Sahith Theegala's fan club has a lot to cheer after last year's injury-plagued season put him in a tough spot
Sahith Theegala hits a drive during the Farmers Insurance Open.
The San Diego Union-Tribune
SAN DIEGO — Sahith Theegala swears he had no idea the milestone was approaching. He didn’t know that he had made his 100th cut on the PGA Tour on Friday in the Farmers Insurance Open until a half-dozen members of his entourage of family and friends pulled on freshly made blue T-shirts on Saturday morning with Theegala’s tour mugshot and the words, “100th Cut on PGA.”
“I had no idea. It was a surprise,” Theegala said Sunday at Torrey Pines after he shot a six-under-par 66 to continue his strong start to the season with a tie for seventh behind runaway winner Justin Rose.
“I love that they've walked a lot now, so anything to keep them fresh and kind of another reason to celebrate is great. They always keep it exciting, which I really appreciate.”
Did he get one of the T-shirts?
No. “I don’t know if I want a shirt with my own face on it,” Theegala quipped.
Born and raised in Southern California, Theegala gets some of his biggest support all year on the West Coast Swing, with his father, Muralidhar, being his most ardent and loudest supporter. “I try to avoid looking at them too much to not rile them up too much,” Sahith said with a grin.
Truthfully, the 28-year-old with one tour win and 24 top-10 career finishes will admit that he can’t believe that he’s been on the PGA Tour long enough to make 100 cuts. In fact, he reached a total of 128 starts this week, giving him a cuts-make percentage of 78 percent.
“It crept up on me,” Theegala said. “I feel like I just started on tour, and it’s my fifth year now, but it still feels fresh. To have 100 made cuts is a pretty cool accomplishment because it’s such a grind out there. It’s nice to celebrate the little accomplishments along the way.”
There are bigger successes for Theegala to enjoy right now.
Coming off a season in which he battled an oblique injury that caused other physical issues that forced him to miss about six weeks in the summer, Theegala finished 147th in the FedEx Cup standings and entered 2026 not set to play in any of the majors or tour signature events. “It was a bad year to have a bad year,” he said.
Ranked 109th in the world entering the Farmers, his status this season is based on his top-30 finish in the 2024 FedEx Cup standings, which gave Theegala a slightly better chance of getting into tournaments than playing on a major medical extension.
With an unsettled schedule, Theegala got into the first three events of the year and received word this week that he got a sponsor exemption into next week’s WM Phoenix Open. So far, it looks like he's returning to his compeitive form, tightening his game in each start by finishing T-31 in the Sony Open in Hawaii, T-8 in The American Express and now T-7 in the Farmers.
Those finishes are enormous to Theegala’s immediate future, because if he can finish in the AON Swing 5, when the Phoenix event is over, he’d reach the next two signature events, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational at Riviera. Theegala stands in sixth right now, a mere two points behind Andrew Putnam, who missed the cut at Torrey Pines.
“Just one more week to try to cement myself into the top five and play my way into the first two,” Theegala said. “That's kind of the goal this year was to play my way into the [signatures] and try to get into the majors one way or another. So, yeah, to have a start like this is definitely incredible, and I love that golf course next week.”
After doing so much work on his body and swing in the offseason, there are zero concerns about moving forward from here. “My body feels incredible—really, really good,” Theegala said. “I'm better than I thought I would be, and I was pretty bullish on my body before the season, but now even more so.”
Theegala’s issues last year didn’t have anything do with the bones in his back or neck, which he says he’s never had a problem with. The trouble was more with muscles due to his poor posture on and off the course. “I kind of had a double-S curve going,” Theegala explained, adding that he didn’t flex the muscles of his core in the swing, causing problems in other areas.
“I feel like I instinctively slouch, and it’s crept into my golf game,” he said. With the body and swing work he’s done over the last few months, “My posture’s gotten a lot better over the ball; it’s more a singular curve than a double curve. I think we’ve got a good plan.”
Theegala is excited for his return to TPC Scottsdale, where he has two top-five finishes in four starts. It was in Theegala’s rookie season in 2022 that he played his way into the final group on Sunday with a then-winless Scottie Scheffler. Theegala ended up missing by one shot a playoff in which Scheffler prevailed over Patrick Cantlay. Scheffler has won 19 more times since.
“Yeah, I joke to everyone that I'll take the credit for really starting Scottie's career,” Theegala said earlier this week. “I know he had a lot of great finishes in majors before that, but to get his first win there was huge. Even back then he showed a lot of the same composure that he has.
“… It's pretty crazy to see him do what he's doing because I think a lot of the guys that are similar age to him kind of see him as just another competitor, and he's going on this Tiger-esque run. And he couldn't be nicer. He couldn't be a better guy to be No. 1 in the world.”