The 2023 PGA Tour fall season began on Thursday with the Fortinet Championship in Napa, California. The champion was American Sahith Theegala of Orange, California, who won a PGA Tour event for the first time in his career. Theegala posted a winning score of -21, and beat Seong-hyeon Kim of South Korea by two strokes. Kim finished in second place with a score of -19.
Theegala had an impressive stretch of golf on the back nine in the first round. After opening the tournament by shooting one over par on the initial day of the tournament (bogey on the eighth hole), he had four straight birdies and five birdies in six holes on the back nine. Theegala’s four straight birdies came on the 11th through 14th holes. Theegala’s highlight in the second round was an eagle on the par five fifth hole, which moved him from -4 to -6 at the time. Theegala then had four birdies in a six-hole stretch from the 12th to 17th holes on Saturday, and then had six more birdies in the fourth round.
With the victory, Theegala moved up eight places in the Official World Golf Rankings from 37th place to 29th place. It was Theegala’s fifth top 10 finish of the 2023 PGA calendar year. He also finished fourth at the 2023 Farmers Insurance Open won by Max Homa of Burbank, California, sixth at the 2023 Genesis Open won by John Rahm of Spain, ninth at the Masters, also won by Rahm, and fifth at the 2023 RBC Heritage won by Jordan Spieth.
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