Theegala’s recent gear change paid off with a strong performance at the tournament championship.
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Kenton Oates has received some strange device requests over the years during his time as a representative of Ping Tour. Wild syllable builds. Unique iron grinding. Two drivers. Oates has seen it all. Or so he thought until employee Sahith Theegala texted him with a question that almost didn’t seem real.
After hitting two shots into the water on the par-3 14th hole during the FedEx St. he didn’t have a stamped 7 on the sole. He was officially done looking at the number and needed to see something different in the bag.
“(Sahith) actually mentioned something before the tournament about the (7-iron) being the worst club in his bag,” Oates told GOLF.com. “It was a curious comment. There is no reason for the 7-iron to be worse than the others. He then two-putted into the water with a 7-iron on 14 in Memphis.
“He texts me Sunday night after Memphis and says, ‘This is a ridiculous request, but I need a 7-iron that doesn’t have the 7 stamp.’ I had to think for a second and then I remembered the irons (Viktor Hovland) with grinding. When we grind on the sole, we end up having to print the numbers there.”
To meet Theegala’s request, Ping’s tour department completed the stamped 7’s on the sole with metal, blued one part, and then printed an 8 on top. The painless process made it possible for Ping to overnight the club in Theegala to the BMW Championship for immediate testing.
“We worked in the clubhouse on the Tuesday of the BMW Championship and he’s been using it ever since,” Oates said. “He calls it 8-Plus. It just goes to show you that the pros are a lot closer to us than you might think. They also have quirks that don’t always make sense.”
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While Theegala’s 8-Plus is still a true 7-iron, the change to the number on the sole has done wonders for its confidence. During the Tour Championship, Theegala found himself in the mix during the final round and asked his caddy, Carl Smith, if he should “hit 8-Plus” during some key situations. There’s no way he’ll say the word “7-iron.”
Asked if Theegala’s request is the strangest he’s ever received, Oates confirmed he’s right at the top, along with a non-Ping employee who routinely asks Tour officials to re-sing the driver. his Ping every three months because “he feels like the sleeve flexes and moves better.” (Oates confirmed that sleeves don’t go flatter over time.)
“You want to meet all the requirements, no matter how crazy they sound,” Oates said. “Our job is to figure out how to make it happen. Sahith was definitely interesting, but it’s good to see him succeed with the 8-Plus iron in the bag.”
