

BEN GRIFFIN:  No, it felt great off the start, even felt great kind of middle of the round. Just the cards just weren't aligned. I hit some putts that I thought I hit decent putts that didn't fall. I still made some five‑, six‑footers. I think I just left myself way too many of them. You need to either convert those or make a few more from mid range.

It's all good, I'll get to work, I'll look at things and I'll practice hard this week and make sure I'm ready for the Ryder Cup.

Q.  How different are things for you now? This happens, and you have two wins this year, you finished second a few times. Like this is no longer some horribly deflating thing, I'm sure. Is there any difference in just how you feel in that sense, this is your normal being in these positions?

BEN GRIFFIN:  Yeah, it's nice. I just feel like I've grown so much as a player to put myself in the positions I have this season. It stings anytime you don't win, but it's not from a lack of effort. I was pushing hard down the stretch, great putts on 16 and 17, either one of those could have easily dropped, and 18 I was trying to make eagle and win it outright because I didn't want to take him on in a playoff, I wanted to go ahead and do it. Just a bummer to finish that way. It happens. Not everyone's a robot like Scottie, I guess.

LANTO GRIFFIN  ( -17)

Q.  Lanto, 7‑under 65, 6 under in the first eight holes, that was a pretty special round. How would you describe that?

LANTO GRIFFIN:  I've been putting really well, and I knew if I gave myself looks I'd have a chance to have a good round. For whatever reason I hit some really close iron shots. That's kind of one of those things, you're 6 under through eight and you're trying to just not even think about it. Kind of reset and kind of hit a little snag there at the turn. No. 9 wasn't great, but I made a really good five‑footer for bogey, and then the putt on 10 was huge, kind of gave me some confidence.

It's a really tricky golf course, but you've got to control your ball. When you haven't been in contention for a while, hands feel different. Have to remind yourself to be a lot slower but the putter felt great all four days.

Q.  You said the hands felt different, I'm sure there were some nerves coming down the stretch. Didn't look like a great second shot you hit on 18. Was that lie a little unfortunate?

LANTO GRIFFIN:  Honestly, I thought that 2 iron was going to be on the green. It's really hard to hold the green on 18. I don't hit the ball high and that was a perfect high cut kind of against the wind, and I thought it was going to be 30, 40 feet kind of near the back edge and it kind of set down, a little sticky. It wasn't that bad. I caught a little bit behind it. Wasn't hard, wasn't easy.

No, that was probably the best swing of the week was the 2 on 18 there, which I'll remember. I was hoping I had a chance, I was hoping I'd have an eagle putt.

I was thinking about Q‑School, the first hole on Sunday I had 40 or 50 feet for eagle and I was kind of trying to think back to the positives. But I'm super happy with how I played and yeah, no regrets.

Q.  I know you've had a tough couple years dealing with injuries and battling that, and a little stretch there from March to May that was a little bit of a struggle.

LANTO GRIFFIN:  I remember.

Q.  How satisfying is this result that moves into you probably the top 100?

LANTO GRIFFIN:  Sometimes when you work hard and work on the wrong stuff you get worse, and that's kind of what happened.  My work ethic hasn't changed. I kind of went down the wrong path and it went backwards.

I went back with my old coach, Todd Anderson at TPC Sawgrass. We got back together in May. I started working with Alex Bennett at TPC Sawgrass, both at the Performance Center. My body feels good.

It's crazy when you work on some wrong stuff, it actually feels so wrong to do it right. So it took me three, four weeks after Wyndham to start feeling comfortable, and it started clicking the last week or two. It wasn't great this week but the rest of my game was, but I know the foundation's set now.

Q.  You had that withdrawal in the Dominican Republic. Was that an injury related thing?

LANTO GRIFFIN:  Yeah. My body completely locked up on I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday, and I tried playing Thursday and I was four, five miles an hour slow. I think we were playing the following week so I was looking at it as I really needed to get home and get treatment to be able to play the following week.

Q.  And is it like different things you're doing in the gym or what's been the cause of ‑‑

LANTO GRIFFIN:  Yeah, I had low back surgery and did a lot of passive stretching, sauna, cryo, stuff like that to try and reduce inflammation and stuff. I kind of stopped working out weight wise. So we've done a lot more weights since May and my body feels way less pain, complete night and day difference. Alex Bennett at home, he's done a really good job.

Q.  When was your surgery?

LANTO GRIFFIN:  It was July 25, 2022, so three years ago.

Q.  Did you have any goals coming into the fall or expectations?

LANTO GRIFFIN:  Yeah, the goals are obviously to finish top 100. You know winning's going to do that, but then there's still top 125 will get you starts and then top 150 will get you Korn Ferry. I don't even know, there's just so many little things. The main goal is to try and win and get inside that top 100 as soon as you can, hopefully not wait till RSM. That's the goal, top 100 right now.

Q.  How much confidence will this give you the rest of the fall? I assume you're going to play most of them?

LANTO GRIFFIN:  Yeah, it's a great foundation because the last couple weeks my swing's felt really good. I know I didn't really execute it this week, so I hit a lot of shots kind of resorting back to what I used to do. But I'm guessing my putting numbers are pretty strong. I'm going to guess 12 to 15 gained on the field. But I feel really comfortable with what I'm working on in my swing that's right, so getting a really good finish and being able to go home and get back to work on that is exciting.

Q.  What was the best shot you hit today?

LANTO GRIFFIN:  Probably the putt on 16 because I told Brian, I was like, you want me to make it? It broke six, seven feet and it just looked the whole way like it was going in.

But the 2 on 18, even though I made par, I just haven't been driving it good all week. The one on 18 was best drive of the week and about as good of a 2‑iron as I can hit.