Playing the penultimate round of the WM Phoenix Open with Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffle gave Sahith Theegala the confidence that he belongs to the big league, and proved the point by taking a one-shot lead going into Sunday and set himself for a breakthrough on the PGA Tour. Excerpts from a chat.
Can you take us through the round, this is a big moment, big stage and everything, what are your thoughts overall on the day, how you acquitted yourself out there.
Sahith Theegala: First of all Xander (Schauffele) and Brooks (Koepka) were great to me. I think I really enjoyed playing with them and they were awesome to play with. They would say good shot and stuff like that. So I thought that was cool, they could just go do their own thing, but that was really cool.
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So many ups and downs today. Obviously really bad start and proud of the way I fought back there. But still trying to take it all in. There’s just is so much going on there too. Which is a good things I really enjoyed the fans out there.
Incredible touch. 👏
Great up and down from @SRTheegala to take a 1 shot lead into Sunday. pic.twitter.com/6e8XOlCi3f
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 13, 2022
As far as emotionally draining where does that round compare?
Sahith: Maybe one of my most. I’m really exhausted right now. Probably I hit it in the desert five times, I got my ball stepped on twice, got my ball picked up twice. Yeah. Very draining, for sure.
How were you able to settle yourself after that rocky start?
Sahith: Yeah, I mean I got to give a lot of credit to my caddie, Carl. I mean, it was real easy for me to get down there and we had a discussion about a couple shots on 2 and he’s just like, Hey dude, you’re playing great, man, like just keep doing what you’re doing and have a good attitude. Like my attitude I feel like has been really great this week and I just stuck to it. That putt on 5, that par putt was definitely the turning moment for me.
Playing with Xander and Brooks today, did you feel like you belonged?
Sahith: I’m still not fully over the fact that I’m playing with these guys, right? Like I think that’s going to be a learning process that I need to get better with, because this is probably the strongest field I’ve played in so far this year and I was definitely a little bit star struck. Even on the first tee I’m like, Man, I’m playing with Xander and Brooks? Like, are you kidding me? Like what an opportunity though, just to see them up close and they’re great dudes and, yeah, pretty crazy. But definitely these last couple rounds and last couple days really gave me a lot of confidence to tell me that, hey, I do belong up here.
Man on top. 💪@SRTheegala hammers it home to take the outright lead. pic.twitter.com/2swVIvTb4z
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 12, 2022
How have you managed to stay focused on golf the last day or two knowing how much this tournament is going to change your life?
Sahith: Yeah, I mean, I think I just am sticking to the process. I haven’t even thought about the future at all. Just trying to enjoy this week as much as possible and I have one more day to do that tomorrow, so that’s all I’m going to be worried about. Whatever happens tomorrow happens, right? Like I’m not going to be able to as long as I go through my process, have a good attitude, have a good time out there, let my golf game do what it does, you know. So haven’t thought anything about what this could mean.
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