Pepperdine fifth-year senior Sahith Theegala won another of college golf’s top prizes on Tuesday.
Theegala was selected the recipient of the Ben Hogan Award in an event at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, which will host the PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Classic beginning Thursday.
The honor goes to the men’s college golfer who had the best year when taking into account all competitions.
The other finalists were Vanderbilt’s John Augenstein and Florida’s Ricky Castillo.
At the Tuesday ceremony, Theegala paid tribute to his Pepperdine teammates.
“Those guys push me to get better, and obviously being the No. 1 team in the country, that certainly helped,” Theegala said, according to GolfWeek. “We had a couple of All-Americans on our team, and we were such a deep team that every time I went to practice or every time I stepped up at a tournament, those guys were pushing me really hard so I definitely attribute a lot of this to my Pepperdine team.”
Last month, Theegala won the Fred Haskins Award, given to the top Division I college golfer of the year. He topped Augenstein and Georgia’s Davis Thompson for that honor.
Theegala, a three-time All-American, will look for an awards sweep next month when he is up for the Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award in the Division I men’s category. Also on the short list with Theegala are Augenstein, Thompson, Baylor’s Cooper Dossey and Oklahoma’s Garett Reband.
Theegala missed the 2018-19 season due to a wrist injury but returned to win the Alister Mackenzie Invitational at Fairfax, Calif., in October and the Southwestern Invitational at Westlake Village, Calif., in January. In the latter event, which finished two days after the death of Kobe Bryant in a helicopter crash, Theegala prevailed while wearing a Bryant jersey.
The Pepperdine player rooted for the Lakers while growing up in Chino Hills, Calif.
“I did it for Mamba,” Theegala said at the time, according to GolfChannel.com. “He was my sports idol, as well as millions and millions of other people. To lose him a couple days ago was absolutely devastating and heartbreaking, and I was just really happy I could pay respects to him.”
Away from college golf, Theegala also captured the SCGA Amateur last July and the Australian Master of the Amateurs in January.
Theegala turned pro last week after being rated third in the world among amateurs. In his first professional event, he tied for third place last week in the Outlaw Tour’s Lone Tree Classic at Chandler, Ariz.
Theegala and BYU’s Peter Kuest will make their PGA Tour debuts next month at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.
–Field Level Media
