Sahith Theegala on the 18th hole at East Lake Golf Club on Sunday.
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Two and a half million dollars undeposited. An unrecorded victory in the eyes of the official world golf rankings.
But Sahith Theegala apparently won countless applause from the people.
And a good night’s rest.
after a much discussed move from the 26-year-old pro during Saturday’s third round of the Tour Championship, his summary likely read something like this then: It was both costly — and priceless. On the third hole at East Lake Golf Club, after dropping his ball into a fairway bunker, Theegala had self-reported a rules violation after he washed sand on the top of his second shot and the fallout from a two-stroke descent was a bit extraordinary.
That’s where the money was. The Tour Championship is both the PGA Tour’s season-ending event and its highest-paying tournament. Drop shots are costly, especially those from players near the top of the leaderboard, where payouts run into seven figures, and that’s where Theegala found himself after rallying from the penalty to shoot an impressive five-under 66 on Saturday. On Sunday, during the final round, he was two over and officially finished third, six shots behind the winner Scottie Scheffler – and two behind runner-up Collin Morikawa.
two. The same number of shots he took away due to fouling. of monetary damages for him? Morikawa won $12.5 million and Theegala took home $7.5 million, but if they were second, each pro would have cashed in for $10 million — meaning Theegala’s call lost $2.5 million.
Then there is the leaderboard. The Tour Championship plays its event under a staggered start format, with pros starting a certain number of strokes under par based on their play during the year – but the OWGR only recognizes the number without the bonus strokes. there, Morikawa wonwith a score of 22-under, one shot better than Theegala, and you can count had the penalty not happened.
Demoralizing? It depends on your perspective, of course.
More than a few observers applauded Theegala. The praise came through social media. It was heard on the NBC broadcast on Sunday.
said the analyst Brad Faxon as Theegala played the 18th hole: “It makes you love golf when you see it. You rarely hear about that in any other sport.”
said the announcer Dan Hicks: “Just gives you a further idea of the quality guy that Sahith Theegala is.”
Rules penalty that could cost Sahith Theegala millions? Here is his side
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Faxon said, “You can look in the mirror when you get up, that’s for sure.”
Said Hicks: “It’s about doing the right thing for Theegala, and that’s all that mattered.”
Theegala’s girlfriend Julianna Chan also weighed in. On Saturday, she posted a TikTok video where she interviewed Theegala for the moment, then added this: “Obviously Sahith is a man of integrity.”
All this raises this thought:
What if Theegala had simply moved after the bunker shot? shut up. No one saw what happened—even Theegala himself wasn’t 100 percent sure he had done anything wrong, putting him at “98, 99 percent” certainty that he had only washed away grains of sand.
It wasn’t an option.
On Saturday night, a reporter had this particular exchange with him, with the question written in italics and Theegala’s answer below it.
“Would you sleep badly if you hadn’t found out?”
“Oh, I won’t be able to sleep,” he began.
“I was describing the situation – regardless of what the score was, I needed to know what the actual rule was,” Theegala continued. “Although Xander (playing partner Xander Schauffele) and I thought it’s whatever, it’s fine, you touched a grain of sand, you didn’t want to move it, you’re fine. I decided to call the official rules right away on the green. But anyway, I would have asked the rules officials after the round, or somehow found out what the rule was, and if I didn’t ask a rules official and go home and look up the rule – he was sitting in my mind.
“Again, intuition, it felt like I moved the sand. It was on my mind. If I went back after the round, looked it up and found out it was a two stroke penalty, I’d be DQ’d right now. So I’m glad I brought it up right away. I know the rules of golf a little better now. There are a lot of silly things you can do in the bunker. You can put a club in the bunker, you can literally stand – you can use your golf club as a stand in the bunker. As long as it’s not near your ball.
“There are many things you can do. But unfortunately, if it’s in the area that affects the lie and swing of your shot, regardless of intent, it’s a two-stroke penalty.”
 after play at East Lake Golf Club.){kind=link}