FedEx St. Jude Championship: Akshay Bhatia (-8) Career-Best Round, Holds Solo Lead | Round 1 Recap

Patrick McDonald joins CBS Sports HQ to recap Round 1 of the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

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Walking in Memphis, playoff golf in Memphis. Round one of the FedEx St. Jude Championship from TPC Southwind. Top 50 will advance to the BMW Championship. A Batia locked in in round one. Par sixth second shot 123 yds to the hole onto the grain. Settles three feet from the cup. He’d knock that in for birdie. Now an eagle putt on 16 from 13 feet away. Buries it. Moves to six under. Takes a share of the lead. Not done. Par4 17th. Deep birdie putt 27 ft away. Oshay Batia. Got it. Moves to seven under. He wants more. Talked about playing with more peace on the golf course. Approach shot into the 18th green. 159 yds. Snuggles it up nice and close. Put a snuggy on it. He’d make the birdie. Finished Eagle Birdie. Birdie eight under 62. He’s at top the leaderboard. His lowest career round on the PGA Tour. Projected to move from number 45 to number three in the FedEx Cup standings. Colin Morawa using his fifth different Caddy of the season. Caddy says to use the flat stick here. They all do. And that goes down. Gets to four under here on 10. Few holes later, another birdie putt on 13 inside 27 ft. Morawa putting with precision. He’s T7 at four under. 31 under at TPC Southwind since 2022. Best of any player seeking his first win since 2023. Tommy Fleetwood still in search of his first career PGA Tour victory from the Greenside Bunker. And this kids is how you get up and down. Tommy lad just getting started. Love that approach shot now in the par 44. 17th inside 150 yards. 4 feet just flag hunting. He’d make that for a third straight birdie. How about a fourth on 18 15 ft away. Tommy Fleetwood buries it. Moves into solo second at seven under. Career best opening round score for Tommy Fleetwood. World number one Scotty Sheffler looking for back-to back tour championships. Approach shot on 10. Already a two under. 159 yds to the pin. And Scotty in playoff form. He’d make the birdie putt to get to three under now. A T-shot on 14. 216 yds to the hole. Sixiron in hand. Oh, I love my sixiron. Help me get my first birdie. You don’t care about that. You care about Scotty Sheffller. He however gets a birdie here. That’s what you care about. He makes this for birdie to get to four under. However, a bogey on the last to fall to three under. Scotty Sheffller T12 at three under. Five shots off the pace looking to become the first back-to-back winner of the FedEx Cup. They’re all chasing Ox Batia seeking his first win since the 2024 Valero Texas Open. He’s got two PJ tour victories to his name and a win this week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship would be huge for not only his confidence but securing a spot the top 50 again moving on to the BMW Championship as the Fed thenX Cup playoffs continue. But still plenty of golf ahead. Batia with a one-shot lead on Tommy Fleetwood. And for more, welcome in CBS Sports. Golf writer Patrick McDonald. Oshay Batia, who entered the week 45th in the FedEx Cup playoff standings, fires an eight under 62 at top the leaderboard at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. To get there, he’s been working on his mindset, his mental approach. And Patrick, here’s what he said about trying to find peace on the golf course. Take a listen. Yeah, I haven’t done a great job. I’ve been looking at a lot of the numbers that I don’t need to look at. Obviously, FedEx Cup, World Ranking, and um I’m still doing it, and I still catch myself doing it, but I’m just really trying to have a little more peace on the golf course. I think this game uh can consume your life, your happiness. And so I’m just trying to figure out ways to change that because I feel like I don’t really want to live my life based off a unstable, you know, game. I mean, this is going to drive me nuts. And so this whole year it has. And so I’m just trying to uh you know be yeah just a little more at ease with whatever I shoot. One of us. One of us. Patrick, he’s one of us. Golf is 90% mental. And here’s a guy. Here’s a pro that is sharing that with us. The him being vulnerable there trying to find more peace. What’s your reaction to what Ash said and what he’s trying to accomplish? You got to remember Hakee Ash is still pretty young. He’s only 23 years old. He’s taken a very unorthodox route to the PGA Tour, forgoing college golf, turning professional early, and he’s found all this success early as well. And so far this season, he hit a little bit of turbulence in the middle portion of the year. And I think what I heard from Ashe Batia is he’s trying to become more present, right? He’s trying to stay in the moment. He’s trying to stick to his process. He talked about how at the 3M open he was kicking himself because in the hotel room Saturday evening he was looking at leaderboards and we saw what happened on Sunday he shot a final round 75 fell outside the top 10. And this is a guy whose underlying metrics have been great in 2025 but he’s without a top 10 finish since the players championship where he finished just outside that playoff between JJ Spawn and Rory Mroy. So we know this guy’s talent is there. We know all the tangible skills are there and this is a kid who’s just slowly but surely learning what it takes to compete week in and week out on the PJ tour. And it’s really processor orientation, not so much result orientation. And we heard him say how resultoriented he seems to be looking himself up on the internet, which is never a good sign for anyone. And then you look at his round today and it was just really flawless, right? He was great through his first 15 holes and then he plays those final three holes and four underpar to really separate himself from the field. He had 10 fairways, 14 greens in regulation that led the field as well. And so if he continues to strike the ball like this, Oshay won’t have to look himself up on any leaderboard cuz he’ll probably be there right at number one as it stands right now. Well, I hope he’s looking himself up on CBS Sports HQ because we love Oshay Batia at the queue here. Okay, just just to let let you know, we’re huge fans of Ox’s game. Uh we’ve seen him multiple times at the Travelers Championship. Great iron game. His putter was on fire. He’s got a one-shot lead on Tommy Fleetwood who’s chasing his first PJ Tour victory. World number one and rating FedEx Cup champ Scotty Sheffler five shots back. His only bogey of the day was on his last. Patrick, what did you see from Scotty in the opening round at TPC Southwind? I think Scotty put it best after his round where he said he thought he was going to be be in for a great round, but it just happened to turn into a solid round instead because Scotty Shuffler was coasting and he knocked in this birdie on the par 31 14th a very difficult hole there. We saw a player struggle throughout the day figuring out that wind, figuring out the first bounce bounce with a long iron in hand off that tee. He knocked it to 8 feet. He knocked it in and then he entered that really scorable stretch. We saw like we saw with Ashe Batia finishing four under in his last three holes. We saw Tommy Fleetwood with four birdies in a row to finish his round. Scotty Sheffller all of a sudden kind of had a case with the rights with the driver. Missed the fairway on 16. Didn’t take advantage of that par five. Missed the fairway on 18 out to the right as well. Three putted for bogey there. Missing from inside 5 ft uh for his par putt as well. But it’s a good start for Scotty Sheffller. It’s a start that puts him right in the thick of this tournament. He probably needs to start putting a little bit better. His longest putt on Thursday was just inside 8 ft. You expect given how he has putted in 2025, those are going to start falling from 10 to 20 ft. He’s going to give himself so many birdie opportunities with how stout his TA Green game is. So, I think it’s a good start for Sheffler like you said, but not great just given how he finished coming off his huge win at the Open Championship. just further exemplifies the fact that that we are we are Joe’s and he’s a pro. The fact that he can just pick up a club a month later and go out and fire a threeunder in a playoff event. That’s just how awesome he is. I just hope people appreciate how great he is at this game trying to win back-to-back FedEx Cup trophies. Top 50 players advance the BMW championship. Scotty of course already there. Patrick, who do you like to move up the leaderboard in the second round? I like last week’s winner Cameron Young. He kind of sleptwalked off the bus I think this morning, right? He had maybe one too many celebration drinks there on on Sunday evening or Monday, whatever it may be. Got off to a brutal start in his round. He was overpar early. He was two over through 14, but he finished like a champ with three birdies in that final stretch. Got into red figures. He did not putt well at all today. One under was probably the highest score he could have shot, but he was second in terms of ball striking behind only a Batia. He hit 10 fairways as well, which is huge out there at TPC Southwind. We saw how difficult it is for these guys to be playing out of the rough immediately. You’re put on your heels. You’re playing defense if you’re missing fairways out there. Cam Young, if he’s hitting 10 fairways tomorrow, I think he’s got something in the mid60s in store and can play himself back into this tournament. He’s at one under through round one, seven shots off the pace. All right, now let’s get your pick to win the FedEx St. Jude Championship. You picked Russell Henley before the playoffs started. He’s tied for seventh at four under. You sticking with him to win in Memphis. You got to. Okay. You got to. He did nothing wrong on Thursday. Right. Who are we if we don’t stick to our morals, right? Russell Henley was awesome on Thursday. Got off to a little bit of a shaky start. He’d make a birdie. He’d make a bogey. He’d make a birdie. He’d make a bogey. Then he kind of settled in to his day. Played that back nine and four under which was awesome. Got the putter rolling as you see here. making this one from just about 25 ft to really kickstart that back nine charge and ju just a great horse fit for him. The iron play needs to maybe tighten up a little bit, especially the long irons. That kind of what got him in trouble on Thursday when he did run into a little bit of issues here and there, but great opening round, beat the field average by three strokes. If he does that over these next three days as well, I think Russell Henley is going to be your winner. Well, you’re going to get even better value here if you go with Russell Henley. So, uh, let’s let’s let’s ride with Russell Henley. Let’s ride with Patrick McDonald here on CBS Sports HQ. Patrick, thanks. And for more awesome golf content, check out the Early Wedge. Sports Lines crew giving you DFS advice, also pre-ournament picks, live wagering, and much, much more. Watch live on the Sports Line YouTube channel or find episodes in the Early Edge podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.