Keith Mitchell and Sahith Theegala on Mastering the Greens
Nov 02, 2023
HOST: FRANK A. BASSETT
Tee off with us as we navigate through the thrilling landscapes of the Worldwide Technology Championship, hosted in the beautiful locale of Los Cabos, Mexico. Our special guest is none other than Keith Mitchell, who gives us a hole-by-hole analysis of the Tiger Woods designed course, El Cardinal at Diamante. Get ready to walk in his shoes as he discusses the intricate strategies he has to plan while navigating this challenging field, and his reflections on the importance of these events in securing a spot in future tournaments like the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational.
Further adding to our golfer's tee party is PGA Tour rookie, Sahith Theegala. Fresh from his victory at the Fortinet Championship, Sahith takes us on a journey through his debut season, allowing listeners to share in his joy and gratitude for the support of his loved ones. But that's not all - Keith Mitchell returns to the fore, sharing his experiences from the Latino America tour, emphasizing the need for adaptability in the face of different cultural contexts and the hurdles posed by language barriers and travel hiccups. Join us as we navigate the fairway, taking in the lessons learned along the way, on this exciting journey into the world of professional golf.
Tee off with us as we navigate through the thrilling landscapes of the Worldwide Technology Championship, hosted in the beautiful locale of Los Cabos, Mexico. Our special guest is none other than Keith Mitchell, who gives us a hole-by-hole analysis of the Tiger Woods designed course, El Cardinal at Diamante. Get ready to walk in his shoes as he discusses the intricate strategies he has to plan while navigating this challenging field, and his reflections on the importance of these events in securing a spot in future tournaments like the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational.
Further adding to our golfer's tee party is PGA Tour rookie, Sahith Theegala. Fresh from his victory at the Fortinet Championship, Sahith takes us on a journey through his debut season, allowing listeners to share in his joy and gratitude for the support of his loved ones. But that's not all - Keith Mitchell returns to the fore, sharing his experiences from the Latino America tour, emphasizing the need for adaptability in the face of different cultural contexts and the hurdles posed by language barriers and travel hiccups. Join us as we navigate the fairway, taking in the lessons learned along the way, on this exciting journey into the world of professional golf.
Speaker 1:
This is PGA Tour Countdown, and welcome everybody, frank Bassett, joining you for this edition of PGA Tour Countdown. We are coming to you from Los Cabos, mexico. It's the Worldwide Technology Championship and it's being contested for the first time on a Tiger Woods designed golf course. It's going to be a good tournament. Not a lot of the top players in the world in there, but we have several, and I think number 17 is the highest ranked player in this group. But what we want to do is we're in the media center and had an opportunity to hear from some of the players, and so we're going to get right to it and let you hear from them.
Speaker 1:
El Cardinal at Diamante par 72, 7452 yards, 8.2 million dollar purse, with the winner receiving 1.476, and 500 FedEx Cup points, 72 hole stroke play, not 54, 72 hole stroke play. We all know about that. Anyway, it's going to be really interesting this week to see how the boys get out there and play this course, but it's very challenging. Needless to say, if you've ever played a Jack Nichols golf course, you know how he designs them Well. Tiger Woods does about the same thing. He's going to make it challenging for you and make you Make all the shots in the bag. So, that being said, let's get right to it and hit the media center.
Speaker 2:
All right, we'll get started. We'd like to welcome Keith Mitchell into the interview room here at the worldwide technology championship. Keith, you just came off playing nine holes this afternoon, obviously here for the first time at this venue. Just an opening comment on the golf course and your excitement to be here.
Speaker 3:
First of all, I'm really excited to be here for the worldwide technology event here in Cabo. Weather looks perfect this week, my first Tiger Woods golf course that I've ever played. There's a couple holes that have a lot of risk reward. That's a couple par fives. The back of the greens are serious trouble, so you got to be. If you have a good number you can maybe hit it to the back flag and get a chance at Eagle, but if not, you got to play conservative and then try to get up and down from the front of the green. So that's a lot of risk reward.
Speaker 2:
First time that the PJ chores playing a golf course designed by Tiger Woods. I know you just had a chance to see him out there. Just thoughts on the importance of the tour coming to a course designed by Tiger and Any, any grade that you're giving him on the back nine so far it's.
Speaker 3:
We all know he's. We can judge him on his, on his golf if the best, if not the best, to ever play golf. So we're gonna see. If he's, his golf course architecture can hold up as well. It's the first few, first. First, I guess the back down I played today is there's a lot of options. I know Tiger likes options. It gives you a lot to think about. Going into greens, whether if you want to use the slope or go straight out the hole, whether you want to play conservative and have an easy up and down or try to push it to the back of the green or to a tough flag and try to make birdie, he gives you a lot of options. So if conditions were going to be different this year, maybe if the wind picks up, you might sway one option more than the other. But that's what's great about having it so excited to see how it plays out, coming down the stretch with some pressure and some tough ends.
Speaker 2:
Coming into the week 68th in the FedExCup standings. I know you obviously finished in the top five last year at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational and you have a high appreciation for those golf courses and those tournaments. How important is it for you to play well these next few weeks and have an opportunity to play in those tournaments.
Speaker 3:
AT&T Pebble Beach is probably one of my favorite events of the year, not only because I felt like I've had some success there on the course, but just the week in general is a lot of fun, a lot of great relationships I've made at that tournament. Having the amateurs and celebrities there really brings a lot of different perspectives to our game, which I feel like is a good one that week. And then Riviera. I hadn't played in a while but obviously had a great run this year. I played a lot better than I anticipated, to say the least, just because I hadn't played that golf course in probably four or five years. It's always been one of my favorites. It really is probably one of the best courses we'll play all season. And then really having this week at the Worldwide Technology Championships and then the RSM at my home track in a couple weeks, those two are going to be big for me because two good weeks will guarantee my spot in those two tournaments.
Speaker 2:
Doug, do you have a question?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I do Playing on the Latino America tour for a year was probably the best thing that could have happened to me in my game, just because there was always an obstacle that week whether it was a language barrier, different grasses, golf courses. You've never seen before range set up to hotel logistics. Things were not. They were coming out of college where you have a team and a coach and everything is kind of done for you. It was completely opposite.
Speaker 3:
You're in foreign countries by yourself, on your own, and that really gave me a great perspective as a professional golfer that it is an individual sport and you're on your own and finding a way to play well, no matter your circumstances, good or bad, is something that I learned quickly on the Latino American tour. A lot of it is the language barrier, as well as the travel just traveling on your own long distances, places you've never been and you're unfamiliar with, instead of being starting out of the top where everything is just handed to you as a tour player in terms of the logistics for the tournament week. I think that was probably the greatest thing I learned playing on the Latino American tour and the difference, I would say, is being able to overcome the unknowns as a professional golfer that come your way. That taught me better than just about any experience. That experience taught me better than any one thing a player could have told me before.
Speaker 2:
And how do you have a concept topic?
Speaker 5:
Next year the PETR Latin America and PETR Canada will form the PETR America as the new tour. So having experienced Latin America, I know you didn't get to play in Canada. Talk to me about that new tour and the talent pool from those two strong tours coming together into one tour and preparing guys to move up to the corn fairy tour.
Speaker 3:
Like I said, for me it was really impossible to put the value on what that tour gave to me as not only a player but as a person. I think that playing four round tournaments with two day cuts prepares you better for the corn fairy tour and the PETR than any other style of golf and the fact that it's accumulation of points over a set amount of tournaments, which is exactly like the PETR Tour is. So it just prepares you for what's ahead quicker, faster, and gives you the experience and the travel. It's no joke traveling as a professional golfer. You're all over the place and learning to be able to handle that, whether it's with your body, the time zone, your sleep etc. All that goes into being a professional golfer. And when you get thrown to traveling international weekly, I think it just speeds up that learning curve.
Speaker 2:
Thursday night you're playing in the Oasis Celeb Scramble. Can you just give us kind of an idea of how excited you are to play in that event?
Speaker 3:
I don't really know much about it yet I'm trying to think about it.
Speaker 2:
I guess more details to come on your end.
Speaker 3:
I just know what time I'll have to be there. I don't even know who's in it.
Speaker 2:
Okay, great. How about on this golf course? You mentioned the wide fairways to me. You mentioned the wide fairways earlier and I think you said you preferred golf courses where the fairways are tighter. I think because you're a great driver of the golf ball and maybe you can separate yourself more on that. Could you explain that?
Speaker 3:
a little more. It's a complete personal advantage. I would like to think I have, by tighter fairways, longer golf courses, but again, that's just. I don't think that makes it better golf course. I think that's just a personal bias to me. It plays to my strengths, this golf course. There's not really any rough, it's fairway and then hazard or fairway and desert really, and so the fairways are wider. But if you're too far offline you can't play. So a lot of golf courses they might have tight fairways but they have a. You know you'll never lose your ball or you'll always find that you might have a shot. Here If you're not in the wider fairway you're either dropping or hitting another tee shot. So I think it's a fair balance of a wide fairway but then very penal if you miss it.
Speaker 2:
Got it All right. I think those are all the questions we have. Thank you, keith, for your time Best of luck this weekend on Thursday night.
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Speaker 7:
Okay, well, we will go ahead and get started. Like to welcome Sai Thigala to the interview room here at the Worldwide Technology Championship. Sai, thanks for joining us for a few minutes, coming in the tail end of what's turned into a pretty remarkable season for you eight top tens, highlighted, of course, by your win and nap at the Fortinet Championship. Just a few opening thoughts on being here making your first start in the event and how you're feeling as you head into the week.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, yeah, I feel great. This is my last official event of the year. I guess it feels weird to be saying it's been a long year, but a great year, like you said. And yeah, this is my first time playing Worldwide Technologies, the first year of my rookie year. I actually didn't get in on my number, so it's nice to have that full schedule available. And, yeah, I'm glad to be here and it worked out great. My families, or my parents are here for the week, girlfriends here, so just a nice chill week and I love the people out here. So nice. Even after playing the Mexico Open last year, I had such a good experience there and that was part of the reason why I came down here too.
Speaker 7:
You're coming into the week 29 in FedEx Cup, cracked the top 30 in world ranking at number 29,. 31 FedEx, 29 world ranking. The decision to play here. Was it a pretty easy one, just kind of given how well you're playing right now?
Speaker 4:
Yeah, I just I love playing I think that's no secret and I just I struggled to go long times without playing tournament golf and after Napa I went a full month from there to Zozo so that felt like a long time and I just love competing and the fields that these events are. Just everybody is so good out here that the level of golf at the top is very, very similar to some of the strongest events and they got a pretty nice field here this year and, yeah, it was a very easy decision to me to come down and play.
Speaker 7:
One last question, and then we'll see if anybody has questions themselves. Take you back to Napa. Obviously quite the amazing week for you, family, friends, everybody there. How special was that win and how has life changed for lack of a better term since getting that first win?
Speaker 4:
Yeah, it's been. Yeah it's been. It's been incredible, I think a big thing that I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but everyone's been so supportive of my two-year journey on the tour so far. I never really had the expectations of winning myself, but a lot of other people did for sure. To them it was a question of when and not if. To me it was a question of if. To finally prove that to myself, and just a lot of validation for the work. That was probably the sweetest part of it, just to be able to share all of that with my family and friends.
Speaker 4:
But yeah, it hasn't really. I mean the fact that I'm a PGA tour winner and nobody could take that away from me and Carl and the rest of my team is epic Just knowing that. That will always be there, no matter what happens the rest of the way. That's awesome. But other than that, everything's been kind of life's kind of been the same. It's been great. I'm living the dream and obviously there's very few times again where you're happy in the sport and I was truly, truly happy and let myself kind of soak in the wind for a couple weeks there. But yeah, life's great. I've been living my dream for a very long time now. So yeah, all good.
Speaker 7:
Well said, we'll take a few questions. We'll start right here.
Speaker 6:
I mean, it looks like you like coming to Mexico and you've been to Mexico up and you're here Kind of your favorite things about being here and kind of your first impression of Los Cabos.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, so this is my first time in Los Cabos. I've never been, never went on a. We always played golf during spring break stuff, so we never came out here. But yeah, I love it.
Speaker 4:
One of my mom's best friends still one of my mom's best friends growing up. She's from Mexico, so I was familiar with kind of the culture from a young age and she would go back and forth and I just I met spending a lot of time with her and her family. They're just some of the nicest people ever and they just work hard, play hard kind of thing. They work, you know, really hard and I feel like there's similar cultural similarities between that and Indian culture and but also play hard, you know you put in the work so that you can enjoy time with your friends and family.
Speaker 4:
And I got a good sense of that when I was young and last year when I came to the Mexico Open I couldn't believe how many fans were out there. You know I thought part of the way I thought there wouldn't be too many people out there or anything, but the fans were great. They really supported me a lot. I know a couple of my buddies that I played back in university in the states. Specifically, I was thinking of Alvaro Ortiz. I know he had an awesome week last year at the tournament, but yeah, I just couldn't believe how great the fans were. And yeah, I just wanted to come back and I love the food. I love Mexican food. I don't know how real of Mexican food I'm eating at the resort, necessarily, but we're going to go into the city today and see what we can get into. But yeah, it's just good vibes all around. So first impression has been awesome and I'm just going to enjoy the rest of the week too.
Speaker 6:
So about the golf course and I mean your first impressions too, but also the fact that is a Tiger Woods design. Yeah that it makes you like, pay more attention and like you go curious about things.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, the first thing I think of when it's a Tiger Woods design is that you kind of know that the fairways are going to be wide, which I love. Driving accuracy. I think it's been well documented as the worst stat of my game. So having open fairways is really nice for me. I can kind of use my creativity to shape it into the holes and stuff. But my first immersive golf course is I really like it.
Speaker 4:
It's very hilly, no flat lies, a bunch of slopes that you can use to funnel into the greens, anywhere from wedges on the par 4s to. I had a couple of 4 irons today. The wind was a little opposite in the morning today and there were some really tough par 4s on the front, specifically 4 and 8, I think, were playing really long. But there's plenty of scoring holes as well, and I think Tiger was talking about how he just likes to make people think on the golf course and the back nine out. Here is just all strategy. There's very few drivers, a lot of placement. You need to have good angles or else these little cacti come into play and the way the Royals and the desert is around the greens. So it's a nice blend of kind of tactical, strategic golf, and then also just putting yourself in the right spots, because I think there's going to be some really low scores out here.
Speaker 6:
So my last thing is, as Doug was saying, it's been a big year for you. I mean 2023. You played the majors, you've been exposed to a lot of big things and new things, so kind of what have you learned from this year and what do you look forward to in 2024?
Speaker 4:
Yeah, I had an awesome year and it's moved really, really fast. I think that's happened to me in my first year too. My rookie year just went boom. The year is done.
Speaker 4:
But this year, having a full schedule and playing all the majors, like you said, and playing more, just having more exposure with the guys that are top 10, top 20 in the world whether or not I'm trying to go out of my way to learn a few things from them, I'm not really sure I can say that, but I'm able to pick up things subconsciously from them, just by watching how they play the game a little bit, and whether it be discussions with their caddy or strategy, or I'll ask them a question about how their first few years on tour were and what they would do different or what they did that was great, just like little stuff like that. I feel like I'm always learning, which is a great thing about the sport, and a lot of the guys have been super nice to me in that they've been open about sharing information and that kind of stuff. So I think I'm always a very curious person and I'm curious to see how people go about their way, especially in a sport where everyone does seemingly everything different. So, yeah, I just like picking those top guys' brains and playing with them more and more and also just putting in the work and seeing if I can kind of join that fray of those guys.
Speaker 4:
But yeah, playing in the majors and some of the big events is no matter what anybody says. It's a different feel for sure. It's just a different feel. It just means more and you can feel it during the week. So that's what I'm most excited about again this next year. It's just to play in events like the Masters and players and just try and get in contention again.
Speaker 6:
It's a most scaring shot in this golf course.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, there's a couple on the back nine I would say 16, the par 3. There's a front section of the green where it's like 15 feet wide and there's a backstop. But if you miss the backstop it's impossible to stop it coming forward. And there's a little piece. There's hazard short, right, hazard right, short and left and long. You only have a little sliver long right of the hole to hit it safe. So that's a scary shot. It's a wedge though. So I'm sure you'll see a ton of shots close and a ton of shots in the hazard. That's a shot where you kind of just want to get it over with, I think. But if the wind stays down it won't be too, too scary.
Speaker 4:
But there's a lot of tee shots on the back nine, specifically 12 through 14, I think are the three. They're pretty wide, they're probably 50, 60 yards wide. But if you miss the fairway it's just lost ball into the junk. So just kind of getting those three tee shots in play and then finding the surface on 16. Those are the scariest shots for me. Thank you.
Speaker 7:
Anybody else? Okay, well, easy enough. So I think we appreciate your time, as always, and I sort of wish you the best of luck this week. Thanks, doug, thank you.
Speaker 1:
So there you have it from Los Cabos, Mexico. It's the 2023 Worldwide Technology Championship. Going to be fun, it's going to be a great tournament. Let's get to meet that time of year where things will slow down a little bit on the PGA Tour, but we'll have a lot of insights for you. We're going to be doing shows. We're going to be doing shows all the way through to the new year because a lot's going on in the world of golf and we're going to cover live tour, PGA Tour, corn fairy tour, LPGA Tour, DP World Tour and whatever else comes across our play. So for the PGA Tour countdown team, I'm Frank Bassett saying thanks for listening and we will catch you around the clubhouse.