MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 9, 2025

Sahith Theegala

Quick Quotes

Q. Sahith, let's just start with the form that you are coming into the Masters this year. I note you've made almost all the cuts, but it's not up to your usual high standards. What do you have to say about that?

SAHITH THEEGALA: It's been an interesting time. I really don't feel like I'm playing too poorly. I definitely feel like my ball striking has kind of let me down a little bit.

It's an interesting time in my life. I feel like I'm adulting for the first time and just bought my first home and was moving. I don't want to make excuses, but my mind wasn't fully on golf for a little bit. I took a lot more time off than I wanted. Like stuff just kept popping up.

I feel like I'm fully back in golf mode. We had a nice time -- me and my team came down to Florida, and we had three days to prep here. The last two or three weeks, Valspar and Houston, really good progress. I know I didn't finish well, but made some big steps in the ball striking.

I've been working as hard as ever on the short game again the last couple of weeks. It's good to get back in the flow of things. I'm very optimistic for the rest of the year.

The nice thing is I see flashes of my game from last year still going on this year. It's not like I'm -- I don't feel lost or anything. It's just -- it's easy to focus on the results and be hard on yourself.

I have a lot of awesome tournaments coming up, so I feel really good about it.

Q. If the game is just right there, what -- and the mind isn't, what do you think you need to do properly over here which you haven't probably done this year so far?

SAHITH THEEGALA: I think I lost on approach pretty much every tournament I've played. I don't know the exact stats. At least 9 out of the 10 I've played I lost on approach. I felt poor about my iron game. So that was the big thing the last two or three weeks.

You need to hit those small sections with the short and mid-irons here. In a way, being out here and practicing the last three days has really helped because some of the shots are so difficult into the greens that you just have to pull it off, right?

I've been struggling with kind of finding the line between a conservative line and a more aggressive line when my start line's not at tight.

In this case, you just set up and trust it and trust all the feels and trust my little cut that I've been hitting. It kind of forces me to be better, which I love.

That's been a big thing for me. I've driven it -- I drove it so well last year; I feel like I'm still driving it well.

Again, my body just wasn't up to speed. I've been a little slower this year. I've been ramping things up. I feel like I'm pretty much back to normal speed and been seeing it pay out here the last couple weeks, especially with the driver.

As long as I give myself chances, I'm very confident in my short game and putting. Just got to get around the green when I can.

Q. If I can ask you, today is like a family day out here at the Masters with the Par 3 Contest. I know Malia (phonetic) and your family is here, and now they're going to be following you. Can you just talk to me about the plans today? Who's on the bag? And just I've asked you this before, but what the family means to you and the support that you get.

SAHITH THEEGALA: Definitely. They came in last night.

Q. The loudest family support that you get on the TOUR perhaps.

SAHITH THEEGALA: Exactly. It means the world. My personality is a little different from my family. I'm pretty quiet and reserved. I just love the support, knowing no matter what happens on the golf course doesn't matter. I have my family to fall back on. It means the world to me. It's awesome to have them here and share this experience. Obviously I'm proud of being here, but the best part is being able to share the experience with the people you're close with.

They'll be all out there on the par-3. My dad did it the first year, caddied and hit a couple shots on putts. Juju is doing it this year. I told my dad he'll get to do it another time. I don't know when. But he'll get to do it another time. Juju is locked and loaded and ready to go. She's been practicing.

I have all my best friends out to watch. I don't think I've ever --

Q. Is it a large bunch of people?

SAHITH THEEGALA: It is pretty large. I think maybe 15 or 16 people are here today, and then every day the rest of the week, it's around 15 or 16 people. It's hard to get tickets here. It's nice to have a good group.

Q. Everyone still keeps talking about the character that you showed last year at THE PLAYERS by taking -- not PLAYERS, the TOUR Championship -- by taking that penalty on yourself. Can you just talk to me about why it was so important? Why you would advise young juniors to have that kind of approach towards golf?

SAHITH THEEGALA: Yeah, I can attribute a little bit of it just to how I grew up with my parents and Hinduism. I'm a big believer in good karma. So good things happen when you feel like you do the right thing for the world.

It's important to realize that we're not all perfect, but when you put in the effort and try to be a good person or do the right things in life, that life will reward you. And vice versa, I believe in bad karma too. If you're not doing the right things, life has a way of catching up.

It just felt like second nature to me. I never really even thought about it, but I saw the impact it had on media and social media and stuff. So that's very cool to see.

Hopefully that's just the normal because golf is such an integrity sport. It's just you and the golf course. Honestly, you can get away with a lot of things on the golf course if you want to. You can cheat in a lot of different ways. Hopefully it's just a reminder to know that you have to be honest, especially with yourself.

I definitely played the best golf of my life probably right after that. I know it wasn't just me. It was a work of God for sure, exactly. Things just work out like that.

It was unfortunate, but also I'm very thankful for it. Life has a way of teaching you lessons when you didn't think you really needed them. That was a cool spot.

Q. New logo?

SAHITH THEEGALA: On the hat.

Q. You always feel the love from India, but this is new.

SAHITH THEEGALA: Yeah, this is big. Obviously Shantanu has been awesome with Adobe the last couple years. That partnership started here. The first time I wore the logo was here.

First time wearing the Hero logo was here too. It's awesome to have that support.

I'm really excited to go over to India and play. It's one of my big goals. Yeah, just hope to inspire and honestly just entertain there. It's growing more and more. It's important to me, the whole cultural both Indian and American. I want to tap into that as much as I can.

I'm really thankful for Dr. Munjal and the whole team for letting me be a part of Hero.

Q. I wanted to talk to you about something that Rory said recently about Scottie Scheffler. Rory said that he really wants to mimic Scottie's attitude. What have you observed in regards to attitude and mentality that Scottie Scheffler does well?

SAHITH THEEGALA: A lot of it is intangible. I know that's not a great answer, but I really, really believe he's not putting these high expectations on himself.

I know he's been a little demonstrative on the golf course when it hasn't gone well recently, but he's always been a competitor. He always lets his emotions show on the golf course. Everyone thinks he's a super steely guy, but he gets upset and he gets happy too. He gets pumped up.

He doesn't let expectations get in the way. It's hard for me to think that Rory has as well. He's just so, so good. It's just a matter of time before he's going to pick up another major.

But I understand what he means. Just a little bit of intangible. He's not walking around like the cockiest guy ever. He's just going about his business and sticks to what he does.

It's all cliche stuff, but it's cliche for a reason because he's sticking to what he does best, and he doesn't stray from that. I'm not saying Rory needs to mimic Scottie. Rory is the best player of our generation, so I think he's doing just fine. It's cool to hear the second best player talk about the first best player like that. It's always things to learn.

He doesn't let an individual shot or individual result impact how it's going. He sticks to his routine, sticks to his game plan, and he's very objective about -- in a weird way he's very objective about how he goes about it. Even though he plays all kinds of shots and he's a feel guy, but he's very objective how he goes about it.

Q. Max was talking about the difficulty of having a really good friend on the bag. I know you and Carl are close. How do you maintain that relationship?

SAHITH THEEGALA: It's been a little easier just because I haven't been out here that much. There's a bigger age gap between me and Carl. We're 10 years apart, versus Greiner and Max are a lot closer and know each other better.

Max has accomplished a lot more for sure. He has six wins. I don't know what he reached in the world. He might have been fifth in the world at some point. To experience the highest of highs and to be where he is right now -- I wouldn't say it's the lowest of lows. I think he's close.

That's tough, especially with Greiner leaving. I get it. At the end of the day, it's a business decision. You never know what's going on on the personal side. So I'm sure there's some personal stuff that's been affecting that. It's so easy to judge from the outside. I'm sure it's the right decision.

Even if Max doesn't feel like it is now, they're going to look back at it as remembering the happy times. I'm sure their paths will cross many times moving forward.