Sahith Theegala-File picture. V Krishnswamy
Maui, Hawaii, Jan 5: Indian American Sahith Theegala got off to a flying start with a stunning 9-under 64 at the Par-73 Plantation course in Kapalua. Seen as one of the rising stars of the PGA TOUR, Theegala, playing the event for the second time, made 10 birdies, including six in a row from the turn as he chases a second PGA TOUR victory following his breakthrough win at the Fortinet Championship last September.
There was a strong Asian presence as Korea’s Sungjae Im fired a stellar 8-under 65 to match his tournament low score at The Sentry as his 2024 PGA TOUR campaign got off to a great start. Im has two top-10s and a T13 finish last year at the Sentry.
He was among the bunch lying tied second alongside Reigning FedExCup champion Viktor Hovland, two-time major champion Collin Morikawa, a resurgent Jason Day and Camillo Villegas.
The 25-year-old Im had nine birdies for a share of second place, one back of leader Theegala.
Another Indian American Akshay Bhatia, who also had a break through win in 2023, which earned him a spot into The Sentry, was lying T-25 with a round of 4-under 69.
Im’s compatriot Tom Kim sank an eagle and four birdies en route to a 68 while debutant Byeong Hun An, also from Korea, pencilled down seven birdies against two bogeys for joint 19th place. Si Woo Kim returned a 70 for T37 while eight-time PGA TOUR winner Hideki Matsuyama carded a 71 for tied 46th position.
Theegala, who is one of the rising stars on the PGA TOUR, made 10 birdies, including six in a row from the turn as he chases a second PGA TOUR victory following his breakthrough win at the Fortinet Championship last September.
Theegala, who came close to a win many times, before snaring a title last year, when asked about the wait and how did it change things for him, said, “Yeah, golf-wise, actually, in general, it really hasn’t changed much. If anything, it’s just kind of given me a little more validation, and as I’m progressing in my young pro career I realize I don’t really need too much validation, it’s just, keep putting in the work and results will come when they come, and, if not, work harder, and just be patient. But it’s something that nobody can take away and it’s just a testament to all the work.”
“You need a couple good breaks along the way, and I got it there. Looking back, I’m always going to be able to look back on that win and just kind of how we went about our process, and just every little thing that kind of went into that win is always going to be used as a positive to me to — if I’m either — both ways. If I’m struggling or doing really well I can always look back at that and be like, All right, I kind of did this and that during that week, and that’s something that’s going to be big, I think, coming up as I hopefully put myself in contention as much as possible.”
On his first round at Maui and what pleased him most, he added, “Probably 12. Just because I hit a great drive, almost got — just hit it in the greenside bunker there. Didn’t hit a great bunker shot and I had a really gnarly 8- or 9-footer that I didn’t know which way it was going to break, grain was going all over the place. I just aimed it dead centre and tried to hit it hard and hearted that putt, and that settled me down a little bit more, because I knew 13, 14, 15 were very gettable too, so to make that putt was nice.”
Theegala making his second start at The Sentry had a career-best 10 birdies and included a career-best birdie streak with six in a row on Nos. 10-15.
The Sentry is the first event of the 2024 PGA TOUR Season and serves as the season-opening event on the PGA TOUR schedule for the first time since 2013; after 10 wraparound seasons, the TOUR returns to a calendar year schedule, with 36 FedExCup Regular Season events followed by the FedExCup Playoffs and FedExCup Fall
The Sentry is the first of eight Signature Events in 2024, which offer increased purse sizes ($20 million) and FedExCup points to the winner (700)
Eligible players for The Sentry are tournament winners in 2023 and players who finished in the top 50 in the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List; 35 of the 37 tournament winners are in the field (all but Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm) along with the 24 players who finished in the top 50 but did not win
