Akshay Bhatia
Last week 19-year-old Indian origin golf sensation Akshay Bhatia joined a zoom call from USA with the media following his thrilling win at the Bahamas on his Korn Ferry Tour debut. Bhatia knocked a wedge to a few inches on the final hole to become just the third teenager to win on the tour, after former World No 1 Jason Day and Korean superstar Sungjae Im. Coincidentally, Bhatia turns 20 on Jan. 31, 2022.
The victory dramatically boosts his chances of obtaining PGA Tour playing rights for 2023 as the top 20 finishers on the Korn Ferry Tour automatically qualify for the main tour.
Bhatia also revealed that 50 year old superstar Phil Mickelson, his idol on tour, was one of the people who messaged him after his win.
Bhatia’s family is originally from Delhi, though now most of them live in California and Texas. He was even supposed to play in the 2020 Hero Indian Open, but the event was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When asked if he would like to visit India, he said, “I’ve always wanted to come, I just never — nothing’s worked out yet. I was supposed to come play the Hero World Challenge or the Hero Challenge back in 2020 and unfortunately with the COVID our flight got cancelled two days before. I’m hoping to come there soon because I would love to come visit obviously the country and eat some of the greatest food in the world because food’s a big passion of mine and my 3 Tee-Scripts.com family and everyone loves Indian food. That’s something I definitely want to do and hopefully once — hopefully once COVID gets a little easier and it’s the right decision for me, then I’ll definitely try and come.”
When asked what stood out most for him during his win, Bhatia said, “Birdieing three of my last four holes to win by two was pretty cool. Just knowing that I can do certain things under certain situations. And I’ve said it a few times in other interviews, but I didn’t know if the guy I was playing with was tied with me, one behind me or if he was one clear, I had no idea really. I know it was between me and him with the cameras on us for most of the last few holes but being able to make some putts down the stretch like I did and obviously the shot on 18, icing on the cake for that victory, it stood out the most for me.”
Iconic.@AkshayBhatia_1‘s approach en route to winning birdie @BahamasKFTour. pic.twitter.com/cIw5HjhYz3
— Korn Ferry Tour (@KornFerryTour) January 19, 2022
Two years ago as a 17-year-old Bhatia chose to forgo college and turned pro right out of high school, a potentially risky decision. “For me, I felt like I was so ahead of the curve in junior golf that I was pretty much — we always talk about these three or four years of me playing golf on the PGA TOUR or on the Korn Ferry Tour, my college. I’m basically getting my master’s degree on the golf course. My dad had done a lot of things that were unconventional versus a lot of junior golfers, a lot of their dads. Like I would go play qualifiers for Tour events, play mini-tour events when I was 11 and 12, so I did a lot of different things. Really helped me understand what it was like early on to where I felt like I was ready to do it. Obviously having my agent now, Tommy, he’s been a huge impact for me to learn a lot of the new things on Tour.”
Since he turned pro, Bhatia has played in a few events on the PGA Tour. He even qualified for the 2021 U.S. Open, where he made the cut. But it’s also been a struggle at times.
“Yeah. I mean, I feel like I’ve gone through every sort of feeling on the golf course. I mean, I’ve gone through some lows of missing every cut, I’ve gone through some highs of top-10ing in Tour events, but it’s been one of the best learning curves for me in golf and in life. Meeting a lot of new people and feeling certain things I’ve never felt in amateur golf and junior golf, travelling way more. But it’s been great because it’s kind of all led up to this point for me, which is great. Just struggled a little bit. I feel like a lot of players that succeed or a lot of athletes fail before they succeed, and it was — it was hard at first and then I started to feel a little more comfortable and I started winning a little bit. And then the progression came, okay, I top-10ed into a Tour event, I feel a little more comfortable now. And then I did some great things on the PGA TOUR last season. So it’s been awesome, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’m excited for this process to keep going and this journey to keep going and see what it can evolve to.”
The top-20 players on the Korn Ferry Tour at the end of the season automatically earn PGA Tour cards. Bhatia was the 2018 Rolex US Junior Player of the Year and has earned mini tour wins on the G Pro Tour in June 2021, two on the Swing Thought Tour – in Georgia in February 2021, and in South Carolina in August 2020 and the most recent being his title on the Florida Elite Tour in December.
Credits:-
Photo – PGA Tour