Playing With Anger

Through nine holes on Sunday, Akshay Bhatia’s hopes of winning the biggest PGA Tour event of his career appeared slim. He entered the final round one shot off the lead, but after a missed two-footer on No. 9, Bhatia slipped five shots behind Daniel Berger.

Playing near the top of a leaderboard can be unnerving. Bhatia, at least, has considerable experience in contention for a 24-year-old. On top of his two career PGA Tour wins, Bhatia shared the 54-hole lead at last July’s 3M Open, his third 54-hole lead at the time. He went on to card a Sunday 75, falling all the way to T-25. That day, he hit just six of 14 fairways and posted one of the worst Strokes Gained: Off the Tee numbers in the field (-3.5). More recently, Bhatia held a two-shot lead through 54 holes at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am before quickly ejecting on Sunday and settling for a T-6.  

At the midway point of the final round at Bay Hill, Bhatia’s tournament appeared destined for a similarly disappointing ending. He had been errant off the tee all week, and red-hot putting usually carries an expiration date. Then, in his words, he “played with some anger.” Bhatia rattled off four straight birdies — including a 58-foot bomb on the 11th — to pull within striking distance of Berger’s dwindling lead.

Standing in the par-5 16th fairway, 189 yards from the pin, Bhatia needed to muster some magic to apply pressure to Berger’s two-shot advantage. What followed was a majestic, high-arching, soft-landing fade that nearly found the cup, a shot Bhatia later called the best 6-iron of his life. Eagle.

Two Bhatia pars and a shaky finish from Berger sent the tournament to a playoff, where Bhatia prevailed on the first extra hole, tapping in for par to secure the third victory of his young career.

Though they swing from opposite sides of the ball, turned professional at much different stages of life, and bear zero physical resemblance to one another, Bhatia’s career arc could be characterized as a little bit Scottie Scheffler-esque. A gifted iron player who doesn’t overwhelm courses with speed, Bhatia sullied many impressive ball-striking performances early in his career with awful putting. A late-2023 switch to a broomstick yielded immediate results, and much like Scheffler, Bhatia has since become a much better putter. He led the field in putting at Bay Hill by gaining more than 10.5 strokes, which was enough to offset substandard ball-striking and get him across the finish line.

For Bhatia to evolve into a consistent top-five player in the world, gradual improvement around the greens and off the tee will be required. Driving, in particular, has proven to be an Achilles heel in high-leverage rounds. Fortunately, these are normal, fixable shortcomings he can refine as he ages into his prime.

In the short term, Bhatia’s next step is major championship success, where he has never finished better than T-16. Looking further ahead, no pro under 25 has a more promising future than the supremely talented left-hander.

Weekend Round-Up

Generally speaking, it would be harsh to suggest that a player who has opened the year with finishes of Win-T3-T4-T12-T24 is struggling. Yet Scottie Scheffler is clearly not in peak form. At Bay Hill he lost nearly three strokes with his irons, historically the strength of his game. Scheffler is missing in both directions — though the double-cross left miss has been more prevalent — and his distance control has been shakier than his typical standard. On Sunday, he pulled his approach on No. 14 way left into a palm tree and closed the tournament with a water ball from 148 yards in the fairway.

Entering this past week, Scheffler ranked 57th in Strokes Gained: Approach, which is a fine position, but a far cry from the top spot he has occupied for three consecutive seasons. A return to elite form feels like a matter of when, not if, but Scheffler is currently as beatable as he’s been since poor putting plagued his 2023 season. If Scheffler’s competitors have been at all demoralized in recent years by his dominance, his current moment of vulnerability must be inspiring confidence among the major championship hopefuls as the season’s most consequential stretch approaches.

For just the second time in his professional career, Rory McIlroy withdrew before the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational with back spasms. As of Sunday evening, he remains in the field for the Players Championship. McIlroy has managed to stay healthy throughout the vast majority of his career, and this may prove to be nothing more than a minor flare-up. Still, it is an important injury to monitor as the season heats up.

Over in Hong Kong, Jon Rahm cruised to a three-shot win, his first since LIV Chicago in September 2024. “That is the exact word I would use, very relieved,” Rahm said after the victory. Relative to his elite standard, Rahm has been playing consistent B+ or A- golf, but we haven’t seen peak Rahm since the front half of 2023, when he won four times, including the Masters and the Genesis Invitational. With some uncertainty surrounding Scheffler’s current form, Rahm has to fancy his chances of winning a second green jacket next month.

I often find myself reminiscing about 4Aces GC’s one-stroke win over Ripper GC at LIV London in 2023. Who could forget it? Evidently, Dustin Johnson. The 4Aces captain was asked if he remembers his team’s roster the last time they won nearly three years ago. He successfully recalled Patrick Reed. As for the other two? “Yeah, I have no idea.”

Lastly, as a submission into the rollback files, Colin Montgomerie posted a side-by-side comparison of a modern driver to the driver he used in the 1984 British Amateur. “Dare I say it the games gotten easier,” read the caption. Indeed it has, Monty!

On a podcast last week, Jim Furyk added his name to the list of voices calling to shrink the driver head. The tide of common sense grows stronger every day, even as the current of advertising dollars works aggressively to push the other away.

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