Adrenaline prevented Akshay Bhatia from getting much rest as he traveled from San Antonio, Texas to Augusta, Georgia. He’s had a busy couple of days, after all.
Bhatia secured a wire-to-wire victory at the Valero Texas Open on Sunday, which earned him an invitation to the Masters, his second career major start.
The way Bhatia won Sunday is what’s perhaps most impressive. He had to defeat a red-hot Denny McCarthy in a playoff after McCarthy carded a back-nine 28 to shoot up the leaderboard and catch Bhatia. And Bhatia had to play through a dislocated left shoulder — it popped out when he celebrated after making a birdie putt at No. 18 to force the playoff.
Bhatia, 22, had his shoulder taped up before playing his third shot of the par-5 playoff hole. Now that he’s in the Masters field, he’ll be closely monitoring how the shoulder feels.
“It’s going to be a work in progress, for sure,” Bhatia said. “I’ve had it happen two, three times. I had a full disk location playing pickleball a couple years ago, and I had — it kind of subluxed in Bermuda … in 2021. I played through that week. I think I finished 15th or 16th.
“So it’s nothing new to me. It’s a weird, weird experience because I had so much adrenaline so I had no pain kind of in that playoff. But it’s definitely something we’re going to have to work towards, and I have a lot of trust in my team that we can tee it up on Thursday.”
After arriving in Augusta on Monday, Bhatia did not have time to play a practice round, though rest and recovery was more important anyway.
“I’m just taking it easy. I’m going to get some physio work, just make sure my body’s good and rested,” Bhatia said. “This is seven weeks in a row for me, so it’s a lot of golf, but I also have a ton of adrenaline so it kind of balances out.
“I know for sure Wednesday I’ll play the Par-3 Contest and, but, yeah, just going to kind of sit down with the team and figure out what the best game plan is. I’m hoping my shoulder should be good, but I might be a little scared to hit some shots, and we just got to find out (Tuesday).”
Bhatia is the first person who participated in the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National as a kid and went on to make a Masters field. He competed at Augusta for the first time as a 12-year-old in 2014.
“(To) have that opportunity, you know, that first time at the Drive, Chip & Putt is pretty surreal as a kid,” Bhatia said. “You just don’t realize how lucky we are to have that opportunity. And for everyone to be so gracious to let some kids hit some golf balls on the range, hit some putts on the 18th green, it was unreal.”
–Field Level Media