Players Championship
Players Championship: Sahith Theegala might be the new Jordan Spieth, and he's perfectly fine with that
Logan Bowles
PONTE VEDRA BEACH — During a four-hole stretch right in the middle of his round, Sahith Theegala nearly fell into a water hazard, squeezed a pair of approach shots through thimble-sized windows in the woods and made a birdie on the par-5 second without ever sniffing the fairway. Lesser men would have bogeyed all four of those holes. Theegala played them in one under.
The other 14 holes were similarly Houdini-like, too. Theegala hit just seven of the 14 fairways at TPC Sawgrass, not surprising given his erratic off-the-tee numbers (Theegala ranks 129th on tour in driving accuracy this season). That is normally a recipe for disaster at the tricky Pete Dye layout, yet Theegala managed to shoot a five-under 67 with just one bogey that has him at seven under and T-10 heading into the weekend.
"That was probably like, one of the worst-best scoring rounds I've had," Theegala said afterward. "I honestly played well the first five holes, but then starting on 17 I just stuck the wegde in the ground and it hooked, got so lucky there to stay up. And after that, it was just a mess."
It was an unbelievably-fun mess to watch, though, one that was eerily reminiscent to beautiful messes produced by the likes of Jordan Spieth and Phil Mickelson over the years. With those two, you legitimately never know what is going to happen next. Theegala rounds produce a similar feeling. Hit it (all over the planet), go find it (if you can) and figure out ways to make birdies and pars (he did).
When informed the round drew some Spieth comparisons on social media, Theegala was perfectly fine with that. He even defended Spieth from critics who like to often cite how much "luck" is involved in a Spieth roller coaster ride of a round.
"Felt like Spieth today. Felt good. Hit it in the trees and have a gap," Theegala joked. "But no, that guy—I know everyone says he gets lucky and all this stuff, but just seeing him practice, he practices this stuff. His hands are incredible. He makes gaps out of no gaps. He finds a way to hit shots that seem impossible and seem lucky, but there's definitely some skill involved with that guy. He's insane.
"If I'm getting comparisons [to Spieth], I don't mind it."
That said, Theegala wouldn't mind some Scottie Scheffler comparisons, either. That would require his game to be a little more boring, though.
"Me and my coach [Rick Hunter], that's all we work on. Trying to play 'boring golf,'" he said. "I'm never not going to have fun out there. I do plenty of that. And I know mechanically with how my swing is, there's a bit of timing involved. So I know once in awhile it's going to go wrong a little bit. We're just trying to tighten it as much as possible.
"But today was a great day in knowing that it could be off and I could still find a way to score and get it in. I still hit some really good shots, like on 8. Just aiming up the gut and trusting it. But yeah, always trying to tighten it."
Playing "boring" is generally a path to more wins, but Theegala already has a PGA Tour victory, a Masters debutant top 10 and a handful of runner-ups by doing it his way. Plus, like he said, where is the fun in that?