New golfing sensation on the rise

A seven-year-old Telugu boy, won fifth place in his division at the 2005 Junior World Golf Championships held July 12-14 at the Pine Glen Golf Course in San Diego.

Article by MICHEL W. POTTS

LOS ANGELES: Sahith Theegala, a seven-year-old golfing sensation, won fifth place in his division after three days of competition at the 2005 Junior World Golf Championships held July 12-14 at the Pine Glen Golf Course in San Diego.

A world event, the junior golfers from the United States as well as abroad have to qualify in order to participate. A total of 86 kids were in the seven to eight years of age division. After two days of disqualifying rounds, Theegala was the only seven-year-old to make the cut out of the top 20.

The rest were all eight-year-olds. After playing a 58-par course and turning in a score of 61, with three over, Theegala was presented with a trophy and is automatically exempt from qualifying for next year's tournament. The day before he had turned in a 57, the best score of the day, which earned him a place among the top 20 players.

Theegala also won the 2005 Regional Drive, Chip & Putt Competitions held Feb. 20 at the Oak Creek Golf Club in Irvine, which earned him the right to play in the Nationals scheduled to be held in Orlando, Florida in the last week of September.

With two chances to make the longest drive, Theegala won the event with a 148-yard drive. In the chipping competition, players are given points when their ball reaches within so many feet from the pin, and Theegala won that round with 11 points.

In the putting event, the players must sink the ball from 25 feet and again from five feet using the fewest strokes. In making his 25-foot putt, Theegala came within an inch of the hole. The five-foot putt he made in one stroke, which no one else was able to accomplish. In representing California, Theegala will be competing against 20 other regional champions.

The national event will be televised on Thanksgiving Day by The Golf Channel, which also aired the Feb. 20 competition. A regular member of the Southern California Junior PGA, Theegala has been honing his golfing skills in his spare time by competing in the 11 and Under Division competitions, and is consistently coming in fourth out of a total of 200 competitors.

"Obviously, the older kids can hit farther than him, and obviously there is a maturity factor where they do better than him," his father Muralidhar Theegala told India-West. "He's the only seven-year-old competing against them on a regular basis and still he's consistently coming in third or fourth in every tournament."

Since March, Theegala, a third grader at Country Springs Elementary School in Chino Hills, has been improving his game by spending an hour every week with a golfing coach. "Up until recently, he's been playing a purely natural game, and whatever he learned, he learned from me," his father said. "Having a coach, his game overall has become a lot more consistent.

His coach, who's a veteran PGA instructor, says that Sahith is playing way better than Tiger Woods was at his age. He definitely has aspirations (of becoming a pro), and he works hard at it."

Courtesy: The Times of India