The post Teenage phenom Akshay Bhatia, 19, becomes third-youngest player to win on Korn Ferry Tour appeared first on Golf.

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Akshay Bhatia was a teenage phenom in the golf world, bypassed college to turn pro at 17 and then had one of the worst seasons of his young golf life.

“I struggled mentally, I missed every cut,” he said Wednesday. “I had a lot of people expecting me to play well and it didn’t happen.”

But perhaps that rough start makes Wednesday’s win that much sweeter. Bhatia, just 12 days shy of his 20th birthday, shot a final-round seven-under 65 to win the Korn Ferry Tour’s Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay. He’s the third-youngest winner in the Tour’s history behind Sungjae Im and Jason Day, who were both a few months younger than Bhatia when they won. (Day was the youngest at 19 years, 7 months, 26 days.)

After turning pro in September 2019, Bhatia missed the cut in all six of his PGA Tour starts. Last season he made four cuts in 11 starts, his best finish a T9 at the Safeway Open.

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Bhatia admitted he struggled when he turned pro, but when the pandemic hit it allowed him to take a step back and reflect.

“I got to sit back, talk to my coach, realize where I’m at in my life,” he said. “After that, you know, I’ve just climbed the mountain slowly and slowly and slowly.”

He missed back-to-back cuts on the Korn Ferry Tour in August 2021 but was T41 the next week at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, which gave him an exemption for the Final Stage of the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament. He tied for 63rd and didn’t earn guaranteed starts, but his priority ranking got him into The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic. Now, after his win, he has Korn Ferry Tour membership for two years and is that much closer to a PGA Tour card.

On Wednesday, Bhatia entered the final round three off the lead and said his goal was to top 10, which would have been good enough for a start the following week. But that goal changed. His girlfriend, Presleigh Schultz, caddied for him, and on the last couple of holes he told her a top-10 was no longer the plan.

“I told her like this is my time, like this is my time to win,” Bhatia said.

On 18, Bahatia held a one-shot lead when his approach shot hit the flag stick, danced around the cup and nearly went in. After an easy birdie, Bhatia’s 14-under total was two better than Paul Haley II.

“I’m just excited to play next week,” he said. “I have never had a schedule. Just to be able to have a schedule and obviously look forward to playing certain events … there’s just all those things I get to look forward to this year. I would like to win three and get promoted to the PGA Tour, so I guess that’s my goal.”

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The post A 19-year-old made the U.S. Open cut. But that wasn’t the best part appeared first on Golf.

The post A 19-year-old made the U.S. Open cut. But that wasn’t the best part appeared first on Golf.

Akshay Bhatia, two years ago this September, wished his dad, Sonny, a happy birthday. Then he explained why it should be happy. Akshay posted two pictures to his Instagram account — one of Sonny holding a baby Akshay, the other of Sonny fixing Akshay’s tie during the 2019 Walker Cup. To the right, he wrote the following: 

“I’d like to take a moment to wish my old man a Happy Birthday! I will never take for granted all of the things you had to sacrifice, and I wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for you! Thank you so much for everything you have done. I love you Dad ❤️ #HappyBirthday”

Which brings us to Friday night.

Akshay, in his first U.S. Open, in his first major, was one stroke below the cutline with two holes to get above it. On the par-4 17th at Torrey Pines, he got up and down on a short-sided pitch right of the green. Good shot. Not good enough. That was a par. Needing a birdie on the par-5 18th to make the cut, Bhatia ran his second shot into the thick stuff over the green, then pitched to just over 3 feet.    

“What a shot,” analyst Paul Azinger said on the Peacock online broadcast. 

At this point, Bryson and Brooks were long gone. Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas, too. As were most of the fans. Akshay was in the second-to-last group during the second round, and he was one of six golfers still on the course. But you won’t find a more earnest moment between dad and son than when he rolled in that 3-footer.

The younger Bhatia, to happy cheers, picked his ball out of the cup and doffed his cap. Near the green, the elder Bhatia sprinted 30 yards, skipped three times and yelled.

“Can you believe it?”

“Yeah!”

“That looks like a proud papa to me,” Azinger said on the broadcast. 

“That looks like a parent,” announcer Dan Hicks said. “We don’t know for sure, but it sure had the celebration of one, didn’t it?”

“Didn’t it, though?” Azinger said. 

“That wasn’t just some Akshay Bhatia fan,” Hicks said. “It was good stuff.”

As the 19-year-old Bhatia walked off the 18th on his way to the scorer’s tent, he gave a double fist pump toward the camera. A few minutes later, Akshay, Sonny and friends met up and hugged. 

“And there is the Bhatia support team still celebrating Akshay making it into the weekend,” Hicks said on the broadcast. “You don’t think it means a lot to make it to the weekend at a U.S. Open? Great stuff.”  

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The post John Daly announces cancer diagnosis and 2 other stories you might’ve missed appeared first on Golf.

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From the Great Wall of Dinah to Stewart Cink’s surprise resurgence, there were plenty of compelling storylines last week, but here are three you might’ve missed.

Curtis Thompson wins in Chicago

Two years ago, Thompson decided to quit his pursuit of professional golf. After a few years of struggling on the development tours, he had finally had enough. So he picked up the bag and became a caddie on the LPGA Tour for his sister, Lexi.

Now, he’s a Korn Ferry Tour champion.

Thompson won the Evans Scholars Invitational over the weekend, besting a strong field in Chicago for his first PGA Tour-sanctioned win.

“I just never thought I’d be back here again, and I definitely never thought I’d be sitting here talking to you guys about a win,” Thompson said. “I just never thought I’d play golf ever again.”

The win gives the 27-year-old a two-year exemption on the Korn Ferry Tour and moves him to 12th on the season-long points race, putting him in excellent position to earn his first Tour card.

Akshay Bhatia nabs top 10 at Safeway Open

After experiencing tremendous success as a junior, 18-year-old Akshay Bhatia struggled during his first year as a professional. Now, he’s finally made a splash on the PGA Tour.

Bhatia made his first cut on Tour at the Safeway Open Friday, and once he had a weekend tee time, he took advantage. The teen fired rounds of 66 and 68 on the weekend to finish T9, becoming the youngest player to earn a top 10 on Tour since Justin Rose at the 1998 Open Championship.

The top-10 finish earns Bhatia a start in the next Tour-run event in two weeks at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. He’ll look to continue the momentum there, as he is playing on non-member status. If he’s able to play well, he could earn enough points to earn special temporary membership.

John Daly reveals cancer diagnosis

Daly revealed last week that he’s been diagnosed with bladder cancer. The news was first reported by the Golf Channel’s Will Gray.

Daly said that when he went in for treatment for what he thought were kidney stones, doctors discovered his condition was much more dire. The 54-year-old underwent surgery to successfully treat the ailment, although it is likely the cancer will return.

“It’s probably going to come back and then another three months that you don’t know,” Daly told Golf Channel. “You just don’t know. Luckily for me, they caught it early, but bladder cancer is something that I don’t know all the details. But it doesn’t look like it may go away. We will just see what happens. Maybe there’s a miracle.”

Despite the diagnosis, Daly has continued to play on the Champions Tour, finishing T12 in his most recent appearance at the Sanford International.

“It would have been nice to play the last seven or eight or 13 years of my career a little more healthy,” he said. “But hey, I’m still working, I’m still living life, I’m still doing the things I need to do. … I can accept the challenge. I’m not scared of that. I just want my kids to be OK and everyone else in my family.”

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The post Here’s what it’s like playing the PGA Tour as an 18-year-old appeared first on Golf.

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Akshay Bhatia isn’t like most 18-year-olds.

For most kids Bhatia’s age, mid-August marks the beginning of their college journey — packing up their rooms, saying goodbye to lifelong friends and embarking for various campuses throughout the country. For Bhatia, mid-Augusta means prepping for the Wyndham Championship — his first PGA Tour event since becoming a legal adult.

A teenager playing in a Tour event is nothing new — Jordan Spieth famously made the cut at the Byron Nelson as an amateur at the age of 16. But Spieth, and others who have played in events so young, went back to the junior and amateur ranks before turning pro. That had no appeal for Bhatia, who turned pro last September.

“It’s crazy to think that like this month I would actually be going to college for my first year,” Bhatia said ahead of the Wyndham Championship. “It just didn’t ever cross my mind that I wanted to do — you know, go to school. All my mind was set on was just playing golf and playing on the PGA Tour and playing pro golf.”

Lifestyle

But the success Bhatia saw at the junior and amateur levels hasn’t come as easily since he’s jumped to the pro ranks. He missed his first five cuts on Tour playing on sponsors exemptions, and he failed to advance past the second stage of last fall’s Korn Ferry Tour Q school. He did earn status on the Mackenzie Tour, but with pandemic-related coronavirus travel bans, the season was scrapped in May, leaving Bhatia to fend for himself on the mini tours and playing the Monday qualifier game.

“I’ve just kind of always had that mentality of just learning the hard way,” Bhatia said.

That mentality is starting to pay off for the young prodigy. Last week, Bhatia claimed his first victory as a professional — a three-stroke win on the SwingThought Tour in Hilton Head, S.C. That was just the kind of confidence boost he needed heading into the Wyndham on his last sponsors exemption of the season.

“It was just an amazing feeling know that obviously I didn’t have — obviously I played well, but I didn’t feel like I had my A-game,” Bhatia said. “Just knowing that if I have my B- or C-game, that I can still perform at a high level.”

Posting a solid finish at the Wyndham will surely require his A-game, but his game is trending in the right direction. If he does play poorly, though, comfort inside the ropes on the PGA Tour won’t be to blame. Bhatia is friendly with several of Tour pros and has picked their mind plenty on what it will take to elevate his game.

During his PGA Tour debut at the Valspar Championship last spring, Bhatia got to play a practice round with now No. 1-ranked player Jon Rahm, even besting the Spaniard in a closest-to-the-pin competition. Bhatia called it one of his “coolest stories” of being out on Tour.

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But being the youngest player in a field of pros, Bhatia does run into some generational gaps in knowledge with his playing partners.

“My caddie and I, we talk all the time about TikTok, Instagram, just funny stuff,” he said. “(But) we kind of keep it to ourselves because some of it might not be appropriate to some of these older guys or they won’t understand.”

For Bhatia to become a mainstay on the Tour, he’ll need a finish near the top of the leaderboard to secure special temporary membership. While that may be unlikely, it is 2020 — stranger things have happened. And if not, he has plenty of time to grow.

He is only 18, after all.

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Former World No. 5 ranked amateur Akshay Bhatia makes his first professional start while Joaquin Niemann and Sungjae Im look to make statements at the event where a first time champion has been crowned each of the last four years.

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The post 16-year-old superstar holes ‘unreal’ chip shot to win Junior PGA appeared first on Golf.

The post 16-year-old superstar holes ‘unreal’ chip shot to win Junior PGA appeared first on Golf.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Akshay Bhatia holed a 40-foot eagle chip on the final hole Friday to successfully defend the Boys Junior PGA Championship title.

The 16-year-old Bhatia, from Wake Forest, North Carolina, ran in the slow-moving, sidewinder for a 4-under 68 and a one-stroke victory at Valhalla Golf Club. The first two-time winner in event history, Bhatia raised his club in celebration and followed with a fist-pump. The eagle followed a bogey on No. 17.

“To make the chip was unreal,” Bhatia said. “It was one of the clutchiest moments of my career.”

Bhatia finished at 11-under 277. He won last year at a record 22 under at The Country Club of St. Albans in Missouri.

Tommy Stephenson, of Carlsbad, California, was second. The 17-year-old closed with a 66.

Bhatia earned an automatic spot on the U.S. Junior Ryder Cup Team that will face Europe at Disneyland Paris in September. Captain Allen Wronowski also named Canon Claycomb, Michael Thorbjornsen, Ricky Castillo, William Moll and Cole Ponich to the team. They will join Yealimi Noh, Rose Zhang, Lucy Li, Rachel Heck, Erica Shepherd and Alexa Pano on the co-ed squad.

Earlier today, Akshay Bhatia won the #JuniorPGA at @ValhallaGolf … by doing this! pic.twitter.com/MeITpo4ufH

— PGA of America (@PGA) August 4, 2018

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