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Third time’s the charm for Sahith Theegala.
The now-25-year-old put his name on the map of professional golf last season with a spectacular rookie campaign, making it all the way to the Tour Championship.
But, despite holding the 54-hole lead in two different events during his rookie season, he had yet to win on the PGA Tour and that continued through his sophomore season in 2023.
At least until Sunday.
With the Southern California native playing close to home this week at the Fortinet Championship in Napa, Theegala posted a final-round 68 to convert his third career 54-hole lead into his first career PGA Tour victory at 21 under.
And because of the proximity to where he grew up in Chino Hills, outside Los Angeles, Theegala got his breakthrough win in front of a huge crowd of friends and family, led by his father Murali. Never was Team Theegala more energized when Theegala curled in a 20-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole to extend his lead back out to four.
The NBC broadcast was fixed on Murali.
As he approached the 17th green holding a four-shot lead, chants of “Thee-gal-a” rang out from the crowd.
Looking at his scorecard, which featured just two bogeys after he took a share of the 36-hole lead, you might think it was an easy win as he coasted to a lead as large as five strokes Sunday.
2023 Fortinet Championship purse: Payout info, winner’s share
However, in what’s become a signature style for Theegala, he missed more than 50 percent of his fairways for the week but was a wizard with recovery shots and finished second in the field in strokes gained: around the green.
He began the day with a two-shot lead over a group that included Justin Thomas and extended it to three by knocking his approach to five feet at the first. His lead never shrunk smaller than that until the final hole.
S.H. Kim, who was the co-36-hole leader with Theegala, finished runner-up at 19 under. Thomas, in a bid to validate his Ryder Cup captain’s selection for the Rome matches in two weeks time, finished solo fifth, his best showing since a solo fourth at the WM Phoenix Open in February.
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