Rising PGA Tour stars Sahith Theegala and Will Zalatoris have committed to play together at the 2024 Zurich Classic, tournament officials announced this week.
Theegala is currently ranked No. 14 in the World Golf Rankings and is fifth in FedExCup standings. Zalatoris, who is working his way back from a back injury that derailed much of his 2023 season, is ranked No. 30 and 13th in FedExCup points.
鈥淲ill has bounced back extremely well after missing nearly a full season from major back surgery,鈥 said Steve Worthy, the CEO of the Fore!Kids Foundation, which operates the Zurich Classic. 鈥淢eanwhile, Sahith is building off his first Tour victory last year with three top-10 finishes this season already.鈥
Theegala won his first title at the Fortinet Championship last year, then followed up that victory with a second at The Sentry in Hawaii to start the 2024 season. He took fifth in the WM Phoenix Open and tied for sixth in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. He tied for ninth in The Players Championship last week. He finished 9th in the 2023 Masters and teamed聽with Justin Suh to tie for 23rd in the 2023 Zurich Classic.
A native of Fullerton, Calif., Thegala, 26, is of Indian Telugu descent. He was a three-time All-American at Pepperdine University before turning pro in 2020. As a collegiate senior, he was awarded the Haskins Award, the Ben Hogan Award and the Jack Nicklaus Award, becoming only the fifth college player to win all three awards in the same year.
Zalatoris enjoyed a meteoric debut on the PGA Tour in 2020-2021. He recorded eight top-10 and 14 top-25 finishes in 25 events and ran away with the Arnold Palmer Award for Rookie of the Year honors before he even earned his full-time card.
In 2021, he recorded top 10 finishes in three major events: a second in his debut at the Masters鈥 a tie for sixth in the U.S. Open; and a tie for eighth in the PGA Championship. A year later, he tied for sixth in the Masters, tied for second in the U.S. Open and finished second in the PGA Championship, where he lost a three-hole playoff.
His first victory came at the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship. He but was forced to withdraw from the BMW Championship the following week with a back problem. Before the injury, he had posted three runner-up finishes and nine top 10s, including a tie for fourth in the 2022 Zurich Classic, when he teamed with Davis Riley.
He was forced to withdraw before the first round of the 2023 Masters when he suffered a herniated disc in his back. He was ranked eighth in the world at the time. He lost the rest of the entire 2023 season and started this year ranked 43rd.
Now back and healthy on Tour, he tied for second in The Genesis Invitational and tied for fourth in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
As an amateur, he won the 2014 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship. He was also a first-team All-American at Wake Forest University, where he was named the ACC Player of the Year in 2017.
鈥淏oth Will and Sahith are incredible players,鈥 Worthy said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e excited to get them here (at the Zurich Classic).鈥
