Sahith Theegala uses RSM Birdies Fore Love to elevate local charity

Sahith Theegala didn’t want to just write a check. He wanted to make sure the $50,000 he earned through the RSM Birdies Fore Love competition at last year’s Fortinet Championship had an impact.

He also was looking to donate the money to a charity near The Woodlands, Texas, where he now makes his home. And as it turned out, Theegala didn’t need to look far.

One of his friends there is Matt Eschenburg, who is an instructor at the Summit Golf School at Augusta Pines Golf Club in Spring, Texas. The former University of Houston golfer introduced Theegala to his boss, Brady Stapp, and they sometimes play golf together when the PGA TOUR pro is in town.

It was during one of those breaks that Theegala learned about Butterflies and Birdies. He had asked Eschenburg if he wanted to play golf that Monday, but his buddy couldn’t because he was playing in the charity’s annual fundraiser. Turns out, the backstory of that organization hit very close to home.

Stapp and his wife Kendal lost their 6-month-old daughter, Jordan, to sudden infant death syndrome in 2016. She was lying in a crib with her twin brother, Beckham, when their nanny came into the room and discovered she wasn’t breathing. The paramedics couldn’t save her.

Four months later, tragedy struck the family again.

Brady’s stepsister, Kelli Arce, realized her unborn daughter, whom she and her husband Austin named Ava, wasn’t kicking or moving in the womb like she usually did. When Kelli went to the hospital, doctors couldn’t find the baby’s heartbeat and that couple was left with unimaginable pain, as well.

Out of the two couples’ shared grief came Butterflies and Birdies. The organization serves families who are dealing with the loss of a child, as well as helps educate and raise awareness of stillbirths and SIDs. The sisters-in-law are the co-presidents.

After he learned about Butterflies and Birdies, Theegala knew he had found the right organization.

“It meant the world to me to be able to donate to them,” he says. “It's awesome that it's local and … all the families are really awesome and hopefully I can be a part of that moving forward, too.”

The impetus for Butterflies and Birdies came from Brady’s mother, Kelly Breda. She wanted to do something to honor her two grandchildren, Jordan and Ava, so she organized a women’s golf tournament. The money raised was given to three other organizations serving families in need.

During its first three years, Butterflies and Birdies raised $37,000 and continued to give to those charities. In 2020, though, Butterflies and Birdies became its own non-profit and the scope of the tournament expanded to include men and women.

“It was my mother-in-law's friends (at first),” Kendal recalls. “And so it was like an older group, and it was just for fun. It was just to honor our girls at that point. We just want to do something. And it's evolved into just so much more. There's some of our sponsors that sponsor year after year that shut down their businesses on that day … to come play in our tournament.”

The money raised helps provide Owlet Dream Socks to new parents to provide peace of mind as their children sleep. The socks track heart rate and oxygen levels as well as when the baby wakes and its movement. The funds have also purchased CuddleCots, which are cooling devices that allow families to spend more time with a child who has died.

Raising awareness of stillbirths and SIDs and supporting those families who have suffered such loss is central to the mission of Butterflies and Birdies. October is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. In the U.S. each year more than 26 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriages and there are more than 21,000 stillbirths.

The Butterflies and Birdies tournament was coming off its best year ever, raising $50,000, when Kendal and Kelli received word of Theegala’s generosity. They were able to announce the donation at the happy hour celebrating the event’s success and to say they were grateful would be an understatement.

“We are just a local small charity that has evolved over six years, but we're still extremely small If you compare us to other organizations, and we had just raised 50 grand at our tournament, and so for him to turn around and match it, wow,” Kendal says.

“I mean, when I saw it, I teared up. I had chills. It was just kind of an out-of-body experience. … I've heard from Brady and Matt of just how down-to-earth Sahith is and what a great guy he is. So humble, just a good person that doesn't want recognition for things and just wants to do what he loves and help people where he can. … And when I told the rest of the team, I mean, everybody's jaw just dropped.”

Arce remembers the tears flowing when her sister-in-law made the announcement. She calls Theegala’s donation a “game changer” for Butterflies and Birdies.

“I mean, like I said, the golf tournament, we work literally six months round the clock, doing all the details and all the things, and we're beyond excited if we raise $50,000,” Arce says. “So, to have somebody basically come in and double that, it was wild. I mean, we can help so many more people. It was truly transformative for our foundation, for sure.”

Theegala says he has found the Houston suburb to be very welcoming. He bought a townhome and lives there with a college roommate. Two other former Pepperdine teammates live in the area, so he had a ready-made group of friends. But he feels like he’s been embraced by the community, as well.

“I was very lucky to be put in that position to be able to give,” Theegala says. “And just from that one gesture, I feel like a lot of people have kind of supported me and been on my side, which was awesome. And that was not my intention with any of that. I just really wanted to give back to a local foundation and I'm just really happy I was able to do that.”

Last month, Theegala picked up his first PGA TOUR victory at the Fortinet Championship. Maybe it was karma – that was the same tournament where he’d made the most birdies a year ago that garnered the $50,000 grant from RSM that he was able to gift to Butterflies and Birdies.

The affable 25-year-old Californian, the son of immigrants from India, had plenty of friends and family in his gallery in Napa that week. But there were lots of good vibes being sent his way from Houston, too.

Stapp was yelling at the television and his two sons were cheering every putt Theegala made. Arce, a volleyball player in her youth who calls herself the “black sheep” in a family of avid golfers, sent a group text saying that she thought this was the first time her brood had ever watched golf on TV. They even were taking screenshots of Theegala on the broadcast.

“It’s a family event now when Sahith is on the TV, and that's across the board of my entire family now, and people that follow Butterflies and Birdies, and it's just crazy how he's blowing up at a point where it's like he just gave to our charity,” Kendal says.

Arce, though, wasn’t as focused on the birdies Theegala made as she was on his family.

“It was so exciting to watch it,” Arce says. “… Now that I'm a parent, watching his dad, I feel that. … My son is playing baseball, and I can totally relate to him because I know that dad is in the same shoes as I am right now, watching my five-year-old learn how to throw a ball. …

“Watching his dad see his son accomplish something was so incredible. I teared up for sure when I was watching it. So happy for them in that moment. They've worked so hard at this for so long. I so understand that in a small way. … The text messages from all of our family and Butterflies and Birdies group, we were all like, oh, it was awesome. We were all glued.

“So, it's safe to say that he has a big fan base in Houston.”