Sahith Theegala carded a final-round 68 at the Fortinet Championship to reach 21-under and win his first PGA Tour title in his 74th career start at the age of 25 years, 9 months, 13 days. It was his eighth top-10 in 29 starts during the 2022-23 season.
“Just can’t believe it happened. Just a lot of work that was put in and a lot of people that were behind this. It’s just golf is really, really hard. You never know when you’re going to find a little hot streak or when you’re going to go on a cold streak.
“A lot of really, really good golf the last four days just gives me so much confidence that I kind of went out there and got it today. I didn’t really just kind of leak my way in, I really felt like I kept the pedal down and that’s kind of what I was missing in the first few times I was in contention.”
His 267 total equals the lowest score since the event moved to Silverado Resort’s North Course in 2014 (Stewart Cink/2020).
“I don’t know what the stats were. I did feel like I drove it better today, but I probably hit six fairways, that’s just how it always seems to work for me,” said the American.
“I feel like I hit the fairways or the intermediate or just off the fairway today were on the drives that I needed it the most. I fully understand that my long game, especially off the tee’s not my strength. Believe it or not, it’s gotten a lot, lot better the last couple years. Right out of college I probably would have been 200 strokes gained off the tee, and the last couple years I think I’ve been just over 100, which I’ve been making progress.
“I always joke that hitting it that bad for a lot of my life off the tee has helped me just be really creative and just find a way to get the ball in the hole and score and hit all these crazy shots and do whatever it takes to get it in the hole.
“I feel like hitting fairways is a bonus, and I don’t get too stressed out if I hit it offline. I will say I feel like I miss it on the correct side pretty much every time. It might be really far away from the fairway, but it is at least the side that’s inbounds or in play or have a recovery shot. Good at that, I guess.
“Yeah, I just, I don’t let it stress me out too much. Me and my coach have been working on this forever, and we’re making progress and that’s all I can ask for. I still feel like I work — probably work the hardest on my short game and just want that to keep getting better and better. I’m getting more and more confident that it’s the strongest part of my game and I can rely more and more on it as I move forward.”
Making his 35th PGA TOUR start, 36-hole co-leader and PGA Tour rookie S.H. Kim of South Korea finished runner-up on his 25th birthday after closing with a 68 to reach 19-under. His previous-best finish was T4 at the 2022 Shriners Children’s Open.
Australia’s Cam Davis earned his fourth top-10 finish in his last five starts, finishing third at 17-under after a final-round 70.
Americans Eric Cole (70) and Justin Thomas (72) finished fourth and fifth at 16- and 15-under. It was the fourth straight top-10 finish for Thomas.
