Akshay Bhatia had to earn a spot in his first Masters on Sunday at the Valero Texas Open.
He entered the day with a four-stroke lead over Denny McCarthy and was feeling pretty confident. That was evident from the “wire to wire” comment Bhatia had written on his wrist before the final round.
Early on, it looked like things would be smooth sailing for the 22-year-old. That wasn’t the case at all.
McCarthy hit the nail on the head on the back nine, finishing the round with seven straight birdies and finishing at 20 under. Bhatia suddenly needed to sink a long birdie putt on No. 18 to win the playoff.
He did just that.However, after that Guts pose This caused him to seek medical assistance.
“I’ve had problems with that shoulder in the past…when it happened like this, it just kind of came out of the socket,” Bhatia said after the round.
Despite partially dislocating his shoulder, Bhatia continued to fight.
On the first hole of the playoff, the golf gods were on his side. McCarthy’s short tip-on approach chunked and found water. This took some of the pressure off Bhatia.
After working his shoulder before his third shot on the par-5 18th, Bhatia hit a beautiful wedge that spun back to 5 feet for birdie and essentially sealed the title.
With this win, Bhatia becomes the 89th player to play in this year’s Masters Tournament.
Left-handed players tend to play better at Augusta, and once this young guy comes in and sees how well he’s playing, anything is possible. Once again, he needs to fix his right shoulder right away.
Kendall Capps is the senior editor of SB Nation’s Playing Through.For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough On all major social media platforms.
