Theegala and Rai ready for Wyndham Championship ahead of play-offs

GREENSBORO: Indian-origin golfers Sahith Theegala and Aaron Rai will play the final regular season event, the Wyndham Championship beginning here Thursday, while Akshay Bhatia and Sudarshan Yellamaraju have chosen to take rest before the play-offs.

All four are in the Top-70 and set for the three-event play-offs. The Top-70 play the first event and the field is cut to 50 for the next and finally 30 for the Tour Championship.

Theegala, who stands six feet three inches, is in the midst of a major resurgence in the 2026 PGA Tour season and has fully rebounded from an injury-plagued 2025 campaign that had caused him to miss the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time.

The 28-year-old Indian-American has worked hard on regaining his fitness and is once again enjoying the game. While working on his comeback, he is also getting married soon, so it is an added incentive to do well.

This week at Wyndham, Theegala is being joined by the PGA Champion Aaron Rai, who is 35th on the FedEx Cup rankings. Rai is eight places above Theegala.

Rai, the 2024 Wyndham Championship winner, became the first British golfer to win the Major, the PGA Championship, in more than 100 years. He has been widely seen as one of the nicest ever golfers in the game. Married to an India professional, Gaurika, Rai is now ready to make a place for himself in the history books after having become the first Indian-origin player to win a Major.

Theegala’s key finishes include top-10 performances at The American Express (8th), the Farmers Insurance Open (7th), the Arnold Palmer Invitational (6th), and the Texas Children's Houston Open (10th). He also delivered a standout T11 performance at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.

Rai is grouped with Tom Kim and J.T. Poston from tee 10, while Theegala is grouped from tee 1 with the new sensation Jackson Koivun and Hideki Matsuyama.

Of the big names that are at risk of missing the Play-offs, there is the new star, the 21-year-old Jackson Koivun. It’s a testament to Koivun that he’s even in contention to make the playoffs with only four pro starts under his belt.

Koivun fast-tracked his progression by out-duelling Scottie Scheffler at the 3M Open and holds the last spot in the FedExCup Play-offs with a week to play.

Sandwiched on either side of his win, Koivun finished T10 at the ISCO Championship and T31 at the Rocket Classic. He will be kicking himself for a pair of late bogeys at Detroit Golf Club that knocked him out of a tie for 20th.

Had he held his position, Koivun would have earned an additional 17 FedExCup points and valuable breathing room. Now, he holds only a 12-point advantage over No. 71 Mac Meissner, who could surpass Koivun with a solo 44th finish.

Also on the brink is Keegan Bradley, one of the veterans trying to avoid missing the FedExCup Play-offs for the first time in his career. He sits just outside the bubble with one of the easier pathways in, needing at minimum a two-way tie for 38th to move inside the top-70 threshold.

Also on the edge is Jason Day, who has had health issues. Currently 75th, his minimum finish required for top 70 is a two-way tie for 12th.

Like Bradley, Day has never missed the FedExCup Play-offs. But in his 19th season, he’s on the cusp of ending prematurely.

Brooks Koepka, at 86th, needs to finish solo fourth and Tony Finau, currently 89th, requires two-way tie for third to get into Top-70.