Srinivasan, Theegala in running for top US collegiate golf honours

By Rahul Banerji

Young Indian-Americans Natalie Srinivasan and Sahith Theegala are on the shortlist for the upcoming Golf Channel and Golfweek awards for top division collegiate golfers in the United States.

Srinivasan and Theegala are also on All-American teams for the season by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) and Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA), according to golfdigest.com.

While Furman University’s Srinivasan is in contention for the Annika Award, Theegala of Pepperdine University is on the list for the Fred Haskins Award for top male collegiate golfer.

Both varsity seniors plan to turn professional once the season opens.

The award-winners, decided on the basis of votes won from coaches, fellow players and the golf media for the 2019-2020 season, will be announced next month.

Ping WGCA topper

Srinivasan has meanwhile also been named the 2020 Division I Ping WGCA national player of the year. Side by side she is in contention for the 2020 Annika Award that goes to the top US woman collegiate golfer.

The winner of the Annika Award, named for Swedish legend Annika Sorenstam, which will receive exemption to compete in the 2021 Evian Championship.

Srinivasan, a native of Spartanburg South Carolina, joined Brad Faxon among others as a winner of the award from her university. She finished the 2019-20 season as the top-ranked active collegiate women’s golfer, according to the most recent Golfstat ratings, wyff4.com said.

Theegala is the top-ranked player in the Golfstat men’s individual rankings. He also headlines the list of 11 named last week by the GCAA to the NCAA Division I Ping All-America first team.

While Srinivasan, also a Golfstat topper in the women’s section, had three wins this season, Theegala has won twice.

The season was cut short because of the corona-virus pandemic, but the Annika and Haskins Awards presented by Stifel will still go ahead.

Illustrious list

Past winners of the Haskins Award include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ben Crenshaw. Oklahoma State’s Matthew Wolff won the award last year.

“We feel it is important during this difficult time to still honor the nation’s top players as voted on by their peers, coaches and the media,” Sorenstam told Golfchannel.com.

“The chosen players always will be an Annika or Haskins Award winner, and we can’t let the unexpectedly rapid conclusion to the college golf season stop us from acknowledging achievements that will last a lifetime.”

China Hills, California-based Theegala makes much of his Indian heritage

Matter of pride

“I definitely have a lot of pride in being an Indian golfer.” Theegala has said. “I think there’s kind of a stereotype people have that Indians aren’t great athletes, because they’re aren’t seen a lot in American sports.

“I think it’s pretty cool that I could have a chance to represent my culture on a big stage.”

“My parents always kept me disciplined,” Thegeela said. “School was always at the top of the list, and that translated into me being disciplined on the golf course, and really in all of my life.”

Winner of world championship titles at ages 6, 8 and 10, Theegala has something of a prankster’s reputation.

Fore magazine cited a well-known incident about the 21-year-old. During a tournament his freshman year, he intentionally shanked a ball in front of the worn number one amateur Jon Rahm on the range.

“That was the greatest shank I ever hit in my life. I was on the left side, and the ball went directly in front of the whole range. It was awesome.

“I didn’t look up, because I wanted it to seem like it was an accident, but my teammates said Rahm and a couple other people stopped and looked over, like, ‘Who’s this kid?’”

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