Sahith Theegala has made a change to his bag, but not one you would think of…
PGA Tour pros are constantly making golf equipment changes in a bid to gain a tiny fraction of performance. But this week on tour Sahith Theegala has made one of the strangest equipment changes we have ever seen. You will rarely find something as outlandish as this on the PGA Tour, but here we are.
Players often change the swing weights in their irons, use combo sets, mess around with shafts, and leave a certain club out of their bag. But this week, Theegala has taken a club out of his bag, simply because he doesn’t like the number associated with it. Yes, you heard that correctly. I have certainly never heard of a player changing the number on their iron because of their lack of affection for that number before.
What golf equipment change has Sahith Theegala made?
The American has a real dislike for his seven iron. Bizarrely, it doesn’t seem to be the actual club he hates, but the number seven.
“I’ve just never really loved the number seven”, Theegala said, speaking to the PGA Tour.
“It’s been my least favourite club in my bag, probably my whole life. I’m like,’I’m done’.
Instead of making adjustments to the swing in terms of swing weights, trying out different shafts, or even switching to a different model, he… changed the number. Yep, the world number 12, effectively had two eight irons in his bag at the Tour Championship.
He added: “I chunked it like four times at Memphis (FedEx St. Jude Championship) and Colorado (BMW Championship) combined, hit it in the water.
Probably six times in total in two weeks, and I’m finally like ‘alright, I’m over it. I’m changing to the seven with the number shaved off it and a different font eight on it’.
“So, it’s worked out. It’s one-for-one, so far. I hit it nice last week.”
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Theegala finished third at the PGA Tour Championship’s $100,000,00 finale. A career-best, after shooting a seven-under, 65, to finish six shots adrift of Scottie Scheffler.
Having started from 12th, with the order of standings generated over the course of the season, the 26-year-old was able to collect a cool $7.5 million dollars.
“I’ve never been one to do anything cool with my clubs, so I just like scrape it out (the number seven). I knew it would get a few laughs.
“Funny thing is, I’ve never had to mess with swing weights, so we actually had to stick a little bit of lead tape because of the amount of metal we shaved off the top to get the new number in there. So yeah, just going to keep rolling with it.”
I’m not sure what to address Theegala’s new club as. I don’t think the golf world has yet caught up with the American’s golf equipment change and innovation. Although, a representative from Ping did refer to the adapted club as an “8+” iron.
The seven iron, turned eight iron, is a Ping Blueprint S model. Theegala is a Ping staffer and has opted to use a set of those Ping irons throughout his bag until he switches to the Ping i210 model for his driving iron.
Golf really is a sport where individualism does shine through. Especially when it comes to equipment. Everyone on tour has their unique preferences in their club set up, look through a top pro’s bag and you’ll find something that goes against the grain.
Saying that, this really does take the biscuit when it comes to peculiarity.
A comment on social media, rather comically, pointed out, mostly tongue in cheek, its slight drawback being a ‘caddie’s nightmare’.
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PGA Tour winner turned NBC Sports reporter, Smylie Kaufman, was also caught by surprise when he peeked into Theegala’s bag.
Speaking on his podcast, he said: “As I’m walking down the first fairway and I’m just like ‘what’s up, Sahith? Sick fairway-bunker shot, what did you hit there?’ And he’s like ‘well, I hit a 7-iron but it says an eight.’ I’m like ‘what are you talking about?’
“Sahith is like ‘dude, last couple of weeks, I’ve been really struggling with my 7-iron. I’ve been mis-hitting it and I’ve been fatting it, so I showed up to East Lake this week and said ‘please, manufacturers, just don’t put seven on it. Just put 8-iron on the top.’ I was like ‘are you serious?’
“I had to go look in his golf bag and, of course, what do I see? I see two 8-irons in his golf bag. All day, I was getting the sign for the 7-iron that he was hitting. I was like ‘guys, this is an 8-iron, but it’s the 7-iron’.”
Following his impressive form at the Tour Championship, Theegala will be taking his two eight irons with him to the President’s Cup later this month. He will be making his rookie debut for the American side as they take on the Internationals in Canada.
Theegala will be looking to help the American side to their tenth consecutive Presidents Cup victory. The one-time PGA Tour winner qualified automatically for the event after a stellar year on tour.
