Akshay Bhatia struggled to fall asleep on the third night when he led the Valero Texas Open. His thoughts were racing.
He had to calm down. He had to have a purpose. He calculated that Sunday’s score was 4-under par. In a tournament he had led since his opening-round 63, that would move him to 19-under. He reasoned that 19-under would be difficult to defeat. And he would probably get into the Masters as a result.
It becomes out that it was going to lose. As Bhatia piled high-caliber putts on the back 9, Denny McCarthy displayed a masterful performance of putting. Bhatia scored 67 points. McCarthy fired 63 shots. They were 9 strokes ahead of their closest competitor when they finished at 20-under par.
A winner has to be chosen. That player was Bhatia, the inventor and improviser.
It never appeared simple. It wasn’t. Bhatia took the necessary actions, but McCarthy’s back-nine surge was a surprise. It made him uneasy.
“I felt so uncomfortable all day today.” “I started off really well and simply tried to follow my game plan as closely as possible. It’s difficult, though, when you’re playing with someone and you see them racing at you because it feels like you’re slipping away.” Bhatia, a talented shot-shaper who works almost every ball he hits, remarked.
Bhatia increased his lead to six after hitting two bold birdies to start his final round. He parred the 3rd and at the 4th hole dribbled a 6-foot birdie putt into the centre of the hole. Bhatia had an 18-under score. He was totally focused on what he was doing. McCarthy was the only one with a remote chance of catching him at 12-under.
It seems as though nothing would count. It seemed like too much like a great lead. The player who held it also felt the same.
It’s as if Bhatia never lets the pressure get to him. With the lead and a chance to earn his first Masters invitation, he scored a 5-under 67. On the tenth par-4, he faltered once and missed a 6-foot par putt, his lone bogey of the round. However, he steadied himself with his 4th round birdie on the 11th par-4 hole.
Bhatia remarked, “I knew it was a two-man race.”
Then there was a bustle. From the 12th to the 18th holes, McCarthy birdied 8 straight holes, eroding his lead, which stood at 6 at the halfway point. Bhatia and McCarthy were tied at the 17th hole after the former missed a 5-foot birdie putt on the low side.
McCarthy and Bhatia made 12-foot putts to birdie the 18th hole in regulation. The day’s loudest roars were produced by both.
On the first and only postseason sudden-death hole, both players scored a touchdown. Subsequently, McCarthy strangely misdirected his 99-yard wedge shot into the stream that borders the 18th hole. His fifth attempt was long-skewed. Bhatia pitched from 84 yards out to 6 feet.
“Leave now. You kind of have this moment now.” Over the putt, Bhatia persuaded himself he would win.
He got up for it. He turned to face the sky as the ball dropped.
Though it was his first in a 72-hole stroke-play start, it was Bhatia’s second victory on the PGA TOUR. The 2023 Barracuda Championship, an additional event hosted during The Open Championship with a Modified Stableford scoring structure, was won by him. He felt validated in a way by his victory at the Valero.
“Being in this position was just incredible,” Bhatia remarked.
As he rode the cart to the playoff tee, he reminded himself of his luck. A decade ago, he participated in the inaugural Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National, and now, four swings later, he had earned 500 FedExCup points and an invitation.
“On April 1st is my mother’s birthday and her wish is for me to enrol in the Masters programme. Thus, I aim to please her.” Bhatia said.
It wasn’t limited to her. Presleigh Schultz, Bhatia’s fiancé, met him on the green and gave him a long, passionate hug. Of all the events on the schedule, it was only right that Bhatia emerged victorious in the Valero Texas Open. In 2021, he met Schultz who is from Mississippi. When she was a Texas A&M student, Bhatia sent her a message on Instagram. He invited her to meet him at the San Antonio golf tournament, where he was playing. She had never attended a golf competition before. She left, changing both her and his lives.
“He has more faith in himself than anyone else,” Schultz remarked, adding that Bhatia had been assuring her all year long that they would be attending the Masters repeating it even this week.
“I took his word without a doubt” she stated.
There is none now.
