Indian-American Sahith Theegala endears himself to everyone with his brand of golf and smile-Sports News , Firstpost

Sahith Theegala of the U.S. walks from the 14th green during the first round of the British Open golf championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland, Thursday, July 14, 2022. The Open Championship returns to the home of golf on July 14-17, 2022, to celebrate the 150th edition of the sport’s oldest championship, which dates to 1860 and was first played at St. Andrews in 1873. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

There is no Indian at the 150^th Open at the Old Course in St. Andrews. But the Indians who had come to milestone Major gladly embraced an Indian American, who has paid back that adulation in more than ample measure. His brand of fearless golf, the shot making skills and a disarming smile and demeanour will keep bringing in tons of fans.

Sahith Theegala, 24, whose parents are of Indian origins, shot 69-68 and at 7-under for 36 holes he was up there in Top-10.

Asked how he had felt so far, “Yeah, I’ve just had a ton of fun, even the last two days being on the course. It’s a blast. Major championship golf is insane. On top of it, to be here is doubly insane.”

He loves every moment of his life, and it shows in his golf.

Theegala, who has missed winning at least two PGA Tour titles by the slenderest of margins and almost at the post, was not even in the field 10 days ago. Yet, he had made up his mind to come to St. Andrews for the 150^th edition of the Open, to play which he was ready to give an arm and more.

When Theegala reached 62^nd in world ranking after John Deere, the week before the Open, he became the first reserve. He was in before he boarded the flight as Daniel Berger pulled out due to injury.

About the chain of events leading to his arrival to St. Andrews, Theegala said, “Yeah, I was fully ready to — I didn’t think I’d move up after the Travelers world ranking-wise, and I moved up a little after John Deere too. So I was fully ready to go back to California.

I was going to take Scottish (Open) off because I didn’t want to travel and just play my home state event at Barracuda. So I was prepared for that, but I realised I moved up to 63 or 65 in the world ranking, and I realised, wow, I might get in.”

“To get that call and not be an alternate, to relieve some of the anxiety, it was awesome. Especially because of the magnitude of the event and not only my first Open, but St Andrews. The 150th. Just seemed like a great culmination for the tournament. So I was very, very excited.”

“I was almost too excited. I was walking the course on Monday even, and I wasn’t really focusing in paying attention on the prep work. But I think once I got to Tuesday, the normal prep started.”

Theegala’s time had come. He had no place to stay till he got one through the Tour at the University. His family and friends found a house 25 miles away and Team Theegala was set to make noise at the Old Course.

Leading Team Theegala was the father, Murli, brother and numerous other family members and friends.

Add to them the fans that included a golf playing Indian father-son duo from Dubai, who travelled for the Open, saying “Theegala is a bonus for us.”

There was Murali Kartik, former India cricketer and a well-known commentator now; Indian golf prodigy Avani Prashanth, who finished an R&A amateur event and came over; a former All India Women’s champion Urvashi Sethi, and scores of Indians settled in nearby towns and some far-off places in UK. Another Indian woman pro, Suchitra Ramesh will join them on. Sunday.

The roar they let out when Sahith holed a 50-footer for eagle had to be seen and heard to be believed.

Talking after his second round, Theegala said, “I feel great. I’ve hit the ball really well. The big key for me always is my driver. I feel like I’ve always been a good iron player, and that’s improving too. I’ve never been a good driver of the ball. I’ve driven it really well out here. A part of that is being able to start as far left as I want and hit my big fade, power fade, I guess I’d call it, out here.

“I’ve struck it really well. Honestly, I missed a decent amount of putts that I feel I could have made but just couldn’t put a good stroke on them. They’re going to fall eventually.”

The rise and rise of Theegala

 His rise has been phenomenal. He swept all the major college golf awards while graduating from Pepperdine. He won the Fred Haskins and Ben Hogan Awards and then added the Jack Nicklaus award, too.

He turned pro in June 2020 and was then ranked 2075 in the world. He missed his first three cuts and played three more events and made two cuts with T-14 at Safeway as the best. The year for him ended at 1275 in the world. In 2021 he mixed events on Korn Ferry and PGA Tour and missed only seven cuts in 22 starts with four Top-10s.

But the key event in 2021 was he earned a passage into the PGA Tour through Korn Ferry. Armed with a card, he played the Fall season of 2021 and notched up his first PGA Tour Top-10 at Sanderson Farms. When the year ended, he was 381^st in the world. Not great but he had risen almost 850 places in the world ranking.

Moving onto 2021, the story has been very exciting. A T-3 at Waste Management Phoenix Open, a T-7 at Valspar and then T-5 at the Memorial was followed by a near win at the Travelers, where he landed with a horrible lie in the bunker on the 18^th and ended up second to Xander Schauffele. With his family there, he was very emotional and shed some tears, too.

But, he had endeared himself to the fans with some amazing golf, coupled with that laid-back gait and a go-for-broke attitude. Sahith Theegala had arrived.

A week later he was T-16 at John Deere and rose to 62^nd and within touching distance of a spot in the 150^th Open. But not quite in.  Yet he was willing to take a chance and fly across the Atlantic to see if he could catch a sliver of history at the 150^th staging of the world. It has been quite a journey from 2075 to 62. There is more to come.

Theegala’s back story

Sahith’s father Murli moved to the US for a graduate school in 1987. While in the US he met a fellow student Karuna and they got married. Sahith Theegala was born in December 1997.

Murli is a massive sports fan, who can watch sports all day on TV. Sahith, even as a toddler followed suit.

A Kobe Bryant fan, who sometimes uses the hashtag #MambaMentality in his posts, Theegala won the World Juniors at six. A little later changed his grip from cross-handed to normal. He did it without a problem.

The pgatour.com website in September 2021, wrote, “When he was three, Murli asked him if he wanted to go hit balls himself? Of course, he did. So Murli borrowed a U.S. Kids driver and got Sahith a small bucket of 25 balls. He made good contact on 20 of them – a feat Murli was amazed by because when he’d tried to play golf for the first time with his buddies before Sahith was born, he rarely made contact the first couple tries.

The path had been chosen. Theegala chose to go to Pepperdine and was outstanding winning all awards on offer and then made his way to the PGA Tour via the Korn Ferry.

This week Theegala, now a star on the PGA is at St. Andrews playing the 150^th Open.

Wonder, who wrote the script”

Maybe, Sahith Theegala himself!