Swinging-in at second place, Diamond Bar senior Sahith Theegala achieved a triumphant feat at the Canadian International Junior Challenge last month in Lakefield. Ontario losing first place to England’s George Gardner by just one stroke.

Participants in the competition were selected based off their performance over the past year. Four junior players were invited from each region and Theegala represented the Southwest region of the United States.

“It was a once in a lifetime thing; you’re never going to do it again as a junior,” Theegala said.

Along with playing for the Diamond Bar High school varsity golf team, the talented golfer is also a member of the Southern California’s Professional Golfers Association. He ranks in the top 40 amongst the thousands of golf members in Southern California PGA.

The Brahma worked hard to earn his place in golf tournament. He took up golfing at the age of six and has been playing the sport for almost 10 years now.

“Practice definitely helps but you have to stay there mentally. You always have to be positive about what your doing,” Theegala said.

The accomplished golfer earned many accolades this past year. Qualifying for CIF Southern California Finals in May, the Brahma finished seventh in the CIF-SS/SCGA finals and fourth at the CIF/SCGA finals.

“The most difficult part [of the sport] is staying in the game mentally because you’ll have a bad hole and get down on yourself, but then you’ll have 17 other holes to go so you have to keep going and tell yourself ‘I can make it up,’” Theegala said.

In June, the young golfer took first place at the 97th annual Los Angeles City Championship, winning by eight strokes and playing in his first major non-amateur tournament. Recognized for his outstanding performance in the sport, Theegala was also named San Gabriel Valley Tribune’s Boys Golfer of The Year this past summer.

“It’s a really underrated sport. People think that it’s so easy to just hit the ball into the hole, but no; you have to think, strategize and time what you’re doing physically too,” Theegala said.

He attributes much of his success in the sport to the teachers that support him on campus. Staff members such as Bill Zylstra and Ty Watkins have supported the young golfer significantly.

“[Mr. Watkins] has done so much to help the golf program here. He posts all the golf related news online to the DBHS website and shows up to every tournament I go,” Theegala said.

And while most seniors are in the process of college applications, Theegala has already gained a verbal commitment along with a scholarship to Pepperdine University. He hopes to pursue golfing as a professional career and looks forward to playing the sport in college.

“The first two to three years I want to see how well I play against the other juniors and if I’m good enough I definitely want try to go professional,” Theegala said.