Theegala, 26, called the penalty on himself after being ‘90% sure some grains of sand had moved’ on his backswing during his approach shot on the par-4 3rd in the third round.
A number of PGA Tour fans praised Theegala for his integrity over the incident.
As it turned out 24 hours later, the two-shot penalty would ulltimately cost Theegala $2.5m in earnings in the FedEx Cup finale.
Theegala closed with an impressive round of 64 at East Lake to pick up a cheque for $7.5m after finishing in solo third.
But without the two-shot penalty in the fairway bunker, Theegala would have finished in a tie for second with Collin Morikawa.
Morikawa took home $12.5m.
A tie for second would have meant Morikawa and Theegala split $20m ($12.5m + $7.5m), resulting in $10m each.
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FedEx Cup champion Scottie Scheffler picked up his seventh official win of the PGA Tour season and a record first-prize cheque of $25m.
See how much they all earned here.
After the third round, Theegala’s girlfriend Juju reflected on the two-shot penalty while her boyfriend was in the car.
‘My boyfriend is playing for $25m and today he gave himself a two-stroke penalty,” Juju begins the video.
‘So what happened?!’
Juju then turned the screen over to Sahith, who spoke further about the incident.
Watch what Juju and Sahith had to say:
Theegala also discussed what happened to the media.
Click here to see what he had to say.
Theegala won his first and only PGA Tour title to date at the 2023 Fortinet Championship.
The big-hitting American bumped himself up from 15th to 12th in the Official World Golf Rankings on Sunday.
Who is Sahith Theegala’s girlfriend?
Sahith Theegala and his girlfriend Juju R. Chan Julianna have been dating ever since they attended Pepperdine University in 2017.
Their passion for sporting excellence was seemingly a big reason for hitting things off in the first place.
While Sahith Theegala was notching up wins left right and centre in his final year at Pepperdine, most notably the Southwestern Invitational, his girlfriend Juju was excelling in the swimming pool as her team broke the uni swim and dive record in the 200 metres.
That was achieved at the Pacific Coast Swim and Dive Conference Championships in 2019.
