Tour Championship: Sahith Theegala inflicts a 2-shot penalty on himself while no one else saw his bunker error

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Sahith Theegala would have escaped on Saturday afternoon.

Instead, Theegala called for a penalty and kept his conscience clear.

Theegala posted a 5-under 66 Saturday in the third round of the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. His round included a self-imposed two-stroke penalty after he said he grounded his club in a fairway bunker early in the afternoon.

What is remarkable, however, is that no one – not even the cameras – noticed the infraction.

“I couldn’t sleep [if I didn’t call the penalty]“, said Theegala.

Theegala holed his tee shot on the third hole at East Lake into a fairway bunker. His ball landed on the slope of the bunker and he had a pretty good lie for his approach shot – which he hit squarely towards the green.

But immediately after hitting his shot, Theegala called his playing partner Xander Schauffele and the rules official. He felt the slightest bit of sand shift as he backswung.

“There was very little sand,” Theegala said. “I can say this with complete honesty and clarity… It’s too difficult to say because of the shadows and my club. We didn’t see any sand coming up. This is the small amount of sand we are talking about. I think that literally scratched the hill. But yes, I wish I could see it on video. I’ll still sleep well.

Theegala ended up making a double bogey on the hole, bringing him to 1-over for the day. He still fell well under par thanks to seven birdies on his last nine, including five in a row to end his day. That took him to 17 under for the week and into solo third place.

While he’s still nine shots behind Scottie Scheffler, Theegala is currently set to collect a whopping $7.5 million payday for playing in the PGA Tour’s final playoff event.

Theegala earned his first career Tour victory last year at the Fortinet Championship. He has seven top-10 finishes this season, including two runner-up finishes, and he earned a spot on the U.S. Presidents Cup team.

Although his decision may have pushed him too far back to take the lead from Scheffler and win the FedEx Cup on Sunday, Theegala is more than happy with his decision to take a penalty.

“I played so much golf. You kind of trust your intuition and your instincts, and right away I thought I moved some sand there. I’m in the 90% who thought I moved sand… I really think I moved sand. It’s just an unfortunate rule.

“But what are you going to do? Take both shots on the chin and roll with it.

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