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00:00Let's talk Sef Straka.
00:01We waited a long time to talk Sef Straka.
00:04And as we noted off the top of the show,
00:06he is now ninth in the world,
00:0814th in the data golf rankings,
00:10second in the FedEx Cup standings,
00:13is the second win this season,
00:15won the American Express,
00:16and of course the Truist now.
00:18He also finished tied for fifth
00:19in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
00:21He is playing very, very good golf this season, Smiley.
00:24All those stats reflect that.
00:26What are you most impressed by with Sef this year?
00:30I mean, do you feel like there has been a material leap
00:32in one category of his game?
00:35Well, that's a great question.
00:37As I was heading to find that currently on,
00:39I wanted to give you a fair answer there,
00:41but my instincts say that he's always been
00:46a very accurate driver of the golf ball,
00:48always been a very good iron player,
00:51not necessarily the longest player in the world.
00:53I mean, he's right around average,
00:55maybe a little below average,
00:56but he's typically, on his good weeks,
01:00it's the Austrian microwave when it gets that putter.
01:03When that thing gets going,
01:05he hits so many fairways,
01:06and that iron game's so solid.
01:08He has that 15, 20-foot range.
01:11He just starts hooping, man,
01:12and he was hooping this week.
01:14He gained 2.32 strokes gained on the putting this week,
01:19which it had to be first in the field,
01:21if not very close to it.
01:23But you can look at any of his wins.
01:25It's just, it's really like his putting in general.
01:30You'll go down the list there,
01:32and you'll see it looks like a roulette board,
01:35black and red.
01:36It's like green, red, green, red.
01:39He's a very streaky putter,
01:40but when he is on, he is on.
01:42Well, and he gained, holy smokes,
01:44I'm looking at this right now,
01:45he gained 2.32 strokes putting this week,
01:49which is, and again, if you're looking at his,
01:53to your exact point,
01:55there are three weeks that stand out
01:57with a green bar on data golf
01:58where the strokes game putting is way higher
02:01than his baseline,
02:01and it's the truest,
02:03it's Arnold Palmer Invitational,
02:04and it's the Amex,
02:05and those are his three best results of a season,
02:07two of those in signature events.
02:08That putter, it reminds me of like the old zebra putter.
02:12Like it's in a world of optimization and new tech,
02:15it's like he's got this old retro thing,
02:17but you know, whatever works, works.
02:18It's funny.
02:20All right, so what else do I love about Seth?
02:22His routine is, I think,
02:25the best routine on the PGA Tour
02:27when it comes to when he makes a decision
02:30and when he hits the golf shot.
02:33It's perfect.
02:34It is perfect.
02:35You know who has like the worst routine
02:37that is a PGA Tour card?
02:38Who's that?
02:39This guy.
02:40This guy.
02:41I have a PGA Tour card in my wallet,
02:42so I consider that to be a member.
02:44That's fair.
02:44Dude, it's incredible how quickly
02:47when he gets to the club
02:48and he walks into the shot,
02:50it's club down, one look, club down,
02:54and then like the club's going back.
02:55It's so quick and fast,
02:58and it's not easy to do that,
03:02but it's like if you had a stopwatch
03:04every single time that he hit a shot
03:06from when he walked into the ball
03:08and when he actually hits the ball,
03:11it'll be within milliseconds
03:14every single time.
03:15The guy is just so routine,
03:17and I think it helps his rhythm a ton.
03:20I think he reminds me so much
03:23of an old-school type of a player
03:24like an Ernie Yelts,
03:25swings the golf club
03:27for being a very big guy
03:29with really good rhythm.
03:31You know, a lot of big guys
03:32have to work really hard
03:34to get down to the golf ball,
03:35but it's a really, really efficient golf swing.
03:39Swings his torso
03:39and so incredibly well.
03:42It's just a very repeatable golf swing
03:45that you got to give him
03:46and John Tillery so much credit.
03:50They're constantly working
03:51on the same things.
03:52They're working on their motor pattern
03:54to make sure that,
03:56because anytime I ask that pal,
03:57he's playing,
03:57he's like,
03:58ah, you know,
03:58I'm kind of just same old thing,
04:00just have to keep on working
04:01on this motor pattern.
04:03And so it's been fun to watch him
04:05just continue to improve,
04:07because I go back
04:08to when he was on the Corn Ferry Tour.
04:10He was missing cuts,
04:11missing cuts,
04:11missing cuts,
04:12and all of a sudden,
04:13he wins a Corn Ferry Tour event
04:15out of nowhere in Kansas City
04:17that basically saved from him
04:19to go back to going to Q School,
04:21going back to the mini tours,
04:23and gets to the PGA Tour
04:25and has never left,
04:26and is now a top 10 player
04:27in the world.
04:28And heading into the Ryder Cup,
04:31European Tour Ryder Cup rankings,
04:33he was,
04:34he jumped up 15 spots this week.
04:36He was 20th on those rankings,
04:37because I guess Amex
04:38didn't get any points,
04:40I guess?
04:40Is that what we decided?
04:42Well, I think it would have been
04:43a lower amount of points.
04:45Okay.
04:45We could dive into that.
04:46Still surprising, right?
04:47It's a long document.
04:49Yeah, I guess that is a little surprising
04:50when they get him a little higher,
04:51but...
04:52But he's fifth.
04:52He's fifth now in the standings,
04:54which, dude,
04:55we'll get into the Ryder Cup thing
04:57a lot throughout this year,
04:58but this European Ryder Cup team
05:01is going to be nasty.
05:04Absolutely nasty.
05:06...