Sahith Theegala May Be Golf’s Next Matinee Idol

Sure, Sahith Theegala can hit the long ball.  Yes, he made it from college at Pepperdine to the PGA Tour and has played 13 events.  But Theegala has something else. Above his ability to play golf, he’s blessed with matinee idol looks, a blazingly authentic smile, and the biggest intangible of all: charm. Oodles of charm. He truly might be golf’s next superstar-heartthrob.  And he doesn’t know it yet.

It’s only appropriate that this week Theegala is playing in his first Arnold Palmer Invitational because Palmer invented the “it factor” in golf.

Palmer’s followers were so legendary that they became Arnie’s Army.

There are other players who have had the “it factor.” When Fred Couples played the PGA Tour, like Palmer, he had “it.”  When Couples goes to PGA Tour Champions events, he still has a large following.

Tiger Woods has the “it factor.” He has hundreds of millions of fans.

And the legendary movie star, Marilyn Monroe, more or less defined the “it factor”  in the 1950s.

It is hard to explain the “it factor” because it is an intangible quality that just shows up in people when you least expect it.  If you see or meet someone who has it, you will know.  It will be as apparent as the sun in the midday sky.

Since Theegala doesn’t yet know he has this intangible, the questions he got were the kind that new Tour players get, and his answers were pretty normal.

“It’s pretty incredible what they’re doing with perfect fairways, perfect greens, perfect bunkers, you name it,” Theegala said about course conditions on the PGA Tour.

There were a couple of changes Theegala noticed in moving to the PGA Tour where he recently played six tournaments in a row.

“One thing is just how incredible the conditions of the courses are week in and week out. I think it’s so easy to take for granted,” he said. “It’s pretty incredible what they’re doing with perfect fairways, perfect greens, perfect bunkers, you name it.”

And the other big difference is how much the PGA Tour actually does for the golfers.

“I think just how easy the whole system has been for the players in terms of courtesy cars, like player dining. It’s been pretty stress-free once we actually get to the event and got a spot picked out to stay,” he added. “I could see how some guys get spoiled out here.”

However, it is all so new to him at this point that he is still grateful for the opportunity. He got through the Korn Ferry Tour by three points only to find that his status on the PGA Tour as a recent Korn Ferry grad didn’t mean as much as he hoped.  So, he worked to gain entry to tournaments and decided to go the PGA Tour with no expectations, which he said has been good for him.

He has taken the attitude of having an adventure as well as a wonderful opportunity.  He knows that players who are about his age, like Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa, have already had great success.

“It’s easy to think of them and kind of compare yourself to them and kind of rob yourself of — just being on Tour itself is a great accomplishment — but doing what they’ve done is pretty rare,” he added. “There’s not a lot of people who do that. Only the top guys in the world end up doing stuff like that.”

A player’s record in amateur golf doesn’t always predict a great future, but Theegala has been recognized by those who hand out awards.  He is only the fifth player in history to win the Haskins Award, the Ben Hogan Award, and the Jack Nicklaus Award in the same year.  The others are Patrick Rodgers (Stanford, 2014), Ryan Moore (UNLV 2005), Bill Haas (Wake Forest 2004), and Hunter Mahan (Oklahoma State 2003).

His best finish to date has been a tie for third at the WM Phoenix Open where he was the 54-hole leader. He received a lot of television coverage in the last round because he was in the final group, but was outplayed by Patrick Cantlay and Scottie Scheffler, who won in a playoff with Cantlay.

All in all, Theegala has had a great debut in professional golf and should be watched as – potentially — the next very big thing in the sport.