Pepperdine's Sahith Theegala Takes The Haskins, Furman's Natalie Srinivasan Wins The Annika As College Golf's Top Golfers

In a bittersweet year with NCAA golfers were stripped of the chance to complete their season, the sight of Player-of-the-year winners from Pepperdine and Furman at least injected 2020 a nice memory. Both schools have under 4000 undergraduates.

The Haskins to best male golfer went to Pepperdine’s Sahith Theegala, while Furman's Natalie Srinivasan took the Annika given to the top female golfer.

As a Pepperdine alum, I can’t speak to how incredible a moment this is for the school’s golf program and southern California junior golf to have produced golf’s equivalent of a Heisman winner. Also, a huge tip o’ the cap to Pepperdine Coach Michael Beard for not ignoring Theegala’s potential despite his less-than-orthodox swing.

Oh, and most impressive of all? Theegala wins the award as a senior after redshirting the year prior to heal an injured wrist. Not Hogan or Zaharias level comebacks, but mighty impressive nonetheless.

From Brentley Romine’s GolfChannel.com story:

Despite the competition year being shortened due to the pandemic, Theegala and Srinivasan, both seniors, built strong resumes and finished the year ranked atop the Golfstat rankings. Theegala won twice and posted four other top-6 finishes for the top-ranked Waves. Srinivasan captured three events and ended her season with a runner-up finish at the prestigious Darius Rucker Intercollegiate.

Here is Theegala receiving the award on Golf Central: