Sahith Theegala

Theegala opened on the 10th tee and eased into his round then blitzed the final nine with five birdies in a seven-hole stretch. Highlights included a trio of putts converted from outside of 11 feet including a 29-foot birdie bomb at the par-3 13th. "Honestly, for me the big thing is just hitting it in the fairways and for the most part I did do that. I hit a couple squirrelly ones, but as long as I keep minimizing those, I like where the rest of my game's been at for a while." Theegala arrived with top 10s in his last two stroke-play events and he's right back in the hunt this week as he remains on the search for his breakout win.

Theegala was making his second appearance at the event (T70) and showed great year-over-year improvement. That is the story of his entire career as he continues to build his skillset to find himself in frequent contention. "I'm learning every tournament. Hopefully I never stop learning out here. I feel like there's always something you can pick up on out here with all these world-class guys, and yeah, I feel like my game is getting better and better and I've just been putting in the work with my team, and it all feels really good. I just haven't gotten off to the greatest starts in tournaments, and I feel like I'm always kind of having a good weekend." He made a Sunday charge last week at Augusta National, as well. He now has top 15s in five of his last seven stroke-play events.

Theegala enters the week with top 15s in three of his last five stroke-play events. He continues to put his name near the top of leaderboards but is still searching for a breakout win. Could it be love at first sight for the Pepperdine product? "I feel like this course sets up really well for me specifically. It's a little bit wider off the tee and more approach shot and a lot of two-putt, short game up-and-down oriented. It's nice. I feel like I could play from anywhere out here." He has played eight practice rounds in the last five months will still need to adjust to tournament conditions come Thursday. 

The Pepperdine product split just 22-of-56 fairways this week, losing 2.4 strokes off-the-tee over the course of the event. He made up for it with superb iron play (+7.34 SG:Approach) while also gaining 5.43 strokes around-the-green. Both of those were career-best weeks in terms of measured events on the PGA TOUR. Theegala now has top 10s in 18 percent of his 56 starts on the PGA TOUR. He'll need to tune up the driver before his next event but he continues to trend toward a maiden win.