Join Smylie Kaufman at the The U.S. Open for an exclusive conversation featuring Sepp Straka. This video takes you behind the scenes of tournament week, featuring player insights, what’s in the bag, and more!
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[Music] what’s up guys smiley Kaufman here with Seth Straa on another episode of Man on the Inside and we are inside the ropes here on the range at Oakmont the US Open seth you’ve had an incredible year to this point but this US Open it everybody’s talking about how stern of a test this is going to be you’ve seen the golf course you’ve been preparing how hard is it out of 10 it’s uh it’s going to be the hardest i think the hardest tournament that I’ve played uh if I had to guess um you know weather’s supposed to be pretty good so that’s going to help but uh low low winds but it doesn’t really matter on this course you know you have to put the ball in the fairway uh and then into the greens you know even with a nine iron or a wedge you’re not really aiming at the pin uh most of the time so it’s just one of those courses where you just have to execute and you have to play conservative but uh yeah if you don’t you don’t execute you’re going to be in trouble i mean you’re you’re coming in here in the top 10 in the world you know heading into this season did you feel like that was something that you could achieve by the US Open were you come here showing up feeling like you know what I can compete and win this this week yeah um definitely you know I uh I definitely felt like coming into the year uh my game was in a pretty good place last year um hit the ball pretty well last year didn’t putt it great and did some tweaking with the putter uh during the the offseason and things have kind of clicked a little bit this year it’s been it’s been really nice and uh yeah coming into this week you know it’s a golf course where you got to drive it well you got to uh you got to hit your iron well and you know if I feel like if I feel like if I’m playing some good golf I I definitely could have a good chance and just talk about some of the second shots you got to hit on this golf course because these green complexes are the most like absurd things that you’ve ever seen you know a lot of times you get onto a very difficult golf course and you find places to where you can have good birdie looks but this season or this golf course I should say it’s hard to really figure out where you’re going to have the good looks yeah no doubt because there aren’t really many good looks you know usually if you miss the green you’re probably below the hole uh but you’re chipping out of some diabolical rough um and if you’re on the green you’re probably above the hole and you’re just trying to putt so it’s one of those things where you just kind of got to pick your spots where you think you got the best chance of making pars and the occasional birdie um and that’s where you got to play from and you got to really kind of map it out a little bit and so your iron game this year when I look at your statistics proximity-wise you know Scotty Sheffers who’s being talked about so much with his approach game but you’re right there with them from how well you’ve hit your irons this year what would you attribute that to do you feel like that’s always been a strength or you’ve been working on something particular this year to make it to where you’ve been having really good birdie looks a lot of rounds uh yeah I think it’s worked over the last three years three or four years kind of uh coming together a little bit um you know the last few years I’ve been in the top 30 top 40 and uh approach to the green stats and uh that’s that’s really good but this year I feel like maybe my distance control is just a little sharper just had some good weeks but uh it’s kind of clicked pretty nicely and uh yeah honestly it’s a lot of work over the last three or four years kind of coming together this year and of course two wins win at AMX earlier this season and of course at the truest in Philadelphia and I think a lot of people have gotten a chance to watch you on TV and I just want to remind you you know you are a Striction ambassador and we’d like for you to wear your hat more often could you talk about you taking your hat off in between shots i I know that it’s maybe a bit of a tanning situation going on is that what we’re doing yeah exactly yeah I try to hold it you know to where you know I’m hoping it’s in a big frame and I’m holding it in frame so uh but uh yeah definitely a tanning situation uh I think Steuart sink has his thing and I’m not trying to take that from him so and I think my wife appreciates it too okay so when did you make the decision where you said I’m just going to go and chop the lettuce off and we’re just going to commit to it yeah it was last fall uh it was last fall you know it been thinning for a while uh and I was just tired of you know tired of looking at it every day and wondering if it’s going to come back cuz it wasn’t it wasn’t coming back and uh I was going to end up here at some point so I figured I might as well uh might as well go ahead and help it out a little bit well we got we got this camera right over here if you can look in this camera and speak to somebody that needs to hear it of exactly what you need to do tell talk to the camera it’s it’s tough i’ll tell you it’s tough but once you do do it is the most freeing thing uh that you will ever do if you just give in just give up you know it’s not worth it it doesn’t look that good anyways just go ahead and let it go take it off and uh be free go with the buzz cut you also might be winning on the PGA Tour twice if you go and do it maybe not seaka was able to do it uh before we let you go let’s I want to talk a little bit more about just the rest of the year and what you have in front of you are you much of a goal setter when it comes to uh whether it’s being on the RDER Cup team or winning a major championships or are you pretty good about staying in the present yeah I usually don’t set a whole lot of um goals in terms of results uh you know I always want to keep my practice routine make sure I’m doing that at home on the road that’s my really my only goal uh is to just keep my practice routine keep the process going now it’s hard to overlook the RDER Cup that was obviously a goal coming into the season is to try to make that but to achieve that you just have to keep uh keep with the process keep improving your game and that’s kind of been been my goal this year is just keep to try try to fine-tune it and uh get it ready for each week of course you have your Austrian heritage with your parents and if Zack Johnson would have called you uh back in Rome and said “Hey Seph I want you on the team.” What decision would you have made on where you would have gone if Luke Donald said “Hey I want you on the team too.” Is it would that have been a difficult decision or would you have No how do you declare i would have gone Europe yeah I’ve been you know because you got you got a southern boy accent nobody can i know it’s hard to It’s hard to tell when I’m speaking English but um but no I grew up playing for the Austrian junior golf team the European boys team championships the men’s amateur team championships all that stuff and playing representing Austrian been very proud to to represent the Austrian flag on on the PJ tour the last few years do you at least uh cheer for the Americans during the President’s Cup or are you so far off the deep end now i’m pretty far off the deep end but I’m still uh still pointing for the Americans on the on the President’s Cup yeah I got you i got you well the only thing that’s been different for you this year you talked about keeping to routine and having the same thing you’re doing every week on the range out on the golf course and prep but what’s changed a lot is your caddies and it hasn’t been necessarily a decision that you’ve been wanting to make it’s that Dwayne your your main man has had some injuries with his back but you’ve had our buddy Drew Mats caddy for you get a win and then of course your twin brother Sam Straa caddy for you memorial and you’ve had success with both of them has it been kind of weird having different guys and having to coach them through it it’s been a little bit of fun uh I’m glad Dewy’s back now though because uh we were running Dewey system with the numbers and win calculations and all that and I was doing been getting a little tired of doing the math uh to be honest with you so it was fun to have Drew on the bag fun to have Sam on the bag but uh yeah I was ready for Dwey to get back and he’s here this week there was no more nervous of a person than Drew at Truis on those last three holes trying to get you to the finish line it was great to see you get the win um the last thing I’m gonna ask you here uh Seth before you get started with this US Open prep is that you’re a dad and how cool it is to bring you know Paige and Leo out to the golf course when you’re at home and even out on the road you know how how cool is it to be a dad and win as a dad this season it’s amazing it’s so cool um you know little man doesn’t really care if I miss the cut or or win by 10 um you know he’s uh he’s the same every day and well he’s he’s different every 10 minutes but you can even relate to that but uh no it’s been so much fun having them on the road uh being able to do stuff on on Mondays or Tuesdays if I have some time going to zoo or doing some of the outings they have for us and uh yeah I mean uh it’s been it’s been a blast and uh yeah excited for we’re expecting another one in November so yeah excited to uh to be adding to the family look out you see you’re going to have two assistant coaches as we both are going to have a son’s the same age so it’s going to be pretty fun uh watching us two on the sidelines trying to coach up Birmingham as we live very close to each other we got to pick our sports we got to pick our sports maybe you do football do basketball i don’t know yeah I’d like that i can’t do basketball i don’t know anything about it well congrats D and best of luck this week and of course the rest of the year we’re uh been excited to watch you have all the success so all the best brother appreciate you
