Akshay Bhatia: Youngster makes impressive debut at Valspar
If you only turned into the Valspar this weekend, you missed one of the biggest stories in golf. 17-year-old phenom Akshay Bhatia made his PGA debut this weekend, and did not disappoint.
Akshay Bhatia continued his impressive young career by making his PGA debut this week, receiving a sponsor’s exemption into the Valspar Championship. He shot 74-72, and ended up missing the cut by three strokes. Although he didn’t make it to the weekend, it was another impressive showing by Bhatia.
He showed glimpses of being someone who deserved to be there with the big boys, totaling seven birdies over his opening two rounds. He couldn’t quite bring it together overall though, adding in seven bogeys and two double bogeys.
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In case you aren’t familiar with him, Akshay Bhatia has been tearing it up in just about every Junior event that he has been playing in. He won three times in events in the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) last year, as well as breaking a couple course records. One of which was at the Polo Golf Junior Classic, where he shot a 64 en-route to a ten stroke victory.
He also became the first ever back-to-back winner of the Boy’s Junior PGA Championship, winning in 2017 and 2018. The one at 2018 was his most impressive. Starting the Par-5 18th hole down by one, he chipped in for eagle to win by one.
His 2017 Junior PGA win was arguably as impressive, where he shot a course record 61, on his way to a win. That wasn’t his only notable accomplishment at the tournament, where he also set the record for the tournament’s lowest 18-hole score, while also breaking PGA great Pat Perez’s former low round for the event, besting it by five strokes en-route to a final score of 22 under par.
His score that day could’ve been even lower, as he actually made eight birdies on the front nine, for a 28. He cooled off a bit on the back, shooting 33, but easily coasted to victory.
Bhatia showed this week at Valspar that anyone with opportunity should tune-in when he is playing. He did well around the greens, actually finishing top 15 in putts per GIR. The confidence is definitely there for him, helping him during his putting. It actually started before the round, as he had a little friendly trash-talk with Jon Rahm.
If anything, you can at least watch Akshay Bhatia bomb it off the tee, right up there with the long hitters you are used to. He destroyed a ball this weekend, hitting it an impressive 343 yards, something that the likes of Dustin Johnson wouldn’t scoff at.
After the experience was over, he was looking ahead, already learning from the unique opportunity he was given. After finishing up, Bhatia had this to say.
"“So it’s just getting more experience out here and I’m on the right track and this start was unbelievable and to have Dustin and Sergio, Paul Casey, all these guys who played well here and had success on the PGA Tour, it’s nice and I’ve learned a lot.”"
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Expect to see Akshay Bhatia a couple more times as the year goes on. The youngster actually is expected to turn pro later this year, and will be one of the youngest to do so in quite a while. There have been plenty of people in Bhatia’s shoes before, many who have failed to live up to the expectation. After his initial showing on tour, he looks to be on the right path, and will be worth watching whenever he tees up.