Pepperdine's Sahith Theegala takes Patriot All-America lead

LITCHFIELD PARK, AZ (December 30, 2016) -- With a second round 4-under 66 Pepperdine sophomore Sahith Theegala has taken the Patriot All-America lead at the Wigwam Golf Gold Course. Theegala will now be charged with trying to protect a one-stroke lead over Ole Miss sophomore Braden Thornberry and first round leader, Andrew Whalen of Northwestern. Theegala, who exploded onto the national scene with a run to the quarterfinals at the 2016 U.S. Amateur, did most of his work on Friday during the middle portion of his round. A string of pars began his round before he birdied four-times from Nos. 8-12. Theegala dropped his only shot of the round on No. 14 but rebounded with a 16th hole birdie. Thornberry continued his strong play with a second round 1-under 69 to move to 5-under. The Ole Miss standout birdied Nos. 6 and 7 back-to-back and bogeyed No. 10 for his only dropped shot of the round. Whalen, a redshirt senior at Northwestern, started play one-stroke ahead and was fortunate to end the round only one behind. After posting a 5-under bogey-free 65 on Thursday Whalen had to scramble late in his second round. Through 15-holes on Friday, Whalen was 3-over and seemingly in a free fall prior to birdieing his final three holes.

Day 2 Leaderboard. We can't wait to see who wins an exemption to the @AirCapCl assic #anyonesgame #PatriotGolfAZ pic.twitter.com/lGo 1ILEZOT

— Patriot All-America (@PatriotAllAm) December 31, 2016

The top-5 is being rounded out by UNLV's Shintaro Ban and Arizona's Jordan Gumberg who are both 4- under and tied for fourth. Among those still in the mix are Illinois' Nick Hardy (-2) and USC's Sean Crocker (-1).