Meet Sahith Theegala: The PGA Tour rookie looking for wire-to-wire glory
Sahith Theegala's dream came true when he gained his PGA Tour card. He has grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
On his first full season on the PGA Tour, Sahith Theegala has got the opportunity to complete a wire-to-wire win at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
When he was a toddler, sport was always on the television regardless of what it was. Whether it was football, cricket or golf, his father Murli would intensely watch and so would Sahith.
Murli moved to the United States from India in 1987 for graduate school. When he was just a couple of years old, Sahith sat with his dad and watched greats such as Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson.
At the age of three, Sahith hit his first set of 25 balls and his father was stunned at the ability he showed at such a young age. His imagination and creativity have been the bedrock of his game ever since.
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When he was six years old, Sahith won the Junior Worlds and his journey in golf had begun. He developed a style and approach to the game that was exciting and fearless.
"I've always had this attitude of I’m going to go hit it and find it and then try to hit a great shot from there and don’t let a bad shot bug me because you can do something special with the next one. And because of that, I’ve always hit some pretty cool recovery shots," Sahith once said.
"I was absolutely forced to have a good short game or else I’d shoot in the 80s every time."
Between his freshman year and sophomore year at high school, Theegala went through a growth spurt of six inches which had a severely bad effect on his game.
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Nonetheless, he overcame it to earn a scholarship at Pepperdine, but it was here where he developed tendinitis and a stress fracture in his wrist which ended up ruling him out for 11 months.
His class showed during this period where he continued to work on his swing. He came back to become only the fifth player ever to sweep all three major National Player of the Year awards.
A cut above the rest. pic.twitter.com/XkRwF1TqqI
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 2, 2021
Having won the 2020 Haskins Award, the Jack Nicklaus Award and the Ben Hogan Award, he has now gone on to qualify for his first full PGA Tour season.
He finished tied fourth at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship and sixth at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. Murli and his wife Karuna flew to Nebraska to attend the card ceremony.
He had never been so proud of his son, but now Sahith could even top this moment. On Saturday at the Country Club of Jackson, he fired a 67 to reach 18-under-par for the tournament.
He is one shot ahead of a packed leaderboard that will be hunting him down. Let's hope Theegala can secure what will be an emotional and amazing moment for him and his family.
