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Third time’s the allure for Sahith Theegala.
The now-25-year-old put his title on the map {of professional} golf final season with a spectacular rookie marketing campaign, making all of it the best way to the Tour Championship.
However, regardless of holding the 54-hole lead in two totally different occasions throughout his rookie season, he had but to win on the PGA Tour and that continued by his sophomore season in 2023.
At the least till Sunday.
With the Southern California native enjoying near dwelling this week on the Fortinet Championship in Napa, Theegala posted a final-round 68 to transform his third profession 54-hole lead into his first profession PGA Tour victory at 21 below.
“It doesn’t really feel actual,” Theegala mentioned after the win. “It’s in all probability not going to set in for whereas. However man, that was loads of good golf.”
And due to the proximity to the place he grew up in Chino Hills, outdoors Los Angeles, Theegala obtained his breakthrough win in entrance of an enormous crowd of family and friends, led by his father Murali. By no means was Crew Theegala extra energized when Theegala curled in a 20-foot birdie putt on the 14th gap to increase his lead again out to 4.
The NBC broadcast was mounted on Murali.
“I feel one factor is as a rookie, you’re hoping that any person performs unhealthy and so that you can win it, however he went and obtained it, I’m so pleased with him,” Murali mentioned. “This goes a protracted for his profession, feeling assured that I might do it by myself, I don’t should rely upon others. I feel because of this I used to be proud him, that I knew he might do it.”
As he approached the seventeenth inexperienced holding a four-shot lead, chants of “Thee-gal-a” rang out from the group.
“That was a few of the most enjoyable I’ve ever had in my life,” the previous star at Pepperdine mentioned. “I had so many household and mates cheering me on, and simply the assist I’ve is mind-blowing. I am going to mattress at evening these previous few days and I’m like, I can’t consider how many individuals are cheering for me and rooting for me.”
Taking a look at his scorecard, which featured simply two bogeys after he took a share of the 36-hole lead, you may suppose it was a straightforward win as he coasted to a lead as giant as 5 strokes Sunday.
2023 Fortinet Championship purse: Payout data, winner’s share
Nevertheless, in what’s develop into a signature model for Theegala, he missed greater than 50 p.c of his fairways for the week however was a wizard with restoration photographs and completed second within the area in strokes gained: across the inexperienced.
He started the day with a two-shot lead over a gaggle that included Justin Thomas and prolonged it to a few by knocking his strategy to 5 toes on the first. His lead by no means shrunk smaller than that till the ultimate gap.
S.H. Kim, who was the co-36-hole chief with Theegala, completed runner-up at 19 below. Thomas, in a bid to validate his Ryder Cup captain’s choice for the Rome matches in two weeks time, completed solo fifth, his finest displaying since a solo fourth on the WM Phoenix Open in February.
