Top-30 players Sahith Theegala and Aaron Rai will compete as a team in the 2025 Zurich Classic, tournament officials announced Monday.
Theegala is ranked No. 27 in the latest World Golf Ranking while Rai is ranked No. 28.
“It's fun to see two players who both want to represent their respective sides in the Ryder Cup this fall team up,” said Steve Worthy, the CEO of the Fore!Kids Foundation, which operates the tournament for the PGA Tour. “Both are ranked in the top 30 in the world and have shown consistent, quality play for a few years. Each has won on Tour, and they should be a very strong team.”
This year's Zurich Classic will be played April 24-27 at TPC of Louisiana in Avondale. The tournament previously has received commitments from reigning champions Rory McIlroy (No. 2) and Shane Lowry (No. 15), as well as top-25 players Collin Morikawa (No. 4), Wyndham Clark (No. 14) and Billy Horschel (No. 23). McIlroy won the Masters in dramatic fashion Sunday to become just the sixth player in history to complete the career Grand Slam.
Tournament officials expect to announce a slew of new commitments this week, starting with the team of Theegala and Rai.
Theegala, an Orange, California, native, teamed with Justin Suh to finish in a tie for 23rd at the 2023 Zurich Classic. He and teammate Will Zalatoris missed the cut by two strokes at last year’s Zurich.
Theegala enjoyed his best season in 2024, finishing third in the FedEx Cup standings. He recorded nine top-10 finishes, including two runner-up placings. He started the year fast with a second at The Sentry in Hawaii to open the 2024 season. He took fifth in the Phoenix Open, tied for sixth in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and tied for ninth in The Players Championship. He closed out the year with a solo third in the Tour Championship, firing a 64 in the final round.
He broke through with his first title at the 2023 Fortinet Championship. In his first PGA Tour tournament in June 2020, he took 14th in the Safeway Open and secured his card for the 2021-22 season by finishing sixth in the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.
Theegala, 27, was a three-time All-American at Pepperdine University. In 2020, he was awarded the Haskins Award, the Ben Hogan Award and the Jack Nicklaus Award, only the fifth college player to win all three in the same year.
Rai, 30, has posted four top-15 finishes this season. His best finish was a tie for fourth in the Mexico Open. He also tied for 11th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The Wolverhampton, England, native won last year’s Wyndham Championship for his first PGA Tour victory since joining the Tour in 2022. He recorded a total of six top-10 and 13 top-25 finishes during the 2024 season.
In the Zurich Classic, Rai has played with David Lipsky the previous three years, with finishes of a tie for fourth, a tie for 13th and a tie for 23rd last year.
