QBE Shootout, Sahith Theegala, Tom Hoge

“Conversations with Champions presented by Sentry” is a weekly series from Golfweek. This week: Sahith Theegala and Tom Hoge.

Theegala and Hoge won the 2022 QBE Shootout at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, after rallying late after being down two shots entering the final round.

Theegala, who hit his best drive of the day on 18, drilled a birdie putt to give him and Hoge a one-shot lead. Ryan Palmer and Charley Hoffman, who led after the first and second rounds, each had looks for birdie but both missed their putts.

Here’s everything the Theegala and Hoge duo said after winning the 2022 QBE Shootout.

Q: You guys kind of made it hard on yourselves coming down the stretch there by not birdieing 17. Was there any sort of conversation going to 18 to pump each other up?

Sahith Theegala: No, I think we’ve been playing so well all week and vibing off each other, I mean, it’s to be expected to have one or two bad holes and it just happened to be 17. But we’ve been playing well all week. Like we said at the start of the round, we just need two chances and we gave ourselves two really good changes on 18. Yeah, it was kind of unspoken I think that like let’s go and get this last hole.

Q: Tom, I think when you holed that long birdie put at the par 3 12th, I think you guys were either tied for the lead or got to the lead for the first time. Did you have a conversation then about let’s go, let’s go, or were you just sort of getting into the mix of it right then and you turned it on?

Tom Hoge: Really the only conversation we had today was in the scramble and we were like 5 under through 12, which was probably our worst start of all three formats. It was a bit of an issue at that point, but we were playing well. Like you said, nothing really needed to be said, just kind of get on to the next hole and keep trying to make birdies. I mean, you just felt like you had to birdie every hole out there for the way that the rest of the field’s been playing, so it was very simple what we had to do.

Q: Sahith, talk about that little problem you had on the first?

ST: Yeah.

Q: What happened?

ST: It’s funny, I was just telling my mom at breakfast, knocked on wood how healthy I’ve been for the last four, five years, and testament to my trainer, Josh. I literally have played every tournament seemingly 100 percent. First swing of the day on hole 1, I got under it and I knew I had to save it, and I saved it and I just pulled the left side of my, it’s like…