As the top 50 prepped for the BMW Championship in Baltimore last month, Sahith Theegala played in a corporate outing an hour away at Congressional Country Club. Theegala took photos, shook hands and answered questions about the state of his game. The elephant in the room was that Theegala was there at all, not at Caves Valley with the rest of his peers prepping for a FedExCup push.

Theegala’s 2025 PGA TOUR season was far from what he expected. Coming off a solo third at the TOUR Championship and a debut appearance at the Presidents Cup, Theegala seemed primed to take another jump with major championship contention and Ryder Cup consideration well within reach. Instead, an oblique injury that morphed into a neck injury derailed his form, sidelined him for months and thwarted a prime year of Theegala’s career. The American returned to The Open Championship, but missed the cut in the three events he played – ending the FedExCup season at 147th in the standings and well outside the FedExCup Playoffs.

Theegala, though, was still around for the BMW Championship – previously committed to speak at a Hero event, hosted by Executive Chairman Dr. Pawan Munjal at Caves Valley. Theegala is a Hero ambassador, along with Akshay Bhatia. PGATOUR.COM caught up with Theegala for a Q&A after the event. Theegala delved fully into the details of his injury, his psyche, and how he planned to spend his time away.

Theegala will play next week’s Procore Championship – the site of his lone PGA TOUR victory back in 2023.

PGATOUR.COM: How does it feel to be here at the BMW Championship, but not playing? I imagine it’s weird.

Theegala: It sucks. I texted JuJu (Theegala’s girlfriend) walking down here, it's depressing being here, to be honest, but that's the sport. There's no guarantees. It really hurts because this event is run so well. Obviously, the Playoffs, the top-50 implications, all that, but it's such a great event. They treat everyone great, especially caddies, and the hospitality might be the best of the year.

Logistically, it's so easy, and the golf course is always great. It's super fun when the venue is changing every year, you know, like there's a rota, but it's always exciting to get to a new place. Yeah, it was such a bummer pulling into the lot and not even being able to park in player parking and taking a shuttle to get here.

Yeah, it's rough, it's rough, but I'm just trying to use it as fuel. I've unfortunately said that a lot the last few months, but that's just the reality of it. I’ve got to use it as fuel. It's not the end of the world at all. I'm just gonna learn from this and hit the reset button. I really have this mentality of everything feels like a bonus. I'm just trying to make the most out of the opportunity I have, and I still have a full season on the PGA TOUR ahead of me, didn't have to worry about that, which was nice. So, going make the most out of it and whatever the results come out of it, it is what it is. I'm confident I’m heading in the right direction. I think good golf is just around the corner.

PGATOUR.COM: You returned for The Open Championship after a break to deal with an injury. How long has that injury lingered? Can you take us through the timeline?

Theegala: Yeah, so it was my oblique in February. The whole West Coast Swing, I felt great and then we made the move from Houston to Jupiter. We hired movers. I didn't move any boxes or anything, so didn't hurt myself there, but I had a TGL match right before Bay Hill, and you just get so amped up in those TGL matches, and I didn't swing a club for 13 days. I hit a couple of drives like 183mph ball speed. It's something I never hit in a tournament, and one of the last drives I felt a little pop in my oblique, and I knew right away. I think there's video of me like clutching and pressing it in. I knew right away it was not just a little – well, I didn't know for sure, but it didn't feel like it was just a little something.

That injury was really, really bad at Houston, Valspar. It was getting slowly and slowly better, but the feeling I had at the top of my swing and the feeling I had just at impact were the same for three months and I just kept trying to play through it. I was like, 'All right, I can't stop now.' The docs were like, 'A couple weeks in two or three weeks with an injection, you'll probably be healed.' There were no guarantees because golf is such a weird rotational sport, but I was like, ‘I can't take weeks off before Augusta. I need to be in good shape. My first event back's not gonna be Augusta.’ And Augusta was actually the last event that I made a cut in. And I was not healthy there either, but I just willpowered my way to a decent event there. It was still bad after, but again it was just not bad enough to where I couldn't play so I kept playing.

PGATOUR.COM: What were the doctors telling you at that point?

Theegala: The doctors were like, ‘You can keep playing, this is a pain thing.’ Then I realized mechanically I was making some changes to my swing because of this. I was starting to hike my left shoulder up, really pinching my neck in, really getting more side bend, and that caused me to jack up my neck in Philadelphia (during the Truist Championship) on Wednesday. And I don't even know what actually happened with my neck. It was fine. I think I pinched a nerve and then it shot into my shoulder, so that was the reason I withdrew from Philadelphia.

The PGA Championship, actually, by Wednesday my neck was feeling OK, and if I had no oblique issue I would have played, but my first swing, I tried to hit a ball off the first tee, and I literally felt like I re-tore my whole oblique. It was really bad, so that was when I knew I was gonna take these three weeks off, and then start working out again. I tried to play the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday and the first shot I hit out of the rough, immediate pain. I'm like, 'All right, now I'm actually done.' The docs, you know, were pretty adamant about 2-4-6 weeks, something in that area, but with my neck thing and my oblique thing, I was just like, I'm just gonna take a few months off.

PGATOUR.COM: Why was The Open Championship the right time to return?

Theegala: Honestly, I didn't even know if I was gonna be back for The Open, but it's just the competitor in me. I couldn't not play. I already missed two majors because of injury. I was like I gotta play the third one, so I had a date set that I'm gonna play The Open, and luckily I was fully healthy, just didn't get my golf strength back. But, the last couple weeks after Wyndham Championship, I’ve really been hitting the gym hard and gained my weight back and honestly I feel stronger than I did even last year so it's gonna be fun, feeling good.

PGATOUR.COM: What are you doing with this downtime?

Theegala: Really strict regimen in the gym, eating a lot better, just trying to be as clean and strict as possible, just bear down. Josh (Theegala’s trainer) is on me. Josh is on my a**. We don't get times like this a lot, so I'm actually lifting, and my body feels great. I definitely feel the benefits of that. It’s something that we've tried to do more on a week-to-week basis. Now I'm lifting a few more times (a week), and it feels good to get the strength back and even more. I feel like it can only better my game honestly. We're not doing anything crazy. I'm not benching three plates or squatting crazy or any deadlifting, so it's just simple stuff that's making me stronger. I’m hopefully getting towards a point where my golf swing gets more and more repeatable and my body can handle it.