Sassy Scottie Scheffler, Sahith Theegala’s wholesome celebration | Rogers Report
Scottie Scheffler gets sassy, the Theegalas celebrate.
Sahith Theegala, PGA Tour, Getty Images
Hello, friends, and welcome to this week’s edition of the Rogers Report! While I’m bummed that the PGA Tour playoffs have come to an end, I’m looking forward to attending my first Solheim Cup next week at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia. I’ll be heading there with my co-worker and pal, Zephyr Melton, so be on the look out for some fun content from that.
Speaking of team events, the Presidents Cup teams were named on Tuesday, and I’m feeling really good about both teams.
Some things to note: This is Adam Scott’s 11th appearance on the International team. Thankfully, Instagram now allows you to share more than 10 photos in a single post, or else we would have missed Scott’s incredible walk down memory lane.
His hair in 2009 and 2011 really was something. On the other hand, this will be the first Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup without Jordan Spieth or Justin Thomas since 2012, when they were just 19 years old. I’ll miss watching them tee it up in Montreal, but I’ll really miss Jordan Spieth singing the song he made up about Si Woo Kim during press conferences.
Check out that crew. JT and Spieth, along with Patrick Reed, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson. The good old days!
OK, on to the last week in golf.
The Theegalas’ big week
Sahith Theegala got a lot of attention at the Tour Championship for calling a penalty on himself, but that wasn’t my favorite thing I saw from the 26-year-old at East Lake.
My love for the Theegala family, specifically Sahith’s father, Murli, began when I watched the first season of “Full Swing” on Netflix. It’s only grown since then, especially because the Theegala crew always seems to be showing out in full support for their guy. Things were no different last week, when Sahith’s fan club showed up in custom T-shirts with a banner in hand to celebrate his 100th start on the PGA Tour.
Not that 100 starts is a “little thing,” but it’s so endearing to see the Theegalas celebrate all of the milestones that come with being a PGA Tour player, not just wins. They’re all so supportive. I feel like Team Theegala would show up and cheer for me if I told them I was going to attempt to parallel-park in Boston. All things are worth celebrating!
What made Theegala’s 100th start even sweeter was the fact that his brother, Sahan, missed his first day of classes at Seton Hall to watch his big brother tee it up.
I’m sure his professors understood.
The big family week continued into the weekend for the Theegalas when Murli turned 60. You know you’re a big deal when you get a birthday shoutout from the PGA Tour. According to my observations, those are usually limited to major winners.
There’s nothing better than some fun decorations and a cake, except for maybe a Louis Vuitton (I’m ashamed to admit that I had to look up the spelling of that) wallet. Luckily, Murli got both.
Shout out to Theegala’s girlfriend, Juju Chan, for always providing a behind-the-scenes look at Tour life on TikTok!
Sassy Scottie Scheffler
Next up, we have Scottie Scheffler’s sass, but before I get into that, I’ll take a few moments to highlight just how wholesome the World No. 1’s family is. Unfortunately, Bennett may not have gotten the memo that his dad earned $25 million just moments before their embrace at East Lake; otherwise he probably wouldn’t have cried.
Luckily he recovered quickly and was able to create the cutest image in PGA Tour history shortly after.
Bennett Scheffler saw (or at least was present when) his dad won the Memorial, Travelers, an Olympic gold medal and the Tour Championship. He’s already got three pages of photos of himself on Getty Images, so I just know the 2024 Scheffler family Christmas card is going to put all the other Dallas residents to shame come December.
And finally, we have made our way to Scheffler’s press conference, where he gave a hilarious answer to a question about the shank he hit from the bunker on Sunday at East Lake. He answered very literally, which was both creative and hilarious.
Fair enough, Scheffler! His answer reminded me of the 2016 NCAA tournament when Baylor senior Taurean Prince gave an equally literal answer to how Yale out-rebounded his team.
Incredible stuff. The best conferences are the ones where you get unexpected answers.
One last note on Scheffler: I saw this Tweet that said he exclusively wore pants as a junior golfer because he always wanted to be a pro.
I’ve seen similar stories about other professional golfers, including Patrick Reed. This is definitely a super fun fact if everything works out, but I beg all of the junior golfers out there to just wear the shorts. The odds of you getting heat stroke during the summer in Florida because you wore khakis are greater than the odds of you becoming a professional golfer. Also, LIV allows shorts, so even if you do become a pro, you might be able to wear shorts anyway.
My favorite stats
Scoring average this! Stokes gained that! We hear a lot about a handful of stats on the PGA Tour broadcast every week, but CBS’ Rick Gehman put together an extremely detailed list of 79 pros who led the PGA Tour in at least one stat category this season.
This just goes to show how deep the talent runs on Tour. It’s like the opposite of the participation trophy kids get at little league.
The pros attend the Curtis Cup
Justin Rose and Charley Hull made their way to Sunningdale Golf Club last week to catch up with the Curtis Cup teams, meet fans and watch some golf.
I believe this is where the kids would say something like, “Game respects game.” It’s so fun to watch professional golfers attend other sporting events — whether it’s an entirely different sport or another golf tournament. I’m hoping to see some familiar faces outside the ropes at the Solheim Cup next week.
FM Global Championship
I spent a day at the FM Global Championship last week and wanted to highlight the best thing I saw (other than a lot of insanely good golf shots): A free lesson zone for anyone and everyone in attendance. I watched a handful of young kids, teenagers and adults head over to the end of the range at TPC Boston and learn the fundamentals of the golf swing while taking a break from watching the pros. The lesson station was set up way down on the right of the range — the same range that the best players in the world were using to warm up. How neat is that?
I attended a handful of professional golf tournaments as a kid, but I never experienced anything like this. I hope this trend continues at future events as well.
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