Sahith Theegala of Pepperdine wins the Haskins Award
- Pepperdine Waves photo
By Brayden Conover for AmateurGolf.com
Pepperdine's
Sahith Theegala was awarded college golf's Heisman Trophy on Friday night.
Theegala, a redshirt senior, has had a career with more ups than downs.
After his freshman season, Theegala was named to the West Coast Conference (WCC) Freshman of the Year, All-WCC first team, and the GCAA/PING All-West Region team.
In his sophomore year, Theegala built upon the momentum built in 2015-16, being named a GCAA/PING third-team All-American, Golfweek All-American honorable mention, WCC Co-Player of the Year, and his second consecutive All-WCC and GCAA/PING All-West team selections.
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2017-18 proved that Theegala was not a flash in the pan as he was named to his third consecutive All-WCC and GCAA/PING All-West teams. He was also selected to represent Team USA in the Arnold Palmer Cup as well and performed well in the American win in France.
In what would have been his senior season, Theegala sat the year out due to a wrist injury that required surgery. Taking full advantage of an extra season, Theegala became the top-ranked collegiate player in both the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings and the Golfstat individual rankings. In addition, he is ranked No. 3 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and No. 4 in the
Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World Amateur Ranking.
Theegala credits his team as a huge reason he received the award. The Waves finished atop many final rankings and was well on their way to being a big-time player in the postseason.
"My team was such a big reason why I had a good year this year," said Theegala in an interview with GOLF Channel’s Steve Burkowski. "Our team was just so competitive within ourselves that we never let ourselves get complacent. We were always keeping each other on our toes. I attribute a large part of my individual success to the team and my coaches pushing me."
Theegala joins fellow 2018 Arnold Palmer Cup teammates
Braden Thornberry (2017) and
Matthew Wolff (2019) as Haskins Award winners.