Gearing Up for the 2025 PGA Season with Smylie Kaufman

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00:00We are about to really hit the main events of golf season for 2025 and get things rolling.

00:06So of course, we are going to be bringing back every week our man Smiley Kaufman.

00:10You can check out the Smiley Show right here on SportsGrid.

00:14Back from Hawaii, he was out there doing those tournaments.

00:17Smiley, great to see you, my man.

00:19How are you?

00:20What's up, Mike?

00:21I hear you got some winners already at the beginning of the calendar year.

00:23Good for you, man.

00:25Yes.

00:26Good start to the year so far, Smiley.

00:28As yesterday, Sepp Straka wins the Amex out there at PGA West.

00:33I was going to ask you about him because I feel like, I know he's not at that level yet

00:39with the top, you know, the big dogs in a game, the biggest names that we hear.

00:43But after winning yesterday, he's now won each of the last three years.

00:47He's got three wins on the PGA Tour.

00:48He's been in the mix, some top 20s, top 10s at majors.

00:52I feel like he's one of the most underrated, undervalued guys that's out there on the tour.

00:58Well, I think when you look at just major championships and trying to find guys who've

01:02not won a major that's under the radar, he would be on a list of about five guys.

01:09I would say for me, Sepp, you know, really over the last 10 years too, Mike, there's

01:15been a major winner that's never won before.

01:18So it could be a guy like Sepp Straka that gets it done this year, but heading into the

01:23year, it all looks like, you know, how many was Scotty going to win?

01:26How many Zaner going to win?

01:27And so far this year, you know, Scotty Sheffler hurts his hand at Christmas dinner.

01:33And then Zaner Shaflae now announced today, not playing next week at the Farmers, which

01:38is where he's from in San Diego.

01:40But it's also being rumored and announced that the Riviera that's being moved to San

01:44Diego.

01:45But Zaner's got off to a slow start this year.

01:47So without, you know, Scotty and Zaner to start out the year, kind of getting the PGA

01:51TOUR season rolling, we've kind of, it's been an awkward start to say the least.

01:58It has been an awkward start.

01:59And really, I feel like sometimes everybody's kind of got their own marker smiling.

02:04Some people probably say pebble, some probably say waste the week of the Super Bowl.

02:09Some might even say this week with Torrey Pines, where I think the more average viewer

02:14or watcher or better golf starts to get more involved.

02:18We're obviously there every week.

02:20Let me, you know, you look at Torrey this week, and this is different this week, guys,

02:23they go Wednesday to Saturday, not the traditional Thursday to Sunday with what the coverage

02:29that they're going to have playing these early tournaments, whether it was you played or

02:33the guys playing now.

02:35How weird is it in different when you have to play these events where you're playing

02:39three courses, like last week, PGA WEST, two courses this week, two courses at pebble.

02:45What does that do for you prep wise, getting ready?

02:48What is that like?

02:49Well, it's when experience really matters, you know, the guys that have played these

02:52events year after year, there's value in that, and especially at the American Express, where

02:56you play three courses like you just talked about, but playing three golf courses, preparing

03:01for that in Palm Springs, and then driving up the road to San Diego, and then you got

03:06to learn two more golf courses.

03:08So for the rookies, it's already a very difficult start to the year, you know, you're trying

03:12to get your feet wet, and you're learning all of these golf courses.

03:15So with that being said, it's a good point.

03:18But for me as a player, when I was on the tour, I always felt like their year really

03:21started in San Diego, it just felt like, you know, the crowds, they're always incredible.

03:28It's a it's a really, you know, you can have us opens out there, like we've seen some of

03:32the more famous golf tournaments.

03:34And you typically have a really good finish in Torrey Pines.

03:37It's almost pretty much guaranteed you turn around on Sunday, it's something cool is gonna

03:40happen on that 18th hole.

03:42So it's gonna be a fun week.

03:44But it's not as strong the field as we typically would see seen a lot of top players pulling

03:49out mainly because they don't want to play Torrey Pines two out of three weeks, which

03:53is what it would be.

03:55Yeah, you were just mentioning Xander, Colin Morikawa, a few other guys have all backed

04:02out for this week.

04:03But we do have some names here, Smiley Ludvig's gonna play you have Matsuyama.

04:07I mean, Sanjay plays every week.

04:09So it's hard to say Sanjay, you can never not find Sanjay at a tournament.

04:12Finau's playing, Jason Day off of playing really well last week.

04:15So still some good names.

04:18Who are you looking at for the farmers this week out at Torrey?

04:21Well, I got a bone to pick with Sanjay.

04:23He was my pick last week at the Amex.

04:27He had finished top 25 in that event every single year.

04:31He made so many birdies when I was on the coverage watching him at the first, you know,

04:38the capital Lou and I'm just thinking, man, he's rested.

04:40He's going to go out and have a great week and just lays an egg on me and just misses

04:44the cuts.

04:45But who am I?

04:46That's a great question.

04:47Ludvig's a great start.

04:49This is a golf course.

04:50You want guys that can hit it long, but carry it a long way that are strong enough to get

04:54it out of the thick rough.

04:55You know, Harris English is always a guy that you got to look at this week.

04:58I know he's a guy that you don't look at.

05:01Maybe undervalued a lot of weeks, but this week in particular, he's always played well

05:05here.

05:06I start at the driver and work your way back.

05:09Tony fee.

05:10Now it's another player.

05:11If he could putt well, which he did a capital like him, there's some other under the radar

05:16guys like Jake Knapp, who played well there last year, hadn't really gotten it quite going

05:21since the West Coast last year, but he loves this golf course.

05:24He's a player that could play well.

05:26Like really under the radar is a guy named Trey Mullinax hits it as far as anybody.

05:32And it's had some success in this golf course coming off of a surgery this past year.

05:37He's one of my favorite first round leader guys.

05:40Smiley.

05:41We always love guys like Mullinax.

05:42They start fast and sometimes unfortunately fade away in the weekend, but we like those

05:47guys for first round.

05:49You know, we've got, you mentioned Sheffler before and he's always the most talked about

05:52guy.

05:53Is there any concern that he's going to miss a lot of these early tournaments?

05:57I know it's just a cut on his hand, but he's not playing golf.

06:00He had such an amazing year last year.

06:03You think that it'll take them a little time, whether it's pebble, whether it's waste, when

06:07he finally comes back to kind of get in the groove before the players.

06:11I think so.

06:12Definitely.

06:13It'll take a minute, right?

06:14Because, you know, you can't replace reps that you don't have.

06:17I know he's how, how well he has played Mike.

06:20And I think we, we don't question a guy that, you know, he came off of the tour championship,

06:26went straight to the president's cup, however many weeks later that was and looks like it,

06:30you know, he had missed a beat.

06:32But with any type of injury like this, he always have a little bit of question marks

06:36on kind of how he's going to come out personally for me.

06:40He's never been a guy that's putted incredibly well on Poanna.

06:43So for him to miss some of the stretch doesn't really worry me because it keeps his confidence

06:48high for when he does get over to the East Coast and he plays a Bermuda, overseeded Bermuda

06:54and putts really well on it.

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