Sahith Theegala Politely Introduces Himself At Phoenix Open

The good folks at Waste Management, now simply known as WM, were visionary enough to give Sahith Theegala a sponsor’s exemption into this week’s Phoenix Open.

Good decision.

The crowds were already loud as they packed in at the 16th — most likely around a cool 20,000 — on what’s become perhaps the most recognizable hole on the PGA Tour.  All total, more than 100,000 showed up at TPC Scottsdale on site Thursday.

By the time Sahith made his way thru the tunnel from the par five 15th to the raucous 16th tee, he was already four-under for his round through just six holes — great start for this Tour rookie from Pepperdine, the kid who swept all the awards back in 2020 — The Haskins (The Heisman for golf), the Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan awards — a clean sweep for every honor given to collegiate golf’s best.

But out here, he’s just another rookie, trying not to be wide-eyed when he sees world No. 1 Jon Rahm in the locker room.

But on this sunny afternoon with temps hitting 80, Sahith had it going.  Four under through six wasn’t enough.  His tee shot at the 156-yard center-stage wasn’t that impressive — he had just inside 17 feet for birdie.  But the huge roar came when he canned that putt to go five-under through seven.  He missed a nice look from 11-feet for birdie at the short 17th then parred 18 to shoot 31 on the “noisy nine” at TPC Scottsdale.

Yes, the young crowd was already rehearsing for the weekend.  It was loud, really loud, a wonderful contrast to the stark silence last week in Saudi Arabia where players collected their huge appearance fees then played amid total silence with nary a spectator to be found.

Ah, but back here in the Land Of The Free, it was rockin’ at 16, 17 and 18 — just a sample of what’s coming over the next three days when just about every millennial in Phoenix will call in sick to work on Friday — bad case of the Phoenix Open Flu.  Can’t work when there’s a party at the TPC.

But we digress.

After getting that birdie roar at 16, Theegala went to work on the “quiet nine” and back-to-back birdies on the par five third and par three fourth shot him to the top of the leaderboard.  He was seven-under, a shot clear of K.H. Lee, who played in the morning wave and put himself in position to make another run as he did last year — a run that came up a shot short of eventual winner Brooks Koepka.

After that, he ran off three straight pars and daylight was fading in the desert.  He ran into some problems at the par four eighth, took three shots to get to the green and left himself 16-feet for par when the horn blew, halting play for day one.

“The big key for me, like always in my game, is just putting my driver in the fairway,” Theegala said after he walked in with the evening air cooling. “I was able to do that early and often.”

“Super strong field, probably the strongest field I played in so far this year,” Theegala added.  “I just figured it was like another free-roll opportunity, might as well take advantage of it and obviously super thankful that I got in.”

For most of his round, it was all good until an off-line drive at eight left him with that long par putt.

If he misses that par putt in the morning, he’ll most likely end up as a co-leader with Lee at six-under.

Regardless, it was a good afternoon to get to know the guy who was so impressive at Pepperdine but out here, none of those awards matter.

He’s a rookie.  Good news is he’s made the cut in his first four events of 2022.

Even better news, he got off to his best start ever on Thursday.

It’s great when those Sponsor’s Exemptions pay off.

Phoenix Update:  Wouldn’t you know it — Theegala finished bogey-bogey in the early morning hours but he then went out and shot three-under par for his first nine holes of round two, getting to eight-under par and in solid contention.  By the end of his second round, he carded a sizzling 64 and stands at 12-under heading into the weekend.

Phoenix Open Scoreboard: