MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2024

Sahith Theegala

Quick Quotes

Q. Your thoughts on the tournament, and how did you prepare for it?

SAHITH THEEGALA: Yeah, it's funny, I thought I would be less nervous coming here the second year. I am a little bit less nervous but still very nervous. The prep this year was awesome. Got a full week of rest. It felt like three weeks of rest because I played Houston Open. I live in Houston now, so that was good to get that competition. Then I played a bunch of money games with my buddies the last four, five days, got a lot of good practice in, and then two more rest days. I feel great.

I learned from last year not to do too much Monday through Wednesday, which is easy to do, tire yourself, but I feel great. The game is in a really good spot. Feel rested. I'm going to work hard on my short game the next few days, try and get it back up to speed, but the ball-striking has been probably the best it's ever been this year. It's very exciting.

Q. That 67 last year in the final round, that left you feeling more hungry?

SAHITH THEEGALA: Yes, yes. It left me feeling hungry, but it also gave me even more confidence. I was really proud of that round because there was multiple points during the round where it could have gotten a little bit sideways, but I just held in there and made some big putts when I needed to.

Even my par on 18, I got really nervous the last few holes. I hit 5-iron, put a good swing on it, just caught the right bunker and then a nice up-and-down to finish it off for a top 10, so that was important for me to know that -- that's my lowest round here, competition or not. To know I can go low without even -- I had to chip out a few times out of the trees and still shot that number. Going that I can go low out here I think is very important, and more confidence for sure.

Q. And the consistency that you have had this year, from the beginning of last year actually, that must be giving you more confidence going into a big major championship week?

SAHITH THEEGALA: Definitely. I don't know if I've ever -- I mean, the mental game -- everything golfer is always looking for more of an edge, and I feel like I'm getting more and more confident, getting more and more comfortable without getting overly too confident or too -- whatever it might be. Like I still feel like I have so much room to improve. But my ball-striking has been the biggest reason. I'm just getting more consistent. The misses are tighter. My body feels better. I'm taking more rest weeks. It's probably the most rested I've ever been in five years because I've always played, played, played every week. I'm learning how much that's helping my body.

Honestly my short game has really been sub-par for the last four or five months and I've still been playing really well. I know the short game at some point, it's been my bread and butter my whole life so I know it's going to come back. I'm putting in the work. It's great to see the consistency paying off.

I haven't been in contention a ton, but I feel like there's a lot of weeks where I'm very close to doing that.

Q. One question about Akshay. I don't know how close you are and what kind of -- you must be bonding because of your roots.

SAHITH THEEGALA: Definitely, yeah.

Q. Tell me something about him and how close you guys are.

SAHITH THEEGALA: Yeah, yeah. I'll tell you what, I've played with Akshay a lot this year. Played with him at Sentry, Sony, PLAYERS, I've played with him a lot. I can't believe how good he's hitting it. I know he's always been a great player, but I've never really played with him much because he's four and a half or maybe five years younger than me. But he's one of the top ball strikers on TOUR already. What he's done this year, I think he's had five, six top-17s now, including a win.

What he's doing is incredible. I think the most impressive thing that I've seen is just his composure and how well he doesn't care about the outside noise. He just goes about his work. He just turned 22, and it's like, he acts way more mature than I do.

It's really impressive to see what he's doing, and there's no doubt he's going to be a top-10, top-5 player in the world to come because he definitely puts in the work.

But it's been really cool to see him, and again, just to see us of Indian heritage doing well, it's so, so cool to me. I texted him -- unfortunately we couldn't -- me and Will already said we're going to play Zurich, so I texted him telling him that I'm going to play with Will, but I'll say, we should play together at the Presidents Cup. Hopefully we can both make that team and make it happen.

I'm sure we're going to play a lot more together coming up. I think we're just going to hopefully grow closer. He's a great guy. Hopefully he feels that way about me. We don't know.

I think it's huge to see him win. He's going to win a lot more. Hopefully I can keep up.

Q. So many Indian-Americans playing well. Do you feel kind of responsible for starting a trend?

SAHITH THEEGALA: You know, I'll take a little bit of credit but not a lot of it. Indian-American sport is just -- hopefully this becomes the new norm. Honestly in Bay Hill and PLAYERS, there were so many people following me that are yelling stuff like, Telegu boys stick together, and just you feel prideful. It's really cool. Then in Houston a bunch of young Indian kids came out and followed and my parents were there and they were just encouraging them.

Probably for a few of the first times, a couple kids came up and said they're playing golf. A couple Indian kids came up and said they're playing golf because of me. It's pretty crazy to hear that. But it's cool, and hopefully I can keep being an inspiration.

I'm excited; I'm actually going to India the first week of November. My cousin is getting married, so I'm excited to go back. I need to play like Hyderabad Golf Club at least, go see that place but it's really exciting, and hopefully I can keep being an inspiration.

I played there before like a long time ago, maybe 15, 16, but I'm just excited to go back. It's been a long time. Been overdue.

Q. You're the product of a very successful collegiate program at Pepperdine. Last week we saw Nick Dunlap from Alabama led a PGA TOUR event. Talk about what your college career at Pepperdine helped prepare you to get to where you are.

SAHITH THEEGALA: It meant pretty much everything to me. I wouldn't be here if -- I did five years of college. One year I couldn't play because of my wrist. But all the coaches I had, Beard, Blaine, Armen, they've all played pro golf. They've seen what successful golf looks like, and they're able to guide me in a way where they were both a friend and a mentor, and I really kind of understood what it took to make it. I feel like they brought in a lot of people to either speak to us -- I remember speaking with Jay Haas and having dinner with him and just getting a little bit of tidbits from him and stuff like that. It's almost more than just the actual golf part is the how to handle your stuff as a pro. All of a sudden you're going from a team of seven, eight people to you're all alone now.

Just another big part was the practice part. I never really knew how to practice until I got to college, and then having some block practice mixed in with whatever you want to do and competition with guys, it was really fun, and I saw my game get so much better.

I think I was like right in the middle of a shift of all these college guys hitting it insanely far because I don't remember my first two or three years -- I've never been long, at least in college I wasn't long. I was high 160s, low 170s ball speed, and I would usually be the longest guy in my group or at least the middle guy, and now I see the guys at Pepperdine, and they're not big kids, and they're all hitting it just as far as me. I'm like, when did everyone start caring so much about ball speed and hitting 180 and things like that.

I think Nick Dunlap is a great example. Obviously he had a lot of success in college, and it's translated pretty directly to the Tour. It's impressive because he's barely 20 years old. It's kind of like Akshay. They're not afraid of anybody. They know they're just as good as anyone, and they're only going to get better with all the opportunities and all the facilities out here.

I think college golf is just so invaluable. I've never seen someone play college golf with the exception of not having -- if you don't have a great coach, a coach that doesn't fit for you, but it's been -- wouldn't be here without Pepperdine and the golf program.

Q. During your round did you notice the eclipse at all?

SAHITH THEEGALA: Yes. Ever since I was a kid I was a big science guy, and I've gotten away from it a little bit because I feel like I haven't had time to read up on stuff. But I knew 3:08 was the max peak, and for some reason I thought I was going to be in Houston, and Houston had like a 94 percent coverage, and I know Dallas and Waco and some of those spots were the full eclipse.

But yeah, every 10 minutes I would borrow someone's glasses and I made sure at 3:08 to look up. It was pretty wild. Was it 78 percent or something here today? But for about 45 minutes, I tried to hit shots with my glasses on because the haze -- it almost felt hazy out there, and my eyes were almost hurting a little bit. But I was paying attention to it for sure. It's fun.

Q. At 3:08 where were you?

SAHITH THEEGALA: We were on 18 tee box.

Q. This might sound like a silly question, but when you think of Augusta National, what comes to your mind?

SAHITH THEEGALA: I mean, the first word that comes to my mind is just golf. It's the essence of golf. It's the one tournament I think a lot of people here grow up watching, even if they're not a golf fan. You grow up watching the Masters, and just to be here is just so special.

I kind of joked about it, like I would love to come just watch the Masters. Hopefully I don't. Hopefully I'm playing for a long time. But just to be a fan and watch four rounds and walk on the ropes because the only time I've been not as a player or to watch was a Monday practice round, and I'd want to watch like Thursday through Sunday.

But yeah, it's the most special place. It's a Disneyland for a golfer. Still even today was my first day on the property. I came last night, but it took me a few minutes to gather myself, just be like, all right, you need to focus. Take in the sights, like on 10 tee box and Amen Corner, give myself a few minutes, but ultimately it is business, I suppose, but it's really special.

I can't even say anything to actually portray how I feel, but this place is unbelievable. I don't know how they do it. The logistics of it have to be a nightmare. But it's the best tournament.

Q. You share one thing in common with another young star, Ludvig Aberg, both Haskins Award winners. When you look back to your college days, how does that carry you through when you started your professional career, knowing you were voted amongst your peers as the best player in the country?

SAHITH THEEGALA: That was a big thing I think I didn't realize when I won it -- I realized it right before I won it, but a lot of it was peer voting, but the fact that they voted for me meant a lot to me because at that time I lacked a little bit of self-confidence, and I was like, okay, these guys think I'm good, so maybe I actually am good.

That was big for me. Again, I needed that mental confidence. It wasn't even a validation thing. It was truly like am I actually good enough internally. That whole year gave me that kind of confidence, and then I took it to that whole year of mini-tours and Korn Ferry, and I was playing my best golf of my life even then.

It's awesome. I have a funny story I always tell. I played with Ludvig my second to last college tournament. He was a freshman, I was a fifth-year senior, in Hawaii. We're playing the final group, final round. I was like, I have no idea who this guy is. Absolutely striped it. I was like, wait, this guy is 19 years old? He might have been 18, but 19 years old, and first thing I did -- I had a good event. I think I ended up clipping him by one or two.

But immediately after the event I went to his Instagram, screen recorded one of his swing videos, and before the next event, he was my inspiration for the next event to try and get my swing a little bit more composed like that.

That's when I caught wind of who Ludvig was. It's awesome seeing him out here and kind of dominate. I think he's top 10 in the world and Ryder Cupper and all this stuff. He's a great dude, too.

Q. Does he know that story, by the way?

SAHITH THEEGALA: I don't know if I've told him that story. I think I have. I played with him at Sony. I might have told him then. But yeah, he's really good. Probably be up there for a while.