Sepp Straka talks equipment and strategy with Smylie Kaufman | FedExCup Playoffs

I like to see the big Ox in the gym that's this guy well I'm not doing any heavy lifting bands Diet Coke watching the Braves this guy can do it all today let's get an inside look at sep straa as he prepares to make his third TOUR Championship we're going to dive into his strategy and how he plans to tackle this test here this week slice you know you're you're in a position on the FedEx Cup sitting at 18th right so that's a a really strong position to not have to be quite as worrisome about making it next week to the BMW so for you do you feel like you kind of have a bit of house money to go out and play a little bit more aggressive than other guys I think a little bit yeah uh especially cuz at this point for me the only goal is really to make it to Atlanta well I know you like playing on Bermuda grasses so I know this is a golf course that you're you're thrilled to be playing again but you know 18th on the FedEx Cup that means you've had one heck of a year to this point how do you summarize your season yeah it's been it's been great uh I was actually talking to my caddy Dewey uh during the Olympics about it it been by far the best ball striking year I've had and here's SEP straa with a wonderful touch is there something that y'all found this season that y'all worked on or did it just kind of keep on fine-tuning what you've been working on over the last couple years with John there's a lot of fine tuning tuning yeah so just a lot of working against my patterns uh a lot of gym work trying to basically every day before I go play golf just trying to negate those bad patterns that I have and over time it's made me a more consistent ball Striker yeah I like to see the big Ox in the gym that's this guy I'm not doing happy lifting it's a lot of bands in the in body weight stuff plenty of body weight to throw around band Diet Coke watching the Braves this guy can do it no wi oh Diet Cokes on set all right so this 11th hole is is one of the coolest holes out here at Southland it's a very unassuming short par three with an island Type green and you've got some history on this hole so let's let's just go back a couple years is a good way to put it let's go back a couple years ago to that playoff this is dangerously right that is on a an aggressive line it just hops along and wedges in between the grass and that stone wall Sten now ready to pounce Yep this got he's grab one more Club he's got [Applause] nine oh this is right too that's also shorted into the water now what's going to happen I mean just being in that moment what were you feeling on that te um yeah I mean obviously you're really nervous uh just felt like a long day just all day stressful Golf and I just remember seeing uh Will's ball stay up over there on the right side and couldn't tell from the team how what it was I thought it was a pretty straightforward chip uh you didn't know it was on the Rock I you know I could tell it was on the Rock cuz it landed on the Rock and then bounced back but I didn't know it was up against the collar of the rough so I thought he'd have a at least be able to get it up there about 10 ft um but yeah that really didn't change my my shot I was trying to go would be the right TV tower there and just got out in front of it and hit that shot that I was just talking about hey well this is really an interesting hole because they can move t- markers around on this hole kind of changing angles a little bit and tucking the hole locations and in your bag you have the RTX 6 wedges and then you have the ZX7 iron so when you kind of have that middle between the pitching wedge and the nine iron you know is there much of a gap for you that you have to adjust for on a hole like this not a huge gap cuz my pitching wedge is actually 46° so it's a little bit stronger than most uh so it fills the Gap nicely between gap wedge and it's got to help so you got to feel comfortable when you have wedge in your hand absolutely that you're going to be able to get to that front pin when they move the tea off exactly yeah it's it's it's nice to kind of be able to rely on your your yardages and kind of make it a seamless transition from the wedge to the the non iron and you get up to the green there's it you know there's more room than you think but like you said when you standing on that team in big moments it can be a very a much smaller grain a much smaller especially that back right pin I mean it looks like you have nothing over there even the back left pin here just looks like that just the World falls off right behind it and you get up here and you actually have about five or six yards on each side of the hole and uh but uh but yeah it definitely is a bigger Target than what it looks like from the team all right Dwayne Bach Dewey this 12th hole a lot of strategy involved I'm sure you've seen a lot of things over the years I know it it probably caters more towards who your cadan for but on this 12th hole walk me through how do you get a guy in the Fairway on this hole well yeah it's it's just more or less what he feels comfortable we know that it's ideal you have to get it in the Fairway hitting Fairways out here is very important so you know it's wind dependent which way the wind's blowing um steple ah hit a draw so um in years past because last year when we played it was softer he had a lot of drivers towards that bunker in that bunker is actually better than the than the rougher than the rough so um if he wants to be aggressive and feels confident with that then it's just my duty to make sure he's confident when he hits it so I don't mind driver because if he goes through and the that bunker is a better angle than the green cuz it is a flat bunker it's not a big deep bunker I remember actually aiming at that correct but you can hit whatever you want here you can hit anywhere from a four into a driver most important thing is hitting in that Fairway oh yeah Beauty as we look forward to to the next week in BMW which you will be playing you know this is going to be totally different as far as the conditions go right so we got here the golf ball should be going exactly your numbers at basically sea level and then you get over to uh Denver where we're at elevation and all of a sudden your nineiron that goes 155 yards here is going 175 yards in Denver how do you make that adjustment do you get there a little early in the week and start figuring out those numbers um yeah that's going to be uh that's definitely going to be an adjustment the big thing is early on the week just get the numbers dialed in get on track man uh you can dial in altitude there or elevation whatever that's nice to have the Bell whistles out nice it's really nice and uh when you're playing holes just maybe hit a few extra shots playing one full Sand Wedge land it there and spin it back in the water yeah so golf ball you play the Srixon XV yes yeah I play the XV but you used to play the uh the diamond correct I did yeah yeah I played the diamond uh probably about 2 years ago now but uh switched in XV just the carry numbers I carried a little bit further with XV a little less spin on my iron shots and uh that kind of uh helped me out with my iron game a little bit and the red XV golf ball is going to be a little firmer it's going to be great tto green and for you around the greens you feel like Still You Get Enough spin because a reason why a lot of players go to the diamond ball it's a little softer around the greens a little more playability but you still feel like the XV you still have all the versatility to play all the shots around the green absolutely yeah I feel like if I if I really connect well with it it's going to spin uh plenty uh enough so I think the the Diamond is definitely a little bit spinni around the greens but uh for me I had plenty of uh spin around the greens SE thanks for all the help out here on 10 1112 you really showed us what this golf course is all about the challenges it presents but as we look for the next couple weeks do you feel kind of the weight of the playoffs as far as just making it to your third Tour Championship absolutely uh you know you up at the playoffs you know the points are quadrupled um it's a lot having yeah it is uh so very a lot of movement uh so you have to play well even if you've had a very good year you have to play really well in the playoffs to get to Atlanta I know this Georgia Bulldog wants to get back to the Tour Championship go bowl that turkey make it to your third TOUR Championship best of luck this week in BMW hopefully see you in Atlanta we'll do appreciate thanks