Sahith Theegala wins fans in WM Phoenix Open close call

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Sahith Theegala met with the media and tried to compose himself.

RELATED: Leaderboard | Get to know Sahith Theegala in 10 stories | Inside Sam Ryder’s epic ace on WM Phoenix Open’s 16th hole

He had just come one shot short of a playoff at the WM Phoenix Open, the killing stroke a tee shot that took a bad bounce into the water at the short, par-4 17th hole, leading to a bogey. His whole family had been here. So had his old coach at Pepperdine, and his coach’s young boys.

“Sorry,” Theegala said as he fought back the tears. The cameras waited.

“I thought I hit a great shot on 17,” he said. “It was cutting. As long as it's another yard right, I think that's perfect. Kick straight and it's good. Kicked left into the water there.

“Then I was worried about the ball – it was such a steep slope,” he continued. “I was worried about the ball kind of rolling back, so I maybe rushed my process just a little bit there and hit a poor chip and hit a poor putt. I just didn't hit the shots at the right time when it counted, but definitely proud of the way I played this week.”

All week Theegala, 24, said he’d already won just by being here. He only learned he’d gotten into the field as a sponsor's exemption two weeks ago; given that he otherwise would’ve been watching from his couch, anything he did was gravy.

As it turned out, there was a lot of gravy.

Star-struck all week, he learned that he can go toe-to-toe with the players he used to watch on TV. He also won something that won’t show up in the FedExCup table, namely the admiration of a whole lot of new fans. By the end they were chanting his last name and giving him a loud ovation after his last-ditch birdie chip skittered past the cup on the 18th hole.

After making the comebacker for par, Theegala signed for a final-round 70 that left him in a tie for third with Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele, one back. Then he went down to meet the media.

What did he learn? What did we learn? Most importantly, a lot of people learned what those in his inner circle already knew, that you can’t know Theegala without liking him. All you had to do was check out what friends and family did to get here.

Sahan, his little brother and a freshman at Seton Hall, sat on a snowy tarmac in Newark for two hours before making the journey west Sunday morning and landing in time to join his parents, cousin, uncles and assorted others watch perhaps the biggest round of Sahith’s young life. The two hugged when Sahith caught a glimpse of him outside the ropes on the eighth tee.

“Oh, I was so surprised,” Sahith said. “I couldn't believe it … the middle of the school year on a Sunday. He's going to have to go back and go to school. That's incredible that he did that.”

Meanwhile, Michael Beard, who was Sahith’s coach at Pepperdine, gathered up his two young sons and an assistant coach and flew from Southern California to Phoenix.

“I’m wearing the ring to give him good luck,” Beard said, flashing the national championship ring Pepperdine won last year, after Theegala turned pro. “He got one, too. He was such a positive influence on our kids and program, we felt he deserved it.

“He’s one of those people,” Beard continued, “you can’t be around him and not really like him.”

Vying to become the first sponsor's exemption to win since Martin Laird at the 2020 Shriners Children’s Open, Theegala made no secret of being wide-eyed. Playing with guys like Koepka and Schauffele? Incredible, he said. They were so nice, he said.

But don’t be fooled; Theegala himself is an incandescent talent, tabbed for stardom for a while now. An All-American at Pepperdine, he became just the fifth player to sweep the major awards as the top collegiate golfer in 2020. He played the Korn Ferry Tour last season and did well enough to earn his TOUR card. He hits it forever and has an otherworldly short game.

Muralidhar Theegala, Sahith’s father who moved from India to the United States and was more of a tennis player than a golfer, had an inkling he had a budding star. Sahith demonstrated a fondness for the big stage when he won the Junior World and other tournaments, and in the family’s garage Muralidhar hung a two-part wooden sign. It says: THE WORLD’S BEST GOLFER LIVES HERE. And: BETTER IN THE WOODS THAN A TIGER.

This time the trophy wasn’t to be for Theegala, who still lives at home. But he was right: There’s winning in the strict constructionist style and winning in the larger sense. Those new fans will have his back when he tees it up at The Genesis Invitational in his hometown of Los Angeles later this week, and you can’t help but suspect another kind of win is coming.