Sahith Theegala reportedly got away with it on Saturday afternoon.
Instead, Theegala imposed himself as a penalty and kept his conscience clear.
Theegala shot a 5-under-par 66 Saturday in the third round of the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. His round included a two-shot penalty he took on himself after he said he let his club crash into a fairway bunker early in the afternoon.
What is remarkable is that no one – not even the cameras – noticed the violation.
Sahith Theegala himself was given a two-stroke penalty for hitting the sand with his club during his backswing.
He currently goes from -13 to -11, but will have the opportunity to review the penalty with a rules official after his round. pic.twitter.com/rLAgGJGZ5c
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 31, 2024
“I wouldn’t have been able to sleep (if I hadn’t whistled the penalty),” Theegala said.
Theegala hit his tee shot on East Lake’s third hole into a fairway bunker. His ball landed on the slope of the bunker and he had a pretty good position for his approach shot, which he hit cleanly toward the green.
But immediately after hitting his shot, Theegala called out to his playing partner Xander Schauffele and the umpire. He felt the tiniest grain of sand move during his backswing.
“It was a very small amount of sand,” Theegala said. “I can honestly and clearly say that… It’s too hard to tell because of the shadows and my club. You couldn’t see any sand coming up. That’s about the small amount of sand we’re talking about. I think it literally just swept up the hill at about that point. But yeah, I wish I could see it on video. I’m still going to sleep well.”
Theegala ended up making a double bogey on the hole, which dropped him to 1 over par for the day. He still fell well under par thanks to seven birdies on his last nine holes, including five in a row to end his day. That moved him to 17 under par for the week and into third place.
Although he is still nine shots behind Scottie Scheffler, Theegala is currently on track to take home a whopping $7.5 million payday for his appearance in the PGA Tour’s final playoff event.
Theegala earned his first Tour victory last year at the Fortinet Championship. He has seven top-10 finishes this season, including two runner-up finishes, and earned a spot on the U.S. Presidents Cup team.
While his move may have pushed him too far back to make a real run at Scheffler’s lead and the FedEx Cup on Sunday, Theegala is more than happy with his decision to take the penalty.
“I’ve played so much golf. You trust your intuition and your gut feeling, and the next thing I knew I was moving sand. I’m in the 90 percent that thought I was moving sand… I definitely think I was moving sand. It’s just an unfortunate rule.”
“But what are you going to do? You’re going to take two blows to the chin and let them do it to you.”