Indian-American golfer Akshay Bhatia scores maiden PGA Tour win to earn full status

Four years after he turned professional at age 17, disregarding the more traditional route via collegiate golf, Indian-American Akshay Bhatia won his first PGA Tour title at the Barracuda Championship in California on Sunday.

Now 21, the wiry Los Angeles-born Bhatia birdied the final regulation hole to set up a play-off and then beat Patrick Rodgers at Tahoe Mountain Club to seal full status on the PGA Tour having played the Barracuda event under special temporary membership based on previous results including a second-place finish at the Puerto Rico Open in March.

A birdie on the first playoff hole gave him the winning advantage and secured 40 points in the event that is co-sanctioned by the DP World (European) Tour and played under the modified Stableford scoring system that awards five points for eagle and two for birdie while deducting a point for bogey and three for double bogey.

“It's obviously been a really tough road. I've had a lot of up, a lot of down. A lot of good, a lot of bad,” Bhatia said later. “But I knew I was going to get here. It was just matter of time. For it to happen this year with Special Temporary Membership and now to get to play all these events and to get it done today was, I can’t even describe it.

“I knew that if I got into a position like this, I could do it. I've done it at every level. That putt on 18 in regulation was just, man, it's a crazy feeling. I was telling my caddie, like, your brain and everything, you can feel all this adrenaline, all this shakiness. It's pretty crazy.”

Bhatia’s journey has been an unconventional one in terms of its trajectory and pace. Spotted early on as one to look out for, he took to the professional ranks in 2019 before which he became the youngest American selected for the prestigious Walker Cup that pits leading US amateurs against counterparts from Britain and Ireland.

The very next year saw him finish in the top 10 of a PGA Tour event at age 18 and win his first Korn Ferry Tour event at 19 in the Bahamas, making him the third-youngest ever to win on the feeder pipeline circuit into the PGA Tour behind Korean star Sungjae Im and 2015 PGA champion Jason Day of Australia.

Now 21, the 6 foot 1 inch south-paw has already crossed the $2 million mark in career earnings and is on the threshold of eligibility for the lucrative FedEx Cup Playoffs, for which the top 70 in the standings after next week’s Wyndham Championship qualify. Bhatia is currently 92nd with 435 points.

Bhatia’s points total includes those from his runner-up finish at the Puerto Rico Open and fourth-place finish at the Mexico Open having made the cut in 13 of 18 starts this season, including six top-25 finishes.

Incidentally, the Barracuda result is the first to see a golfer of Indian origin on top of the podium after Arjun Atwal’s victory at the 2010 Wyndham Championship. In the 13 years since, Atwal himself has gone close, as has Anirban Lahiri now with LIV Golf and fellow Indian-American Sahit Theegala Reddy, but the win remained elusive till Sunday’s result in Bhatia’s favour at Tahoe Mountain.