Theegala stays in lead at Phoenix
Los Angeles, Feb. 12: Sahith Theegala fired a seven-under par 64 on Friday to lead the Phoenix Open, with former world number one Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele on his heels.
Theegala, a tour rookie from California, had a rollercoaster day that saw him surrender the firstround lead only to climb back to the top with eight birdies in his second round at TPC Scottsdale.
His 12-under par total of 130 put him two strokes in front of Koepka and Schauffele, Koepka firing six birdies in his fiveunder 66 and Schauffele carding a bogey-free sixunder 65 to get to 132.
“I haven’t had time to let it set in and hopefully I don’t think too much about it because obviously what I’ve been doing has been working the first couple days,” Theegala, ranked 318th in the world, said.
Theegala had held a oneshot lead when darkness halted play on Thursday. He returned Friday morning and bogeyed his last two holes to fall a shot behind South Korean Lee Kyoung-hoon.
“I wasn’t too upset about the way it started. I knew if I kept putting the ball in the fairway I’m going to have scoring opportunities,” he said of his day, which opened with him facing a 16-foot par putt at his penultimate firstround hole, the eighth.
Theegala, who was a standout amateur player at Pepperdine University, added another birdie at the fifth before he bogeyed the eighth again in the second round.
He birdied the 13th and 14th — where he rolled in a 33-foot putt from off the green — before closing with birdies at the 17th and 18th.
Theegala had a threestroke lead when he walked off the course, but Koepka, Schauffele kept the pressure on the surprise candidate. —