Ponte Vedra (US), March 13 – Indian-origin American golfer Sahith Theegala scored an eagle by holing out a wedge shot from 99 yards, marking a stunning performance on the first day of the Players Championship here.
He was among the five co-leaders as play was suspended due to darkness.
Theegala shared the lead with Maverick McNealy, Lee Hodges, Sepp Straka, and Austin Smotherman, with one more hole to play.
Other Indian-origin players, including Akshay Bhatia, who won at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week, carded a (71) and finished at T-30. Sudarshan Yellamaraju (1-over through 17) and Aaron Rai (74) were at T-69.
Theegala began his round with three consecutive birdies on the front nine, with his only bogey on the ninth hole. He had trouble from the left bunker during the bogey.
On the back nine, Theegala made the stunning eagle by holing out his second shot from 99 yards. He then ended the day tied for the lead with a birdie on the 16th.
Speaking about the 12th hole, Theegala said, "Yeah, I had 99 yards. That pin is on that little shelf, so usually it's just a stock lob wedge, but I hit a little 54 degree to try and just one-hop it up the slope there, and I blocked it a little. I hit it a little skinny and just came out a little right. Got a nice bounce.
"You know, like, hitting that shot you actually have a little room right of that and past it, so my aim was a yard right of it, but I ended up hitting it like seven yards right of it and it kicked off the side of the bunker there and had plenty of spin. But it was probably going to spin left off that slope, was probably going to go like 20, 25 feet down that slope, just straight left of the hole. So for it to crash into the pin and go in is pretty cool. It's a nice bonus."
On his recovery from injury, he said, "So, yeah, it was nice to start this year healthy. I was healthy in the fall, but my speed took forever to come back and guys were just telling me to stay patient, guys that had left shoulder and left oblique injuries or rib injuries. They said the speed just takes a while to come back. Your body just doesn't trust it until it's way outside the injury."
For Theegala, who has had three Top-10 finishes this year after falling outside the Top-100, it has been a season of recovery.
"So the speed is fully back. It's the easiest I can get to the speed right now in my life. I feel like I'm in the best shape I've been. So yeah, it's just nice to be able to listen to know my coach and do what he tells me to do and listen to my trainer and do what he tells me to be able to do. So, yeah, it's a feeling that I don't ever want again."
Bhatia, fresh from his biggest win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week, carded a (71) to finish at T-30.
Bhatia began the day on the back nine with two birdies, but made a double bogey on the 14th.
A birdie-bogey-birdie finish on the back nine resulted in him being 1-under par at the turn before he carded nine pars on the front nine to close the day.
Bhatia, who has never played in India, recently announced that he will play at the Hero Indian Open later this month.
Yellamaraju was placed T-52 with a score of 1-over par with one hole left to play when play was suspended.
World number one Scottie Scheffler carded an even par round to be placed T-40 while world number two Rory McIlroy began the week with a card of 2-over 74 to be placed at T-69.
Collin Morikawa, who entered as one of the favourites to win this week, retired due to an injury after playing just one hole. He began his round on the back nine and had finished the 10th hole before hurting himself on the 11th hole and chose to retire.
Tommy Fleetwood, the winner of the inaugural DP World India Championship started off strong with a score of 3-under 69 and is placed at T-10.