PGA Tour winner and the 12th-ranked player in the world, Sahith Theegala, joins Smylie Kaufman for a wide-ranging conversation that begins with his love for breakfast burritos and the game of chess. After discussing Sahith's various chess strategies, he and Smylie move to a discussion about how that mindset impacts the way he plays golf. Sahith breaks down his course management strategy depending on the nature of the competition, and also analyzes swing changes he's made in the past year. Along the way, Sahith - in the most lighthearted and grateful way possible - lists a series of grievances he has with PGA Tour life.
00:00:12 What he's up to on his off week
00:02:28 His go-to food/coffee spot at home
00:04:04 Discussing "Java Burrito" in Hilton Head
00:05:56 Sahith's skill and love for the game of chess
00:13:26 Comparing chess and golf strategy
00:15:27 Visualizing good golf shots
00:21:51 Finding a way to shoot a score without your best stuff
00:26:56 The game strategy involved in choosing targets for approach shots
00:30:10 Keeping your "team" consistent upon arriving on the PGA Tour
00:34:13 Sahith goes on a metal spikes rant!
00:36:45 How does match play strategy differ from stroke play
00:40:50 How much space has the Presidents Cup occupied in Sahith's mind this year
00:47:32 Breaking down Sahith's swing changes in the past year
00:53:16 Discussing the leap Sahith has made since arriving on Tour, and his goals for the future
Do you want a beautiful lawn? Enter TrueGreen, the easiest way to get a great lawn. Just water and mow and they'll do the rest. Weed control, fertilization, aeration and more. TrueGreen is the official lawn care treatment provider of the PGA Tour and they have a verified best price which guarantees you the lowest price with no compromise on quality. You do you. Let TrueGreen do your lawn care. Visit truegreen.com. T-R-U-G-R-E-E-N.com to get the best lawn at the best price with the best people guaranteed. Life is a highway and on it there will be many chicken sandwiches but there's only one mitt crispy so go ahead and hit the turn signal if you know about this juicy gem of a detour. Do that smiley coffin for 61. Wow. I'm smiley coffin and this is the smiley show. All right welcome back to the smiley show. If this is an episode I am very excited about because we got Sahithi Gala joining us today. Sahithi I tell you what you're so fun to watch. You've had an unbelievable start to your PGA Tour third season I guess at this point it still feels like you're just a rookie but you're getting older now as you get on but you're playing some some great golf and where are you joining us this week? Thanks Filey. Thanks for having me on. I am in my house slash townhome apartment that I'm still renting in the Woodlands, Texas just north of Houston. On and off week here I think it's week of Byron so off week I got the full Scotty just laziness beer going on so I know it's an off week but yeah it's been a fun dang it's already been like halfway through the season huh? Yeah it's crazy how fast these these seasons go I just I was gone for eight straight weekends so I finally got some time to be at home as well so I'm I'm trying to enjoy myself as well but walk us through what's what's an off week look like for you? Yeah so this off week is a little different because me and me and we'll miss the cut last week so I had a couple extra days to to relax. Usually I'll go the first three days of an off week and just take it completely off. Monday's kind of my recovery slash stretching days so I'll go go see my Cairo go get a massage have a nice stretch section in the gym and then Tuesday Wednesday usually don't play golf at all just getting the gym and and lift some weights that's it's my one time pretty much once a month it's those two days are the days where I can go I can go heavy so that's kind of what I've been doing the last I guess Saturday Sunday Monday now I played golf today but no practice still so usually the first three days that kind of schedule slash rhythm that I'm into and then I'll slowly get back into golf usually on Thursday is when I'll play around a golf no practice and then Friday Saturday I'll start ramping up the practice again and whatever day I'm traveling Sunday or Monday before the tournament I'll take one more day off. Yeah that that makes a whole lot of sense and getting your mind and body ready but I'm curious what what's your go-to food or coffee spot in Houston where you and your girlfriend go out to you know what were you sending me if I'm heading your way? Yeah it's it's interesting because I I mean I I always enjoy eating out and I'm pretty lazy when I'm home so I don't I don't cook or or bake anything but my girlfriend is so on top of it I mean when I'm when I'm back home she she cooks three meals a day and makes coffee in the morning for me so I'm really spoiled with her but my favorite coffee shop in the Woodlands area is called third gen. There's something about I didn't really drink coffee till till a few years ago I'm carrying on the corn fairy good buddy of mine Zach Sims he got me hooked on coffee and there's something cathartic about going to a coffee shop in the morning and you know just seeing a bunch of people in the morning and the smell of coffee and it's like it's it's just a part of your routine kind of thing so third gen coffee is my place to go and then there's a little breakfast spot called Brooklyn Cafe it's got a really I'm a big breakfast burrito guy but I know they're not I know they're not good for me so they have like a breakfast wrap I mean it's like a burrito but it's not I get it with no cheese and I love trees though but I get it with no trees though so I just get bacon and and I feel healthier but I'm sure it's still not healthy but that's kind of my spot for for breakfast and coffee don't we have to plug the spot in Hilton Head Java burrito we got a plug Java burrito that's right you and I saw each other every single day last year did you go a bunch this year as well dude if there's a Java burrito in Woodlands Texas I go there four or five times a week it's it's it's like chipotle on crack it's it's so good but but like I love breakfast I absolutely love breakfast and I got I got a breakfast burrito even for dinner at Java burrito I went there five out of six days I think five out of seven days yeah because I went there almost every day it's so good that hot sauce did you get that hot sauce there oh it's it's unbelievable I was explaining it to Charlie it's like okay just think about this it's like you can get a burrito in the morning so it's open for breakfast they have great coffee so you have the whole breakfast experience and then it's like oh wait no you can go there later and do a burrito that's you can do kind of a Mexican theme burrito or you can kind of go with you know kind of the you know the fish or something a little different so you don't have to eat the same thing every night so I'm like this is so sweet oh yeah it was uh that place is dialed they need I don't know how there's no more places like that because I love chipotle but it gets old and that place never gets old because like you said you can just switch it up so easily and there's so many different variations you know well maybe you and I just need to get in the uh we need to get in the food real estate business and we're just going to send Java burrito around the country or just bring it to Birmingham and Houston so we can have it but that'd be great I'm I like how do Carl talked about the same thing he's like bro if we open this up in San Marco LA we'd make a killing yeah there you go there you go but you're doing pretty good as it is on the PGA tour and we're going to get to you know all the success if you've had out there you know breaking down uh the some of the things that you do so well but before we get there I think one of the most interesting things about you that makes you so unique is how good you are at the game of chess and I think there's some really classic parallels between golf and chess and and just kind of doing my basic research on you finding out that you're a 2000 rating chess player is I mean that's kind of insane right like how would you compare that handicap wise if if you were maybe Magnus Magnus Carlson is like the best player from what I understand based on me watching TikToks yes what would you compare like a Magnus Carlson like in golf terms of like where he would stack in our golf handicap system man that's tough I think the run that Magnus went on I know Scotty is on just an absurd run right now but the run that Magnus went on this for was for like nine ten eleven years and he's still kind of the undisputed go right now he's so good that he got bored bored of playing the world chess championship which is one I think six or seven times now and he he's won every time control so anyway he's he's the go and I think he's going to go down as a greatest chess player all time um so it'd be tough to hate it would be like comparing him to tiger I mean that's a whole another whole other conversation but I mean Scotty's the man oh Scotty but yeah Magnus has him there in terms of chess handicap I'd say I'd say Magnus is like a plus 10 I know Scotty internments is probably close to that yeah against like a plus eight or nine I mean maybe maybe you should maybe use a plus 10 so where where would you're rating though being like a two thousand rating for people that don't don't understand how how that rating system works yeah yeah so I think the best way can explain it is I'm basically like a one-time club championship but I won the club championship like nine years ago and that was when I boasted a plus two but I'm probably back to like a point six handicap is what I'd say a two thousand rating is because I hit two thousand rating I got to like twenty sixty and I'm down to and I'm back in the nineteen hundreds right now so I'm uh I'm someone who probably would proclaim as a scratch golfer but then I'd show up to a money game and shoot 77 and get cleaned out so that's probably the best comparison I have for my chess Uno to to golf handicap so so if you're like the mid-am guy who had that one hot summer that made it to the US mid-am made it to match play and had dreams of making it to the masters but you lost in the round of sixty four exactly I was one shot away from getting to the masters but yeah I lost around sixty four that's a great parallel okay oh gosh and I was actually on the chess team in like second and third grade so I'm I'm fairly familiar with the game and I want to hear you I want to hear your thoughts on just Paul Morphy and his free flowing attacks versus kind of the modern chess grandmasters with their computer analytics dude it's it's wild I mean I've watched a lot of uh I picked up I picked up Chester in covid so I watched a lot of youtube or chess content and and one of my favorite players was mikael tall um I don't you have to be a chess nerd to know him but he just loved sacrifices all this full did was sacrifice pieces like bad sacrifices too not not good not supported by the computer not supported by other players but you just find a way to punk everybody and win because they were just so flustered by his his sacrifice and stuff and I know Morphy was the same way he he liked to play just intuitive chess and yeah nowadays um you know I haven't I didn't tune into they just had like the candidates tournament so I'm geeking out about no please you keep going my man but they just had um the tournament to decide who plays against the world champion which is ding lauren and it was a young indian grandmaster I think he's only 17 that made it but like watching the tournament it was exciting like watching the short form youtube content content is exciting but there's just so many draws these days because everyone memorizes all these openings and the computer you know refutes a bunch of openings and refutes a bunch of fun sacrifices and all that so um you know I definitely like the older style of play but uh I'm not good enough to even I can I can sacrifice all I want I can chuck anything I could still have a chance to win because the guys I'm playing against aren't grandmaster levels so um some parallels to the to the you know bald debate and the driver stuff so um but yeah I can talk about chess for hours I love it and I'm glad you can because uh you definitely geeked out on me there I was actually fed that question I don't know if you can tell but did I say it pretty well like was it did I act like I have chess books behind me and spend some free time but what am I good buddies in sold it well I know what what am I good buddies andrew verstiglia loves chess he actually you're probably one of his favorite players because your love for chess and he was like I was at text and was like hey man can you give me like a really like yeah chess question that maybe sahith would know that that he might be able to go on and yeah so that was great that worked out perfectly I should like I should have caught up on that I was like this guy chess club third grade knows polymorphy stuff like that was good that was good oh gosh man and the two different styles of chess I'm familiar with his classic and bullet uh bullet styles is that what it's called bullet style chess is that kind of bullet bullet chess just a fruit for all yeah can you can you explain the difference between the two for the people that don't play chess yeah so classical chess which I think they're playing less and less of is it's basically two hours plus added time so you're it could be a three four hour game with classical chess but bullet chess is I think technically under two minute uh you get two minutes each side gets two minutes to play so you're playing just straight on intuition you're playing on a little bit of memorization at the start but after that like it's just moving too fast for you to pay attention to to perfect moves so it's a little more fun and exciting to watch as a as a spectator and a lot more stressful as a player to play which what do you prefer I only play bullet I never play long games I play actually a lot of blitz games so three to five minute games which is a little slower than bullet um because I like if I play bullet game I'm just making a blunder everything with pretty much yeah and what are your go-to openings for bullet chess and how much of it is like muscle memory because if you get beat off the starter I mean you're gonna if you thank too much in that I feel like you're you're set up to to fail in that system right yeah yeah I'm kind of a I'm a lazy chess player in some regards where the bullet stuff I play something called the London system so the first six or seven moves are almost the same um regardless of what the opponent plays the opponent can play anything and you can kind of just blitz out your moves however you want um but if I'm playing black I have um a couple sacrifice lines that I can play where you know if they if they're just focused on moving it fast you can catch them with a cheeky checkmate but uh yeah I played I played pretty like system um kind of safe chess which is a little it's interesting because it's not how I play golf so yeah that's and that's why this is such a cool conversation right because you know I think in chess or you know golf is such a slow game right like you have so much time to think about between shots of I mean you can kind of think towards the future but once you get into that one shot we always say you know one shot at a time but it's not easy to do and with bullet chess it's like you have to rely on instinct so much which is when I watch you play golf I see you relying on instincts and just playing field golf yeah a hundred percent I mean I have really found a good blend of my instinctful into intuitive golf and and a little better mechanics and and technical stuff the last couple years um just my trainer and my coach and and even my catty crawl of help so much of you know I'm always trying to find like a line and for some reason a lot of my life I'm like okay I'm I'm gonna settle on this one line right but I've really realized uh the last year or so that there is no line um you know you can be working towards a certain like a certain line so to speak but I'm never gonna be on that line it's just kind of how I feel a certain week or the certain week of of practice I had I could be you know having to rely more on intuition than than my technical stuff so it's fun that I can kind of bounce both ways um I think in some ways I'm lucky that uh growing up my dad and coach Rick kind of let me let me just play around on the driving range and mess around on the golf course so um you know when I when I'm under the pressure I have both the technical standpoint uh stuff to to look at but also the field stuff um so it's it's I'm always it's gonna be work and progress my whole life because I know there's gonna be times I want to hit shots where I shouldn't be hitting those shots but I'll hit them anyway because I love golf and I like doing weird things on the golf course but uh you know I'm getting better about being objective and and more prudent with some of my shots too yeah and that all makes sense and I think you know whenever I've had like a really hot round and I finished the round or if people ask me you know when you're in the zone what were you thinking about and 99 percent of the time that question is asked to an athlete they'll be like I don't know you know like I was yeah I was in this subconscious state of just being able to just be aware enough but being able to kind of rely on just my natural instincts what you just talked about and one of the things that helped me and I don't know if this was for you was I was always big on mental imagery like I would try to find something in my mind that I've seen before of my really good shots is that something that you practice oh 100 percent I think I think one of the big things is just seeing good shots that you've hit and putting them in the memory bank because it's so easy to go the other way especially when you're struggling it's easy to see the bad shot but I think a lot of golfers don't realize what's what might be keeping them from hitting a good shot is actually scared of hitting a good shot you know they're they're just seeing the trouble and trying to avoid the trouble and it does work to some extent on some shots but a lot of the times you got to see the good shot you got to you got to be able to visualize you know you get there behind the ball and and see the ball get close not just see the ball not going in the water and that was a big thing that was honestly a big thing for me once I started hitting the ball better I was like dude I don't need to you know hit the anti water ball here just hit it 20 yards right second shot on a far five or whatever I can I can actually hit this thing on the green and you know it's a snowball effect which is which is great that's the great thing about golf you get one good shot and kind of like basketball you just you're having a bad shooting night you get to the free throw line just see one go through the net and all of a sudden the plug gets you're open yeah and I think we're all always like when we're playing really well when you're playing really well you're you're playing less fear-based and you have this picture in your head of these amazing shots that you've hit and I wanted to ask you are there certain shots that stand out for you over the last three years on the PGA tour that when you are nervous that you pull up that shot in your head and you're like okay this is the this is like the prettiest shot I've ever hit I have like still four shots that come to mind for me I don't know about you yeah I nothing pops up into my head there's there's two that popped up pretty quickly but nothing like too crazy and nothing that I do all the time but one was actually last year hole three at Bayhill you know my driver it's been my Kayla's here my whole life and and I'm staying on hole three and the wind's like in off the left I'm like oh great I'm just I'm a I'm a blow this 50 yards right into the right rough and just figure a way to make four right but I was trying to in the practice round me and my coach Rick we're working on hitting draws which I don't do but not necessarily to hit draws but just to kind of you know even out my path because I always swing left with my drivers so just even out my path a little bit and and for some reason that week not for some reason we were kind of working towards it my body was getting stronger you know I felt like technically my swim was getting better it was the best I've ever hit a draw on my life on the range there so I stepped up to hole three on Thursday when when and off the left I aimed right side of the fairway and just hit this pimp like low pimp draw oh wow it was a shot that I've never I've been able to hit but not with any sort of consistency not knowing where the miss is going to be not knowing how where it's going to take off you know sometimes you put a good shot but it'll it'll start left for right of your target line and this one took off right where I was looking and there's just a pipe draw and and made Carl reference that shot I think the rest of the year every time I needed to hit some sort of draw or some sort of just like shot that I really needed to sack up on I I kind of referenced that one and then the second one it's a funny one because I missed the cut there was also last year it was hole 10 1 until 13 at 3m open downwind par 3 it's like 215 yards yeah yeah where's the pin the pin was middle like all the way on the right just over the bunker yeah and it was like pumping downwind and at first we get up there and I was just like we're going through the motions I'm like oh yeah just you know 30 feet long left would be a great shot and it is a great shot but um for some reason I I remember teeing the ball up and seeing a shot and I'm like this kind of a perfect number to hit just the you know high tower and fade and I got a little more aggressive with it and it was one of the best five irons that are hitting my life and it landed like a foot from the hole and it stopped really fast I only hit it five feet past the hole and downwind too that's impressive downwind number 19 like I'm just trying to thinking like I don't think I've had like I felt I've always felt like I had that shot but I've never actually hit it with a five iron going downwind so to have that one in the bank is is really good um there's one more I thought of just now is um hole four at Augusta last year as well all these were last year it's funny I can't even think of anything this is the same kind of thing that right pin downwind I hit this towering six iron that landed just past the hole and stopped down below so um but but that went at 3am in the drive at Bay Hill I generally still think about um even this year I'm like okay I can do it man like I can hit this shot. Do you want a beautiful lawn enter true green the easiest way to get a great lawn just water and mow and they'll do the rest weed control fertilization aeration and more true green is the official lawn care treatment provider of the PGA tour and they have a verified best price which guarantees you the lowest price with no compromise on quality you do you let true green do your lawn care visit truegreen.com, t-r-u-g-r-e-e-m.com to get the best lawn at the best price with the best people guaranteed. Life is a highway and on it there will be many chicken sandwiches but there's only one mitt crispy so go ahead and hit the turn signal if you know about this juicy gem of a detour. Well I know I personally right now if I tried to hit a bullet low draw a driver I think I would come closer to missing the ball than I would from actually getting a right to left shot shape. It's just it's just not in my color wheel right now it's just that ain't that ain't happening. I just seeing the ball work right to left is just still such a it's scary to me it just like it looks like it's a miss like I'm just my whole life I've worked it left or right I don't know you like it yeah the cots too so yeah it's it's a scary side but we're getting there okay this is actually kind of playing off this this you know coming up with these great images and and almost these videos that you play in your head over the ball on on days that you know that you're nervous or you don't feel like you have it and I think back to Tiger Woods and why he was so good on days that he didn't have it he found a way to shoot 70 just about every single time for you in the last three years how have you been able to kind of grow and knowing is like okay today I don't have it and I can't really see the shot what what's the game plan to be able to get this this round under par yeah so my kind of take and and how I look at it is probably different than a lot of other other people and again it's still I'm still working on the whole mindset of it but I've been lucky enough to have a very good short game and since I was a kid my short game has always saved my butt and it's truly a result of just hitting it all over the place as a kid and and you know I attribute to growing up on you know so cow public courses where there's not a lot of grass available so I had a lot of hard pan crabgrass kakuye lies and you know just hitting weird short game shots was kind of the norm for me so luckily like I have a good mindset about short game like all right man I can get it up and down from anywhere just like try and leave yourself the best place you can get up and down from from but I kind of so I kind of piggyback off that mindset like hey I could I know I can get it up and down from from pretty much anywhere as long as it's on the right side of the hole especially the heart of the golf course gets the more short side you are I mean your toast you're gonna take bogey happily a lot of the times you're short-sided out here on on the firm fast courses but so so just going off that when when I'm playing a little bit poor I'm actually more aggressive off the tee I try and push it as far down the fairways as I can it's it's had mixed results I'd say but as I'm getting more comfortable off the tee I think it's it's working out better because it just forces me to get creative you know forces me to get creative if I hit a bad tee shot at least I feel like I got it far enough down there where I can get creative and and you know I remember this Patrick Cantlay interview he did about why he was so good at part 5s and I kind of piggyback that into into hard part 4s too it's like I don't even think about he doesn't even think about how trying to have an eagle put he just said that he's trying to figure out the best way to make a 4 and a lot of the times even if he has a good number or whatever it is from the fairway he's he's evering on that on that fat side so often so I kind of took that to heart on some of the hard part 4s and and that kind of thing too so I'll get aggressive with my tee shots and then I'll get pretty conservative with my second shots and just kind of that weird mix has has worked for me in kind of toning down but when I'm not playing well to get that score you know closer to even par I'm not it's crazy that Tiger and Scotty can shoot you know these guys can shoot 2-3 on a bad day like I'm still happy to get it anywhere on par but um yeah it's it's I think it's almost counter to it a lot of guys would be like all right just you know just try and get the ball in the fairway hit whatever you know hit a 3-iron off the tee or 3-iron off the tee and get it in play but um and kind of a similar mindset when I do hit the good tee shot and you know I have a chance to attack I'll go even if I'm not feeling great I'll go ahead and try and get really aggressive to a specific point and that point is probably going to be a little more aggressive than than normal and again the reason for that is um I'd say when I'm playing well with my iron game I'm a little bit on the conservative side just because if I'm playing well I know I'm going to hit the spot a lot off a lot of the times and I know that's a great spot but when I'm not fully clicking on all cylinders um you know I don't want to be aiming let's say for example eight iron right pin at 175 yards normally let's say no wind I'll probably be aiming four paces left I'm trying to hit the wall feet left for the hole so it gives me you'll say the pins four from the right gives me eight yards in margin if I push it seven yards it's it's fine um you know when I'm not playing as well funny enough I kind of like to push it three or two yards left of the pin um and my thinking is you know if I'm if I'm not feeling great um if my miss is a little bit of a double cross I still have room on that left side to catch the catch the fat part of the green so it's a yeah it's an interesting way to look at it I think um maybe not the best for everybody but um I figure on those hard days when there's a shot that you can get a little aggressive on and get a shot back or two um I go ahead and go for it and I'll get back to you and how how that works I like the strategy though I mean I think most of the modern age analytics says get the ball as close as to the hole as possible and it gives you a better advantage to lower your scoring average and the analytics say it and I like the strategy and my only question about the iron game would be from a conservative standpoint you're you're a guy that's that you say you like to hit fades for the most part all the time when you see left pins for you uh or a left to right wind um with a left pin are you are you trying to play a draw are you consistently like playing a fade because when you play a fade with the left or I win in a left green or left pin it's it's moving away from the hole it's a hundred percent moving the way away from the hole and the easy answer I guess is it's situational um I'd say when the trouble is really bad left to a left pin um that's when I'm go ahead and I'll go ahead and hit my cut and just take it you know I'll I'll still aim you know the same four paces or five paces right of it or whatever and and you know if I just hit it 40 feet I'll live with it kind of thing um that's the one you kind of hit on there that's the one pin where it's like you know yeah okay close and gray it's a bonus if not then don't worry about it man like you you'll get your chances will you ever try to hit that draw in there yes I will I will with irons um I think car will try and talk me out of it most of the time probably and he's usually right and the funny thing the weird reason I I don't like hitting a draw to a left pin specifically with the wind out of the left um just my mechanism for hitting a draw is is a little bit flippy and um like all timing like more timing to yeah more more timing for sure I don't have that cover that cover draw I don't even know how people hit a cover draw what does that even mean the cover draw by the way I need I don't I don't get it I don't get how it works from a physics standpoint so my draws are just a good olef goal fashion uh a flip and I've learned just from from these uh the machines the quad and and track man that my spin and carries a little inconsistent because I'm delivering the the club with slightly different loft um a slightly less loft than I'd like to so the variance in my spin and and carry numbers is a little off so I'll stripe a draw and all of a sudden it's 35 feet past the hole and I'm like why is what's the point of even doing that I've just laced the shot 35 feet where I can just hit my normal shot closer than that so that's the specific reason I don't try and hit draws with a left right wind to a left pin um but I've kind of been working back to to being able to hit more consistent draws at least with the short irons um because I do get in a trouble when I when I hit only fades and not not because of the fade reason exactly but just my path just gets more and more left and yeah um you know luckily I have my my team to remind me that hey dude work it work it the other way you need to zero this out a little bit yeah and you just mentioned your team I mean I think a lot of problems that young players have when they get to the PGA tour is they realize like oh I've got to change so much you know I got to change my caddy I got to change my coach I got to change physios I got to you know hire a statistic my statistician to be able to compete out here I think one of the things that you've done a really good job from just an outsider looking in is that your team is state the same yeah yeah um that's a tough one because I'm I'm kind of on your side there I'm like I don't sometimes I don't get why young guys who are so so good and and not just from a technical standpoint but from a mental standpoint they've won at every stage in their lives and they know how to play golf and and they've gotten there to some regards on their own you know it is a team effort and they've had their teams that to help them get there but um you know just switching coaches and and hiring statisticians I totally get that um but I think it's so easy to get lost into into the technical side of golf um I know analytics is so big but um it's just it just seems like a lot you're already dealing with a whole lot on the golf course so um I will say the one area where I think it's really important and and it's something that a lot of guys on tour that have played the tour for a long time said is really important it's just health um so uh having my trainer out more was huge and and I'm I've been working with a PT now so um that part has grown for me but yeah my coach and my trainer my trainer has been with me for seven years since college and um coach has been with me for since I was seven so 19 years now yeah he was my childhood coach he's uh he's still chugging along he's 76 he walks he walks 108 holes every week um he's in great shape and it's awesome having them out but uh you're you're so right so easy to look down the range and I don't know see see someone working with always changing always changing and you know what cracks me up is I'm not even trying to throw a shade or anything but it's like you got you got the guys with the quad and then they have a track man behind and then they have like a full swing and it's like wait what are we getting from having three of these three of these machines behind you and uh the oh another thing that actually really bugs me is the amount of putting coaches on the putting green at any given time during the week like I'm just trying to I'm trying to warm up like a 40 footer and there's 55 people on this putting green because everybody's hired their own putting coach and then the putting coach has like a statistician that looks behind them and again like a lot of guys that have worked with putting coaches I mean it's it's made a huge difference for them and I think there's a lot of merit to a lot of this stuff as well and I'm sure it's a calculated decision but again it's easy to get sucked in and and you know it's easy for me to say as a field player no I mean but uh but yeah I just that that part honestly I'm like I don't even have a hold of pup two because these coaches take up like three holes of the ten holes on a putting green and then the I don't really want to get the alignment stuff we we need we need to have like a a list in the locker room every week and they have to the players have to put their coaches on this list and this is a sahith approved coaches list on who is allowed from your team to be on the the flooding arena or the range and it'll be your list and it's not a PJ if you don't have a PJ to her credential means nothing we have the sahith official coaching list exactly I should be the one making the decision you know clearly I just I get fired up because I'm just like dude you're this is annoying like I'm just trying to get ready for my round and every single hole has some sort of putting contraption to it and three people standing on it and then oh I can rant about this forever to the metal spikes like guys just sitting there you know hitting a four foot putt drilling they've just destroyed a part of their green um by the way metal spikes should not be allowed in my opinion like oh it seems crazy that you stick metal into your shoes when I was when I was playing on the uh on the tour you know metal spikes are loud and like they always have been but you weren't allowed to tap down spike marks so if you were working in that and the uh at the time the web.com category of t times where you're teeing off last you basically had no chance on that back nine on friday trying to make the cut just smoked yeah you can't fix any pitch marks like I you're right like friday afternoon and I spend 15 seconds of my whole putting routine just fixing metal spike marks because they make up you can fix them but it still makes a hole in the grip you know and I just and I don't it's funny because I don't blame anyone for using it because it's it's within the rules and if it helps then why would you ever slip right like you wouldn't want to slip but the fact that it's allowed is for sawgrass for example greens were absolutely mint I mean perfect on tuesday practicing and then we tee off thursday and it was the greens were on the softer side for sure tee off thursday and again come to the back nine and the greens are absolutely torched and the biggest part of it was the metal spikes just around the cup the holes of these metal spikes for making I was like I can't believe this but anyway sorry I'm now we now we need another list of who was metal spikes and now you're on on the saith hate list currently because you need to get some you get some uh normal rubber spikes or just the the spikeless shoes and this is all great you know why because you are one of the nicest dudes on the pga tour I know this because I know you and I love that you're just like you're just venting so like any any time you finish around or a tournament and you're just like man I gotta get this off my chest you come in and we'll just have like our own little just kind of like little wine well maybe we get a little glass of wine and we just kind of yeah we just we just gossip I need this this is a good smile I'm getting it all out I do catch myself though because like I'm playing on the pga tour I just started this is my third year like I should have nothing to complain about and here I am finding things to complain about well I'm not going to let you off the hook with with all the chest up I still have one more tie-in in the game of golf and chest and and I think the only way you can kind of compare it is you know an in stroke play you're playing yourself you're playing the golf course and you're playing everybody else and you see where you stack up at the end but match plays a totally different deal right because you're going 1v1 you're playing just the other guy you have an opportunity to make decisions based off what they do or you can be the one to force the hand and for somebody like you who's obviously a player that's plenty good enough to be on these teams with president's cup or the future rider cups what do you think your style kind of fits in you kind of call yourself a lazy chest player but you also reference that you're aggressive golfer what do you think you kind of fit in as far as just your general match play yeah I I love match play and it's funny the reason I love match play at least for the junior ams and ams is because I felt like I can hit a ball out of bounds or in the water and I'll be like ah it's just one hole instead of a double or triple or whatever it turns up to be but uh now I think match play is awesome because like you said it adds another level of strategy it really is a chess game um you yeah you end up playing like off course differently than what you normally would I'd say probably half the time uh I think it's safe to say a lot of times um you know your your opponent starts off well and and is really pushing the pace you know that you might need to get a little bit aggressive or you're just gonna get run over um you can't just stick to your game plan of of whatever that might be that day or else you know if someone's just playing better than you you got to find a way to to try and even it out so in the opposite too if someone's you know really not having their day and playing well you play more conservative and hit less club off the tee or you know instead of having that 18 inch two feet pace by you just trying to get the ball just to look up so it's a lot of fun um I love some of my obviously I think as a competitor some of the best match play matches you have or when you're having holes with birdies and yep you know you make an you have to make an eagle to win or you feel like you have to hole out and sure enough somebody always holds out whether it's you or the other guy it's somebody always holds out in these close matches so it's so much fun and and just thinking about the fact of of playing on a team and playing for the USA and and you know having team members to to play for um I get chills just watching the Ryder Cup and even the president's cup so um to be on one of those teams would be would be unbelievable and um you know hopefully I just don't put my partner in too many bad places and alternate shop day that's that's all I have to say sorry sorry Will I'm gonna put Will in some bad places last week man I literally drove it I drove it inside a tree for the guy it's not helping out his back at all yeah you put him out this week man you uh yeah I did he was care he was caring me so hard just even for two days now he's he's uh Will's a man and I'm really happy to side note I guess I'm just happy to hear how how well his rehab and how about how well his back's doing I mean he sounds so excited to to continue this this rehabbing process and uh no I mean he's a beast and you know scary thing is I think he's I think he's gotten better like his control his control off the tee um his control with his irons his speed with his putter is incredible now he has you know no putting issues at all um it's impressive it's just he's gotten like a new maybe mentality about it but man when you get that guy talking about the majors he just lights up he's built he's built for those things and he's uh if I could if I could wager some funds I would uh I wouldn't not wager against Will in the next few years to win a major so uh he's he's a man do you want a beautiful lawn enter true green the easiest way to get a great lawn just water and mow and they'll do the rest weed control fertilization aeration and more true green is the official lawn care treatment provider of the PGA tour and they have a verified best price which guarantees you the lowest price with no compromise on quality you do you let true green do your lawn care visit truegreen.com t-r-u-g-r-e-e-n.com to get the best lawn at the best price with the best people guaranteed life is a highway an honor there will be many chicken sandwiches but there's only one mitt crispy so go ahead and hit the turn signal if you know about this juicy gem of a detour yeah no absolutely and and maybe you too will be a future team uh whether it's at the president's cup or at the rider cup and as we're in a president's cup year kind of mentioned how how much you want to be on a team and it gives you chills and and for me is somebody who called the rider cup last year i got chills so there was it's a lot of fun but for you is it is it taking out much space in your mind just making a team yeah that's uh it was one of my big goals this year because um last year i think i just get it let i let it get to me a little too much um i put rider cups so high up on that it was probably the biggest thing up on my goal list and and i really thought about it a lot right around this time last year and i had a you know for me the results were fine but i had a bad mental stretch for the for the next three months when i thought about that literally right the week before wells um because i think at that time i was inside the top 12 maybe on the points list for the right on the outside i think i was just on the outside like 14th or something for the rider cup points list and i was like dude this could this could be a real thing and then i just played my way out of it out of the discussion at all but um this year was another uh it was important to me to try and make this president's cup team because even my rookie year i felt like i was close-ish but just didn't finish out the year great and i don't want to leave it up to chance this year i want to earn my way on the team and and uh uh not have captain jim jim pick me so uh it's definitely a little extra motivation i think my my mindset on that's gotten a little bit better um just use it as motivation and and not as extra pressure and you know not as a as an expectation or anything it's just kind of a reward and a cherry on top for a good year yeah and you've had a great year and i i think back to bay hill and in a week in which you finished sixth and you did the walk and talk with us on on mbc on saturday and walking down the fairway i was listening and one of the things you said was that you've kind of developed this go to shot off the tee and i think that's so important to have different gears on the pj tour to be able to have that ball that finds the fairway and this year in in 2024 you're up to 64 percent of your fairways hit last year close to about 52 53 percent you got to talk about what you found this year in that little go-to shot off the tee yeah it's uh it's funny because last year felt like the best i ever drove in my life um normally like a 40 high 40s bad for fairways so that's crazy as that seems but um yeah again i think a lot of that is just stuff that my coach and my trainer i've been building on for years and it's finally come to fruition kind of late last year i'd say no november december last year and um it's just a result of being a little bit stronger and and my body being able to handle a little bit more but it's it's kind of this low bullet cut um and i have two ways to hit it which is really interesting which which leaves a little bit of a feel factor into it um i have the super high tee low cut the kind of the tiger slash callin i know callin does it um jt does jt does too jt yeah well jt does everything like i was a sicko on the golf course you might have my legitimately i'm not saying this just say but he might have my favorite game on on tour um yeah he's just a certified sicko but uh yeah this the high tee low one uh that's when i'm like you know really feeling good and and i can get a little extra out of it and it looks a little cool it looks a little cooler because it kind of rises yeah um both of these are fades by the way but they're pretty tight and then the one i've i've really been hitting well recently is um the last month or so um i've been driving it well but funny enough the feels over the tee box haven't been incredible so i have this super low tee low fade that came in so clutch at bay hill hit a lot of fairways when i needed to uh really nice at Augusta um i hit it a bunch off of 7 17 5 on my trumpet fairways fairways you have to hit you know like they're narrow and yes or the hole that goes right to left for you so that makes sense exactly like absolutely have to hit i i don't know why i didn't hit that shot more out there um i might next year now it's holes like 14 um and then at rbc at harbor town i hit it every single shot um i just hit this bullet bullet fade and i don't know how but my speed on the drive is is the same as my normal drive it comes off at like 77 78 ball speed and am i have to do something with loft but um it still goes pretty far and and it's a new feeling for me thinking that i'm teeing this ball up and i have a shot that can i feel like i can hit the fairway almost every time um but that's it's a great feeling it's an incredible feeling um because i didn't have that feeling for the last 16 years of my life so it's a it's an incredible feeling and in some ways it's it's weird to me now i'm like i'm in the fairway a lot more and i've hit some really poor wide shots this year which is uncharacteristic but i just every time i hit a poor wide shot i'm just like man carl i didn't like i didn't know what to do i'm just used to being in the right in the right trees here or whatever it is but um it's a really cool shot and and basically all i do to hit the shot with the low T's i'll kick it back in my stance a little bit um i'll set it up a little bit less off the heel um and the reason for that is i almost i like to have like a toe bias to the shot um just so it keeps the spin down a little bit um because if i if i use my normal setup where the ball is off the heel uh you set up like your golf ball is on the heel right yeah big time big time my normal setup it's pretty much straight off the hosel um through the bag um the longer the club gets the more it's it's closer to straight off the hosel than out of the middle of the club face but for that specific shot it's closer to the middle of the club face and again it's just to try and get it just slightly on the toe so that that cut stays really tight and a little less spin and yeah it's worked out great and and it's a shot i hit every single warm up now um i've actually reduced the number of T shots i hit on the driving range i'll only hit six to seven or as before i hit a lot more and i don't know why because a lot of swings of drivers so um but yeah it's been it's been really fun having that shot and hopefully it just keeps getting better and better yeah you talked about finding the fairways and and randomly hit a poor approach shot so i think this is a perfect time to segue into what we're going to be showing which is a couple videos uh one being from last year so if you're listening right now on the podcast head over to the youtube at smiley show and you could watch this way and this to me looks like in 2023 is this at the Zurich classic yep is it the Zurich classic 2023 five walk us through what you were doing last year poorly uh that's that you didn't like yeah so funny enough um this was right after a good stretch of golf that i played like the best stretch of golf that i'd ever played in my life i just came to the master to fit the rbc so um a big thing i was trying to work on here was just distance control and i didn't have my coach with me for a couple weeks here and and the big thing that happens when ricksen out with me is my setup and takeaway um you know tend to falter and and this takeaway right here is is not good it's it's really far outside and i always take it outside a little bit but man this goes straight outside the club is way in front of my hands and what that creates for me at the top of the swing is super super open face and that's just gonna lead to inconsistencies for me in terms of distance control in terms of direction um because that's just how much more my forearms have to rotate through impact and how much more of a flip and and timing base it's gonna be and and you know how it is on tour with some of those grainy tight oo vera is with a nine iron pitching wedge where you're just trying to focus on the contact you don't have to work you don't want to have to worry about where i'm putting this ball in my stance and right in this video too i have i have the ball too far from my stance too i know it's not can't see the face on but it's really far in front for an eight hour and i think it's almost off my front toe so wow okay um all right show us uh 2024 uh Charlie's gonna pull up a video right now in in which which the feels that you and coach Rick are working on um kind of walk us through what what those are imagine moving a little back yes so this is the biggest thing i've been working on the last eight months really i haven't really worked on any technical other than this with my short irons um been working on my posture a little bit just to help me help the takeaway get a little more natural um so the big thing is ball positions way further back in my stance and that's allowed me to get so much more consistent contact and i'm actually hitting it a little bit further because i'm sure i'm delivering the club with a little less loft as well um but the spin rate's been more consistent i've been able to control the flight better with the ball position for further back it's it's hard to take it out really aggressively so in this in this swing video i'm taking it back you know just a little outside which i like i don't want to get stuck inside and um the back of my the top of my back swings a lot tidier uh the clubface is more i'm always a little open but it's it's close to the neutral and and it's almost a little bit shorter too because i know when to stop um you know i can feel i can almost feel the clubface at the top a little bit better um oh it's good if any yeah it's it's been a really nice transformation and and it's it's shown on my stats and in the fields i'm still working it's still working progress so i've did some really really bad iron shots this year that are short irons that i normally feel like would never hit because i'm just so based off feel but it's nice to get like a little little bit of technical with my feel in there and then the good ones are just so much better and it's getting more and more consistent so um it's been cool to see the the transformation in video too um it's it's it's fun because i'm not a big video guy and oh no we know we know these are like two of eight videos in my phone oh my cup has all the all the videos so that's the way it should be though man that's the way it should be i love it it's been a fun thing to work on it's been a really fun thing to work on yeah be able to get away from it uh on and off the course and um and this is actually one that was sent from coach rick i think this was set from a bake did he send this to you via a bake potato because it's a little on the great it's a little on the grainy side but can you just tell us what y'all are kind of working on yeah what was that the no-kid g7 4 2 or whatever 94 camera yeah so i did me and rick want work on just such basic fundamentals um this is just me you know exaggerating the feel of not taking it outside i have a bucket of balls there and an alignment stick and um so yeah so you don't hit the bucket on the way back yeah it's funny because i swear when i'm when i was over this uh doing this video and taking my backswing on that lineman stick it felt like i was sucking it straight inside it no it's not even close it feels real perfect it's like perfectly on plane which was crazy to me um but yeah i literally sat there for he would he didn't let me hit a ball he he was like i want to hit a ball so bad he's like no you're doing this for five minutes you're gonna get a good feel for this and then you're gonna hit balls uh oh so and then it's hard to see but the alignment sticks has um little black lines on it and i was sticking to one specific black line to to get the ball position oh okay gotcha yeah we're not going to see that black line here not in the uh the big potato 3000 yeah all right show we take that away we'll uh we'll finish up this interview here with you say this has been a lot of fun and i think a lot of times when i do research on players i i kind of there's always one thing that that sticks out to me that i find that i just didn't realize and i just had no idea how well you've played over the last three years and just like crunching the numbers of like this year like you've already had five top tens this year but looking back the other two years as well in 75 starts you've had 18 top tens that's 24 percent of the time you tee it up your top tenning and charlie and i were kind of talking about this before the interview the full swing in which you were kind of like dove the the breakout star but like also you know the family aspect and kind of a little bit overlooked of how well you've played over the last three years have you been able to kind of like had people separate that you're not the netflix guy and that you're like hey wait i'm really good i'm gonna win majors and that's who sahithi yala is thanks finally you're a man make me feel good um oh it's impressive man it's such an interesting you make a great point because uh good golf is so subjective i don't anywhere especially on on tour but it's so easy to look at these guys that are are absolute world beaters and have been top ten in the world forever and base good golf off of them whereas in reality you're playing against two or the best players in the world at any point during the year so in in reality like making a cut and finishing 40th i tell a lot of my buddies like dude i played really like for gusta for example i didn't even i played good i just didn't play that good and i finished 45th or whatever and everyone's like oh man i'm so sorry like what happened i'm like i don't know he's like i played five um so it's been i feel like i've played the best golf in my life the last three years and just seeing like even a point zero zero zero one percent progress on a on a week to week basis is kind of all i'm striving for um just the feeling of getting better and and billy horse will put it well last week and that he's just addicted to the process and truly in a weird way even though i'm i feel like i'm just a gamer i'm kind of addicted to the process and um i just love that feeling of whatever it is trying to get a little bit better by by sticking to your own routine too but uh yeah i feel like i've i've really played well and and golf is such a brutal game because you're you're loser 99 percent of the time you play unless your name's not scottie and Rory those guys um because you know two of best players in the game right now um yeah three of them i'll throw wind them in there too but like Rory or uh zander and pat um these guys are absolute world beaters top i don't know 10 five in the world for the last since i've graduated high school so i don't know seven eight nine years now and they haven't won that much they've probably won you know seven eight nine times a piece i know zander's got his cold metal when he's got the yourself and pat's got the FedEx but it's like they don't win that often they win once or twice a year and i think that just shows how hard it is to actually win and it's so easy to get caught up in the narrative of winning and um you know media loves to focus on the top guys and oh he didn't win a major this year another failure for Rory and it's like dude this guy's playing unbelievable golf so yes it's been i really have played really well um it's nice to have you know super supportive girlfriend and family my parents really make sure that like hey dude you're doing incredible the golf stuff they always say like the golf stuff impressive but the life stuff is impressive too it's just i'm trying to figure out how to adult you know i'm meeting tomorrow about my home insurance that you're going to have to sign up for and all this stuff so um but yeah the golf's been really good um it's it's i'm lucky to him that i feel like i don't have to think about you know what's what's a good event is at the top 25 top 10 whatever i i'm pretty good about being feel-based and result-based i'd say um Houston is another great example i finished 28th but it's probably one of the best weeks i had all year i i really did most of my things really well i just didn't have my normal putting week and i got beat by 27 guys and that's just it's a cup throw man it's you know how it is it's hard you can have you can have a good week and and winning is so hard and everyone just seems to base it off winning and to be completely honest i feel like i haven't haven't really been in contention with a few holes still on sunday since the first event of the year so um i just want to be in that position more but yeah it's been it's been a great two and a half years and even last year um i guess technically the the FedEx season the playoffs and before i i didn't didn't play great but i still had eight top 10s and 30 events so it's it's it's silly i didn't realize it and that's i think to your point it's like you you have like gotten in the mix and but it is really hard we talked about getting in contention on the back nine and having a chance but realistically like it it comes around so so little often unless you're scottie shuffle right now yeah it's it's hard and and that's why i give a lot of credit to these guys that have been out here for so long and have done it so well and i know i mentioned uh Billy before but he's had a nice long career and he just won for the eight time again and you know even Brian Harmon has had such an incredible career like so low-key he's probably had i don't know the numbers he's probably 50 something top 10s yeah a lot something something crazy and i bet you know i'm Zander and powder right there with probably 60 something top 10s and 160 events or whatever it is so it's just so easy to compare yourself to those kind of guys and you know it's nice i feel like i'm on my own path and and my goal is to eventually get to the point where i feel like i'm a top top 10 player top top five player whatever it might be just be the best version of what i think i can get out of myself and um you know it's just the whole thing is a lot of fun and it's it's nice to get reminders from my parents and other people that you're damn lucky to be doing this and i am i'm really damn lucky yeah you are and and you're well on your way and in fact i mean the the trajectory you on is i i you act like top 10 in the world and top five in the world is so far away i mean you're you're 12th in the world right now pro you're one more good event and you're right there and and so hip this has been an incredible conversation um i i i loved everything about it and please please come back on because we have got to hear some of more about the gossip that's going around on the PGA tour that we got to get off of your chest yeah no this has been great smiley thank you i'll have to come on again it's uh it was like a nice uh outlet for me to just voice some things that normally aren't on my mind but uh it's been great my man or do some chess we can figure it all out but are we gonna see Wells Fargo next is that where we're heading yes i'll be at Wells Fargo um i need to get i would love to like set up a tour county staff chess tournament one of these weeks i might need to there you go dig into that there you go get up some PGA tour media see if we can make that happen but uh love to have you join that a little more key yeah i'm gonna bring in my uh my ace in the hole in my buddy av he's gonna play for me and that and i'll be his caddy behind him just cheering him on taking on taking on it's a hit so we'll see uh see how we stack up but all right man thank it's been a great conversation uh look forward to seeing you soon we'll be at the PGA championship charlie will be there as well and best of luck to you thanks smiley the other man thanks charlie enjoyed it see ya soon life is a highway and on it there will be many chicken sandwiches but there's only one lit crispy so go ahead and hit the turn signal if you know about this juicy gem of a detour when you need meal time inspiration it's worth shopping king supers where you'll find over 30,000 mouthwatering choices that excite your inner foodie and no matter what tasty choice you make you'll enjoy our everyday low prices plus extra ways to save like digital coupons worth over $600 each 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PGA Tour winner and the 12th-ranked player in the world, Sahith Theegala, joins Smylie Kaufman for a wide-ranging conversation that begins with his love for breakfast burritos and the game of chess. After discussing Sahith's various chess strategies, he and Smylie move to a discussion about how that mindset impacts the way he plays golf. Sahith breaks down his course management strategy depending on the nature of the competition, and also analyzes swing changes he's made in the past year. Along the way, Sahith - in the most lighthearted and grateful way possible - lists a series of grievances he has with PGA Tour life.
