Sakke Siltala is a Bobcat deserving of the spotlight after an accomplishing year on the course for the Texas State men’s golf team.
The junior finished in the top three, twice this year and has a current win-loss-tie record of 557-126-26. His best performances occurred at the Bubba Barnett Intercollegiate, finishing third while shooting 12-under. At the Kapolei Invitational he finished second, shooting a 3-under.
Siltala is the highest-ranked player on the men’s golf team, currently sitting at No.223 out of thousands nationally.
Siltala is not new to the game of golf, as from a young age showed him the ropes and took him under his wing to improve his game.
“My dad introduced me to the game [when] I was two years old. I started playing [casually] when I was like six or seven and started competing in junior golf when I was 10 or 11,” Siltala said. “I got into the under-14 national team pretty early, I think I was 12 when I got in and that’s kind of when I started to realize I have a chance at this sport.”
Prior to coming to the United States from Finland, Siltala was one of the top junior players in Europe, even playing on the Finnish U18 National Team. He won back-to-back Finnish U18 championships in 2019 and 2020.
Though he was a top junior player in Europe, Siltala believes he made the right decision coming to America to try and get a shot at the professional level.
“I definitely made the right choice. [Moving to the United States] creates so many opportunities to get wild cards into the Korn Ferry Tour events [and] even PGA Tour events,” Siltala said. “There are so many opportunities here that you just wouldn’t get at home [in Europe] and for me, it’s just about getting the reps in for short game.”
Siltala has shown similar capabilities from Europe in his collegiate career dating back to the 2023 season, where he finished ranked 328 and had a W-L-T record of 490-222-22. The junior is no stranger to top 10 finishes either, where he finished three times in the top 10 for tournaments in ‘23.
His teammate Jack Burke is the second highest-ranked Bobcat nationally. The teammates have grown a good relationship, forming a strong duo pair, with both of them being the team’s top leaders.
“We definitely push each other a lot in qualifying practice and tournaments so we have a really good relationship,” Burke said. “We hang out a lot and I mean we talk every day, so our relationship from when he came in as freshman and I was sophomore has definitely grown a lot and we have a really good competitive aspect when we practice.”
Another figure the junior has impressed is head coach Shane Howell. As Siltala’s outside work ethic has shown Howell, he is a major leader of the team.
“[I’m] super proud of them and how they’ve come in and worked super hard and just fit right into what we’re doing here at Texas State,” Howell said. “Having both him [Jack Burke] and [Siltala] who know the program and how we do things from a day-to-day basis, they’ve just made sure [the team stay’s] consistent.”
Fast forward from 2023, Siltala made huge improvements in his game this season, getting into the top 10 five times. The junior has a scoring average of 71.0, slightly better than last season’s average at 71.4.
“I’ve put in a lot of work when I got here, I was really bad at some areas, and that’s why I’m so happy we have stats,” Siltala said. “We do stats on an app called Decade, and it shows you what you can improve on.”
One important factor about golfing is how the weather and grass quality are a big factor while playing. Siltala, a European-born player, was introduced to the nice year-round weather in Texas but faced a new, challenging environment for the first time.
“We’ve got totally different grass types [in Europe]. We don’t have Bermuda grass, and in Texas, it’s all Bermuda, so I really struggled with that.” Siltala said.
Siltala’s highest ranking this year came in the middle of March, where he was ranked 159. The tournament prior to the ranking was the All American Intercollegiate, where the junior finished sixth out of 80.
Siltala knows this is a team game, and no matter how well he plays, everyone on the team must play consistently well to finish at the top of tournaments.
“I think we had around 20 three putts as a team in Vegas and if we cut those to half we would have been third or second,” Siltala said. “So it’s really the easy stuff we’re lacking right now with the team. We’re doing a lot of dumb mistakes and I’m not talking about any specific player but as a team we can be a lot better with putting in a short game.”
The Texas State men’s golf team is set to face their last test in Madison, MS playing in the Sun Belt Conference Championship at the Annandale Golf Club. The tournament begins April 21 and ends on April 24.
