Scottie Scheffler isn’t a fan of East Lake’s golf course setup. On moving day, he shot a bogey-free 66, moving into a share of third at 12 under and three strokes shy of leader Viktor Hovland. But instead of feeling good about the result, the World No. 1 spent his press conference explaining how his struggles at East Lake mirror Aronimink this year.
When asked about the tightly bunched leaderboard, Scottie Scheffler was quick to point to the setup at the Tour Championship. “I think when I talk about some of the pin locations, I think that has a lot to do with it. When you have really, really large green complexes like these and they tuck the pins very close to the edges, it’s a balancing act between how much you want to bite off.”
Furthermore, the World No. 1 went deeper to explain why he is not a fan of East Lake: “The 13th hole for me. On the spot there, left side of the fairway, where pin’s in the back of the green. It’s three from the back right edge; it’s four from the back edge. It’s like — wind’s swirling. I’ll just play it a touch short a bit, have a 15-footer, hit a good putt, and burn the edge. Little stuff like that over the course of an event, I think it can bring people closer together.Like I said, I’m not a fan of that when it comes to setup.”
Scottie Scheffler believes the conditions are fragile enough that missing a short side on one of those greens can turn a birdie into a 50-foot lag putt in just one swing. The World No. 1 even had numbers to back his argument.
He revealed he’d asked East Lake’s course managers, just out of curiosity, how the par-3 ninth hole had played across the week. The answer: 87 players through three rounds had produced just two birdies and six bogeys, leaving 79 pars. Reasonably, it’s a “very high score” for Scottie Scheffler. He even felt like “skipping” the round at this point.
Scottie Scheffler even used a 5-wood on Saturday from the back tee, trying to figure out if that extra length might finally produce birdies. Instead, it produced more pars. His frustration with the course setup boiled down to a simple preference.
“I love seeing rewards for good shots and punishments for bad.”
“I think it’s not necessarily this season. I think just playing tournament golf, I think is a battle as a whole. I think that’s part of why I love it too. I get to play against the course, myself. You have to learn how to handle your emotions, handle pressure, not take days off. That’s something I’m very proud of.
“I feel like I hold myself to a high standard, which I think sometimes can be good and bad. I feel like at times I probably could be a bit of a pain to be around when things aren’t going the way they should. I don’t feel like I take days off. I’m highly competitive, and I’m very proud of being able to have the consistent results I’ve had over the years.
“I feel like it’s something that’s very difficult to do, and it’s something that I’m very proud of. I don’t take tournaments off. I don’t take days off during tournaments. I try to give it my all each and every day. I feel like it’s a gift to play out here on the PGA TOUR, and don’t want to take it for granted.
“I don’t want to look back at the end of my career and feel like I could have done more in order to play well. I want to be able to tell myself when I hang it up that I did everything I could. I feel like years like this kind of show that to myself, how important that is. Yeah, I don’t know how to elaborate beyond that.”
The 5-wood attempt failed for Scottie Scheffler. He argued that modern course design works against it by widening fairways and then protecting par by tucking pins into the corners.
Scottie Scheffler Press Conference PGA Championship
The course underwent a full redesign by architect Andrew Green ahead of the 2024 event, rebuilding every green complex with wider, more contoured putting surfaces modeled on 1994 photographs of the club. Restoring character was the intention behind the changes, but they also provided tournament officials with more space to tuck pins into corners without technically exhausting the available green area.
The description of the struggles lines up almost exactly with what happened in May at the PGA Championship at Aronimink. Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy both referenced the course unprompted on Saturday.
For context, the comparison is not without precedent.
That week had produced seven players sharing an 18-hole lead, certainly the most in a major in 57 years. 28 players were within two shots of each other midway through the third round. Even then, Scottie Scheffler had called Aronimink’s hole location the “hardest set of pin locations that I have seen since I’ve been on the tour, and that includes the U.S. Open.”
McIlroy, who charged into the mix himself with a seven-under 63 on Saturday, made a similar point to CBS Sports after his round. He said the field used to separate more before the renovation.
Nonetheless, Scottie Scheffler’s remedy is simple. He wants shots that get close to be rewarded and shots that miss to be punished, rather than having everyone funneled toward the same cautious targets. Until East Lake’s pins move away from the edges, he might keep facing similar trouble.
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