ORLANDO — Three weeks ago at the colossal party otherwise known as the WM Phoenix Open, Scottie Scheffler won the championship hardware in a playoff against Patrick Cantlay for his first PGA Tour title.
On the same day, rookie Sahith Theegala won the hearts and minds of golf fans. The 24-year-old had slept on the lead for three consecutive nights in the star-studded tournament and wasn’t wilting in the Arizona heat on the final day.
Looking for his first PGA Tour title, the product of Pepperdine took to the tee of the drivable 17th hole and hit a perfect tee shot. Until it wasn’t, the ball taking a wicked bounce to the left into the water by the green.
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The resulting bogey led to a tie for third—his best result on the PGA Tour— and a thunderous serenade from the fans on the 18th green.
“THEE-GA-LA, THEE-GA-LA, THEE-GA-LA.”
While his Cinderella story fell short and a few tears were shared with his parents and 15 other family members on hand, the down-to-earth Theegala left TPC Scottsdale with his chest out and head held high.
“That was a really cool experience,” Theegala said Tuesday ahead of Thursday’s start of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Lodge and Club. “The fact that so many people were cheering for me is cool. But also the fact that I put myself in a really good spot to win the event, it obviously gave me a lot of confidence.”
He certainly didn’t pout despite the tough break on 17 and winding up one shot short of a playoff. Theegala has dealt with tough times before. A wrist injury in college forced him to miss 10 months of tournament play. When he turned pro, COVID-19 got in the way.
“Being injured, especially an injury like that that I’ve never dealt with in my life, not being able to play tournament golf for 10 months, it gave me a different perspective,” he said. “I just found out that life’s not golf and golf’s not life, that I had a lot of great people behind me no matter what I do in life.
“That was definitely a perspective change for me, and sure enough, after I came back from the injury along with a few swing changes to help my body out a little bit, it was the best golf I ever played.
“I think a lot of that was mindset related for sure.”
His mindset is still in a good place. In 12 starts this season, he has two top-10s and two missed cuts. After coming so close in Phoenix, he drove 5½ hours to Los Angeles to play in the Genesis Invitational the following week, where he tied for 48th. Nothing out of the ordinary for Theegala, who still lives with his parents in Orange Country in California. He put 2,700 miles on his 2015 Passat driving to every west coast tournament. He even joked that he was going to drive from the west coast to Orlando.
Instead, he took a smooth flight to Orlando and is driving a GMC Denali this week.
“It’s so sick,” he said, in a good way.
That’s one reason the approachable guy with an easy smile is in a good mood. He’s ecstatic to play in a tournament with so much history, its name featuring Arnold Palmer. And the course put a smile on his face immediately.
“Gosh, I’m just obviously really happy to be here. Definitely a special vibe coming to this golf course and all the history and stuff behind it,” he said. “Probably one of the purest courses I’ve ever played in my life too, so that helps.
“Really excited for the week. The week off definitely made me hungry to get here.”