‘The best place to play:’ Scottie Scheffler defends PGA Tour while keeping eye on LIV hearing

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler says he actually hasn’t been asked all that often about LIV Golf.

“You guys haven’t asked me,” Scheffler said at his press conference ahead of the FedEx St. Jude Championship Tuesday. “So I wouldn’t say I’m getting tired of it. It’s kind of part of it now.”

Tuesday’s press conference also coincided with a federal court hearing in Northern California to decide if three LIV Golfers, Matt Jones, Talor Gooch and Hudson Swafford will be allowed to play in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, which begin this week with the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis.

Scheffler said he’ll be keeping a close eye on what happens with the case.

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“It’s one of those deals where those guys kind of made their decision to go join another tour and they broke the rules and regulations of our tour and now they’re trying to sue us, which is definitely a bit frustrating,” he said. “If they win, come out here and play, I mean, that’s something that’s up to the courts, I can’t control what’s going to happen in a court case.

“At the end of the day it has no effect on my preparation for the week.”

Scheffler was asked about more players jumping from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf, but wouldn’t comment on the speculation.

He instead offered a passionate defense of his reasoning for staying on the Tour.

“The PGA Tour is the best place to play,” he said. “My dream was to play on the PGA Tour. My dream was never to maximize my financial benefits. I feel very blessed and fortunate to play golf and get paid for it, so for me, I’m not looking to go out and do anything else.

“The PGA Tour is where I want to play and it continues to be the place where the best golfers in the world play and the opportunity to win the FedEx Cup and opportunity to win major championships and to win tournaments out here.”

Scheffler said he won’t be the only one in the clubhouse at TPC Southwind watching the legal proceedings of the antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour closely, adding “it’s a life-altering decision for people.”

He enters the postseason as the top-ranked player both in the world and the FedEx Cup standings. Scheffler acknowledged the constant cloud hanging over this week’s events due to the LIV lawsuit and rumors of more players defecting to LIV Golf, but stopped short of calling it a distraction.

“It’s not disappointing,” he said. “We’ve got some of the best players in the world here competing for the FedEx Cup and I’m looking forward to the challenge of competing against those guys.”

As for his thoughts on if the three players might be allowed to compete this week, Scheffler is just like all of us.

“We’ll see what happens.” he said. “All that stuff will shake out in due time. It definitely is a topic of discussion around who’s going and stuff like that.”