Johnson Wagner catches up with Sahith Theegala to see how he’s preparing for the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club, a course that he’s never seen or played before until now. #GolfChannel #PGAChampionship
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For Sahith Theegala, Valhalla meets expectations | Live from the PGA Championship | Golf Channel
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SI we’re here on the fifth hole your first couple leaked a little right this is your first time around this place like First Impressions and also how do you go about preparing for a place that you’ve never seen yeah uh first impression this place is sick um you know growing up as a PJ watching the PJ Championship I feel like you have a certain expectation for the course and this kind of meets the expectation it’s big large large property thick rough 7600 plus yards so it’s just a big track and it’s it’s really pure and man it it’s uh I haven’t played anything really like this because oill was my first last year and it it was a little different than this it was a little more placement this one’s just kind of bombs away and it’s uh the fairways are a little wider but yeah it’s it’s demanding so far but this is my first look at the front and it’s pretty sweet and you you were just talking about both sides being a little different Carl what do we got here you got 162 hole 62 both sides different not many trees on this front side back nine hiler through the woods yeah it’s uh it’s funny it’s like two different golf courses cuzz played the back nine and um even 10 is like through the woods going up and then first hole here I thought was pretty similar it’s the only hole with trees actually in play and then you get to two four five right now it’s all open like you see the whole front nine which was cool I I like the feel of it but it it’s totally different what stick you got I got a NR and 162 I need to step on it a little into the wind you want the eight no I like the nine right now soft greens I just see a camera behind me apparently oh I wish we had a camera up there to see how close that got uh sth like you know watching you play I’m sad that we never had the chance to play uh cuz I am terrible golf these days but right yeah one thing I admire about is your escapability and your creativity on the golf course is that something that you just were born with do you work on it or is it just cuz you spray the driver all over the lot yeah well my childhood Coach Rick is here and he can tell you a whole story about that but growing up I just love I I just love having fun playing golf so I would put myself in bad positions on purpose almost and then turned out I just hit it crooked so I had I had to find ways to escape and be as creative as possible so I’ve kind of embraced that um kind of my whole life and I feel like every time I hit it good ball striking Wise It’s a bonus and we’ve we’ve my team’s got a good system and feel like I’ve made really great progress with my ball striking last three or four years and trying not to lose that creativity and fun around the greens so um even when I’m hitting it well like like today I’ll still throw balls and all kinds of weird places and give myself bad lives and short side and just to kind of keep that creativity and and fun and it’s a little bit of a challenge too cuz it’s like well let’s see if we can get out of this one you know so I love it and but yes to answer your question it’s cuz I sprayed it as a kid cuz I sprayed it as a kid watching you win fortnite you hit so many sick shots from around trees and that’s the kind of golf course that is not necessarily like this one but uh hey Carl can we get some balls over in the uh the zoa over here yeah like so chipping off of this Zeon zoa you know a lot of people say the ball sits up it makes it a little bit easier how do you feel about chipping around these greens yeah so I haven’t played a ton of zoa but uh the few tournaments that I have played um one at 6 hours Carson um uh Oklahoma State’s golf course and it’s all zoa and chipping is just it’s a little bit easier um the ball definitely sits up a hair um you can get spin even from a lie that doesn’t look as good you can kind of go ahead and trust it more because I I feel like the base of the zoa is a little bit taller so you can get the club under underneath and produce some spin so interestingly this week we’ve already talked about it Golf Course strategy wise you can get pretty aggressive with your approach shots I know you have 200 plus yards for a lot of the approach shots but you can get pretty aggressive cuz if you do short side for example like here to to that te right there okay um you can go ahead and put spin on it or to that disc that crawl through well you’re Landing this one on a down slope though so on the down slope I don’t want to hit just you got a 60 in your hand I have a 59 okay new addition to the bag but like even this SL here you can probably it’s like a little into the grain like not sitting completely up but it’s it’s one where you still go ahead and trust it that get the club underneath and put a little you’re a guy that that releases the hands you’re not a you’re not a dead hand guy you like to throw the club underneath love to release it yes Matt let’s see this let’s see this from this angle over here and see uh because this is a great angle to watch how he works his hands through impact see like even that one I actually missed the hair and it’s a foot away just because of the grass you just kind of go ahead and trust it it’s going to spin every time is that the way you’ve always chipped releasing the club like that and exposing the bounce that way kind of kind of both ways I’ve cuz in my swing I I tend to get a little under and my hands kind of stay forward and you know what me and Rick work on is just always feeling that release and getting the chest to the Target and kind of sticking that chest to the Target um which I guess like again just a having a lot of chips and a lot of reps doing it so I I en I I like hitting both shots but especially off this grass where it’s super consistent the low point doesn’t necessarily matter as much you can get away with a little bit of balance or a little bit of like that one I hit maybe a grp thin but still ended up checking so you want to hit one more and then I’m going to throw one in the nasty life for you R okay I’ll try and really spin this one yeah get nippy with it you’re I mean when when off that Z do you feel like it catches higher on the grooves is that why you’re able to get the yes so like even on that one I can show you here like normally I know when you hit a spinner it’s usually like one or two grooves up but this one you can see that Mark there like the fourth or fifth Groove up and that’s that’s the difference that’s the difference for sure and how does it change when you’re when you’re playing out of that’s a that’s a like describe the rough here for us cuz you know I’ve been talking about it this is a this is a good lie this is a great lie um the interesting thing about this Ruff is it’s a little Hit or Miss there’s there’s two types of grass in the rough out here um you have like this SOA Kentucky Bluegrass mix I think and then like you can even see it here there’s some bent that Creeps in I think it’s I think it’s Bluegrass and tall fescue mix tall fescue mix okay but like you can see this bent kind of creeping in if you get a line in one of this these bent lies it the ball sits straight down okay it’s kind of nasty so uh a good example as past whole 10 cuz hitting it longer the green on 10 is fine like you’re hitting back up the hill the Green’s almost pitched at you but it’s lie dependent if you get one of these lies you’re getting up and down all these guys are getting up and down eight out of nine 108 to nine out of 10 times but you get a lie like this and you’re almost just hoping to you leave yourself a 20 footer controlled chunk but out of a good lie do you play this kind of like a bunker shot or yes a little bit like a bunker shot um I think the difference this week is it’s going to be really easy to go under the ball um so I’m going to choke up a little bit and almost try and hit not the equator of the ball but kind of have that feeling rather than just getting Steep and under it cuz you catch it really high on the face and it just kind of exactly yeah there’s a lot of cushion Under This Grass so um like even this one like the speed needs to be kept up and um it’s funny on a shot like this all with this grass I’m trying to hit it harder than I would think initially like int intuitively I want to hit it a certain way but I’m going to try and hit a little harder than that just because of the scass beautiful so I hate to say this but uh sometimes I enjoy watching you the screens and put yourself in spots cuz it’s so much fun thank you for your time this is your one time on the front nine go hit some putts man have great thank you very much
1 Comment
Would love to see him win it this week. Great personality and player.