The Augusta Masters was a week away, but the drama at the PGA Tour’s Valero Texas Open on Sunday was so intense that it felt like the year’s first golf Major was heading to its conclusion. In the end, bending his slim frame back, looking skyward in relief and joy, was the 22-year-old winner Akshay Bhatia.
Some of the biggest names in golf, led by four-time Major winner Rory McIlroy, had sought a warm-up win, but Bhatia never let up after a blistering opening round nine-under 63. Four shots up going into the final round, Bhatia’s seemed almost a formality after he stretched his lead to six shots over playing partner Denny McCarthy after the outward nine.
But McCarthy hit red-hot form, reeling off eight birdies, including in each of the seven final holes. Bigger players have crumbled under the pressure of leading, and when McCarthy, 31, chasing his first PGA Tour win, birdied the 17th and Bhatia missed his, they were level. The Indian-origin golfer’s wire-to-wire win hopes now seemed to hang by a thread.
On the trickly par-5 18th, both were left with birdie putts of around 12 feet. McCarthy promptly birdied, leaving ‘leftie’ Bhatia to birdie to force a playoff. As the putt snaked in, Bhatia fist-pumped exuberantly and felt his left shoulder pop out of the socket and go back in.
Both teed off on the 18th, the first playoff hole and laid-up, but Bhatia was in pain. As his physio taped his shoulder, McCarthy’s challenge melted, a fluffed third shot landed on the creek protecting the green. Bhatia didn’t miss out this time, his birdie sealing his second PGA Tour title.
His first 72-hole strokeplay win on the biggest golf tour – his first win, also after a playoff, came at the 2023 Barracuda Championship which was played on the Stableford format (2 points for birdie and 5 for eagle with points docked for bogeys or worse) – netted Bhatia a winner’s cheque of $1.66 million, but the bigger prize was the final slot at the Masters.
Sonny Bhatia and Renu, originally from Delhi, had migrated to the US and introduced the game to both their children. When their son – he was inspired by sister Rhea, four years older, playing golf – as a boy wanted to become the world’s best golfer, they were all for it. They shifted from California, where Bhatia was born, to Pinehurst, North Carolina for better playing facilities. Sonny told his son that to be the best, he should put in the hard work. “And that’s exactly what he does,” Sonny Bhatia was quoted as saying by waltermagazine.com.
Golf became Bhatia’s universe. He was home-schooled, and despite many colleges keen for him to join their golf programmes, he decided not to go to college, turning pro in 2019 at the age of 17. It was unlike the route taken by some of the biggest golfers, from Tiger Woods (Stanford University) to Sahith Theegala (Pepperdine), the other Indian-origin player, world No.15 and a winner on the PGA Tour – Fortinet Championship last September — who will also tee off at Augusta.
As it was with Theegala, the pandemic disrupted Bhatia’s hopes of a rapidly securing a PGA Tour card. The 2018 US junior amateur runner-up who played on the winning US Walker Cup team in 2019 (a contest held every odd year between amateurs from the US and Great Britain and Ireland), initially depended on sponsor exemptions or Monday open qualifying.
The initial breakthrough came on the feeder Korn Ferry Tour in January, 2022, at Bahamas before he turned 20. He didn’t qualify for the PGA Tour in 2023 but a second-place finish in the Puerto Rico Open, earned him a temporary PGA Tour card. A T9 on the Barbasol Championship was followed by the Barracuda Championship win.
After the playoff win to seal PGA Tour playing status, Bhatia said: “It’s a great feeling because there is job security now. I can kind of, not free wheel, but I know how to win. I know I can do it against some of the best players in the world.”
Bhatia, who counts fellow leftie Brian Harmon, who won The Open last year, among his friends, provided an iconic picture, shirtless and shoeless hitting out of the mud on the third round of the Honda Classic last year. That moment explains his determination as much as the “race your race” he wrote with a marker on his elbow during the Texas Open after a chat with his mental trainer on dealing with the pressure, be it while leading or if he lost momentum.
It also explained the steely nerves that helped him with the clutch birdie putt on the 18th to ensure a playoff on Sunday. Commentators admired at how far his ball striking and putting had both improved this season. In 2024, he has three top 15 finishes to go win the Texas Open win, rising to within the top 12 in the FedExCup playoff rankings.
Having previously played on the San Antonio course helped, as did being in the late-early draw for the first two rounds when conditions were relatively better on the windy course. Bhatia also met his fiancée Presleigh Shultz at San Antonio. As his girlfriend, she even used to occasionally caddie for him.
“His rubber band elasticity allows him to generate a swing speed of around 125 miles per hour,” Golf Digest wrote last year. George Gankas, his swing coach since he was 13, told the publication then: “I’ve never seen someone hit the ball as well as he does, and I’ve seen as lot. He has got a gift. His work ethic is also off the charts, and he loves the game.”
The numbers explained the victory as much as Bhatia’s temperament. He finished No.1 for Greens in Regulation and in Strokes Gained: Approach. He was sixth for SG: Off the Tee and second for SG: Around the Green.
“Man, what a crazy, crazy day!” Bhatia, who was the youngest to make the cut at the Texas Open, said after the win. Many who have seen the golfer’s rise wouldn’t think so as Bhatia returns to Augusta 10 years after he played in the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals there.
Top scores: 268 (-20) Akshay Bhatia (63, 70, 68, 67), Denny McCarthy (68, 70, 67, 63) (Bhatia won on the first playoff hole). 3rd 277 (-11) Rory McIlroy (68, 70, 67, 63).
