Texas ties: Sahith Theegala celebrates former teammate Clay Feagler's PGA TOUR Americas win

HOUSTON – Sahith Theegala spent Monday night with his former Pepperdine teammate Clay Feagler, one day after Feagler won PGA TOUR Americas’ inaugural Bupa Championship at Tulum – as a Monday qualifier no less.

Both reside in the Houston area, and Feagler stopped home between PGA TOUR Americas events. They watched “The Bachelor” season finale – Theegala wasn’t previously privy to the show’s narrative but quickly caught on.

“Apparently there was some drama about who the next Bachelorette’s going to be, too,” he said Tuesday.

This week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open marks a homecoming of sorts for Theegala, who hails from the Los Angeles area but has adopted this region as his primary residence as a professional golfer. Theegala, 26, has ascended to world No. 15 in his third year on TOUR, after earning his card via the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

Theegala moved to Houston shortly after turning pro in 2020, renting a room for $400 a month from Matt Eschenburg, a local teaching professional who understands the grind of pro golf and wanted to help up-and-coming pros. Theegala reflects on those days fondly – playing Monday qualifiers, bouncing between TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour starts, coming up clutch with back-to-back made cuts in summer 2021 (T37 at the Barbasol Championship, T34 at the Barracuda Championship) that earned him just enough non-member FedExCup points to qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, where he earned his TOUR card via the top-25 on the Finals standings.

The TOUR’s qualifying system has since changed, and Theegala’s path would now look different (the Korn Ferry Tour Finals no longer offers a separate points list for TOUR cards, which are now available via the Final Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry). But the game’s fine line isn’t lost on him. He knows Feagler’s game well, having played together in college and now as part of an eight- to 10-player money-game crew at The Woodlands, less than an hour’s drive from Memorial Park Golf Course, this week’s tournament host venue.

Theegala is fully convinced of Feagler’s talent and that he has the game to compete on TOUR. Hence his excitement for Feagler’s win Sunday in Bupa stems from not only personal but also professional reasons.

“It's crazy how fine the line is between being on the PGA TOUR and almost having no status,” Theegala said Tuesday. “I'll tell you what, Clay, Fred (Wedel), these guys that I play with all the time, they beat me just as much as I beat them. It's always competitive. You shoot 6- to 8-under, you're going to lose money.

“It's cool to see all the hard work that Clay has put in come to fruition. The guy is just a winner. He won four, five times in college and really went under the radar big time. … The guy's a baller and he has a lot of game. It shows how tough the golf landscape is, the fact that he lost his card on Korn Ferry and had to Monday (qualify) into this PGA TOUR Americas event … It was really cool to see him really happy yesterday not just about the win, but kind of gives you confidence going forward the rest of your life almost.”

The above quote is abbreviated, as Theegala spoke at length about Feagler’s win and the ever-increasing depth in professional golf. He would have happily spoken for much longer, it seemed, if Chandler Phillips wasn’t up next in the interview room.

Theegala, who earned his first TOUR title at last year’s Fortinet Championship, has quickly cemented a place in golf’s next wave of young stars. He’s doing it while anchored in Houston, where he spent ample time as a kid (his aunt used to live here, and he’d visit for a couple of weeks each summer to play junior events and spend time with his cousins). The large Indian population adds to his comfort level (his family came to the United States from India in the late 1980s), and he had a built-in practice partner in Wedel, his former Pepperdine teammate and a Woodlands resident.

“LA’s always going to be my first home,” Theegala said Tuesday, “but it’s awesome to call this place another home.”

Theegala, who stands fifth on the FedExCup and has recorded three top 10s in his last four starts (he didn’t play last week’s Valspar Championship), practiced Sunday at nearby Champions Golf Club. Afterward, he was refreshing the PGA TOUR Americas leaderboard on his phone in the parking lot, then receiving shot-by-shot updates from the playoff (where Feagler defeated Davis Shore) from friends Derek Hitchner and Noah Steele, who also competed at the Bupa.

“We were fully invested,” Theegala said. “It's just awesome to see like all of us rallying behind Clay being the first-ever winner of a PGA TOUR Americas event.”

Theegala aims to continue the winning mojo this week, and it’s safe to say his friend and teammate will be cheering him on – perhaps even following shot-by-shot from this week’s PGA TOUR Americas event, the Totalplay Championship at Atlas Country Club.

“@SRTheegala is hands down one of the best people I have met. Not only an unbelievable golfer but one of the nicest people I have ever been around,” Feagler posted Tuesday on X.

Then he was off to the next PGA TOUR Americas stop, resuming the grind in hopes of someday joining Theegala on TOUR. Theegala has full belief that he can get there.