Sahith Theegala on pace to star for United States team at future Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup events

Does Theegala's PGA Tour start foreshadow future success for the U.S.?

Sahith Theegala earned his first PGA Tour victory on Sunday at the Fortinet Championship -- a win that was unsurprising to most who had been following his story and a reminder of what the 25-year-old portends to be over the next several years of his career. 2018 Amateur -1.56 2019 Amateur -0.20 2020 Amateur/PGA Tour -0.17 2021 Korn Ferry/PGA Tour 0.23 2022 PGA Tour 0.43

With the Ryder Cup starting next week, it was hard to not think about Theegala in the mix at future United States team events. He has so many characteristics you want at a Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup: tremendous emotion, often-elite iron play and a short game that can save him from almost any situation. His driver is a self-admitted problem, and could be at future team events, but it's also something he's worked on managing. I don't necessarily believe it's a quality that would keep him off of U.S. teams, depending on the circumstance and golf course. 

Most importantly, though, is that he's young and his game is improving. Theegala has improved his play in each of the last five years, according to Data Golf, and gone from being a -1.56 golfer as an amateur in 2018 to a 1.10 golfer (and climbing) in 2023. That's a good number. It's good enough for him to be ranked in the top 35 on Data Golf and nearly good enough to make it to the Tour Championship each of the last two years (he finished one spot out of the top 30 after the BMW Championship in August).