Theegala tops SCGA Am leaderboard with one round remaining
Sahith Theegala (Photo by Jeff Golden)
The summer of Pepperdine continues as Sahith Theegala, the rising Waves senior who has been out a year with a wrist injury, tries to add a line to his team’s remarkable list of summer achievements. Theegala is contending for the SCGA Amateur title just two weeks after nearly winning the Sahalee Players Amateur – a title that went to teammate Joe Highsmith instead.
It was a tight round on Saturday at Lakeside GC and Theegala,
who is finding his form again after a 10-month break from competition, came away with a one-stroke lead on Trip Morris heading into the final round at the 120th Amateur Championship. Theegala, with rounds of 68-67-65 so far this week, is 10 under for the tournament.
Moving day was off to a hot start for Theegala, who put together a 4-under front nine that included an eagle and four birdies. But his playing partner Trip Morris gave him a run for his money with a birdie on No. 1 and matched Theegala’s eagle on No. 2.
Theegala looked calm and collected all day, signing for five pars sandwiched between two birdies in the afternoon. With his confident iron game, he got a birdie on No. 16 after a striped iron shot offering a gimme putt going into the final two holes.
Morris was chomping at the bit, keeping a close distance to the leader with his bogey-free back nine. The best one-two punch came from Morris today, hitting the pin on No. 14 from about 120 yards out followed by an eruption of applause from the largest crowd of the day. It was unfortunately knocked greenside, but he proceeded to drain it for birdie – as if the first applause wasn’t enough.
Charlie Reiter had an up-and-down kind of day in the second to last group finding four bogeys but hung on after his back-to-back birdies on Nos. 13 and 14. Reiter will join Theegala and Morris in the final group on Sunday.
Forty-five players will continue to the final round, and tee times begin at 7:30 off of No. 1.
ABOUT THE
SCGA Amateur
This is the longest standing championship
conducted
by the SCGA. Started in 1900, this event
crowns the
best amateur player of the Association. Since
the
inaugural event, the SCGA Amateur has
enjoyed an
illustrious history of great champions, including
Tiger
Woods and Al Geiberger to more recent stars
including Beau Hossler and Patrick Cantlay. The
event is open to members with a Handicap
Index of
5.4 and below. Competitors undergo 18 holes
of
qualifying play in order to reach the final field
of 84
players. In the Championship, players compete
over
72 holes of stroke play with the top 42 and ties
advancing after the first 36 holes.
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