Field Level Media
| The Detroit News
Akshay Bhatia found several sources of late-day momentum, which led to another victory on the PGA Tour.
Bhatia used a late-round eagle to help secure a 3-under-par 69 before winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational in a playoff Sunday in Orlando, Florida.
His par on the extra hole was enough when Daniel Berger missed a putt from about 7 1/2 feet.
They both were at 15-under 273 for the tournament at Bay Hill Club and Lodge.
“Everyone knows when you show up to Bay Hill it’s going to be a test and to play one of the hardest golf courses,” Bhatia said. “And to succeed is really cool.”
Bhatia won for the third time on the PGA Tour with his first victory since the 2024 Texas Open. It was the tournament’s first playoff since 1999.
Berger, seeking his fifth tour victory and first in more than five years, shot 70 in the final round.
“Obviously it didn’t go the way I wanted it to,” Berger said. “But at the start of the week if you told me I would have a chance on the 18th hole to win Bay Hill, I would be ecstatic with that. So a lot of positives, a lot of things to learn from.”
There was plenty of drama on the last hole in regulation. With his tee shot into the rough on No. 18, Berger chose to lay up rather than try to carry the lake guarding the green. Bhatia put his second shot within 19 feet of the hole and then needed a tap-in for par. Berger sank a 13 1/2-foot putt, with the ball curling into the cup, to match Bhatia’s par and extend the tournament.
“You just never know what can happen in this game,” Bhatia said.
Berger was in the rough off the tee again on the playoff hole, and this time he couldn’t make a full recovery.
“It’s tough to win (a tournament),” Berger said. “It’s tough to battle. But I feel like I did a good job, and a shot here or there was the difference.”
Cameron Young (69) and Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg (67) tied for third place at 12 under and Collin Morikawa (70), seeking his second victory in four weeks, was fifth at 11 under.
Hours earlier, Berger’s lead dipped to one stroke on Bhatia after they were among a few groups completing the weather-interrupted third round Sunday morning. Bhatia posted birdie on No. 18 to finish the third round.
Berger and Bhatia were in the final pairing for the second round in a row.
Bhatia drew even briefly with an eagle 3 — courtesy of a 3-foot putt — on the 16th hole. The approach shot came from what Bhatia called the best 6-iron shot of his life.
Berger, however, left the green with a one-stroke lead after making birdie. He relinquished the final-round lead with a bogey on the following hole.
Berger dodged early trouble when his tee shot on the par-5 fourth hole went into a shallow creek off the fairway. He took a risk by powering his second shot out of trouble with water spraying, and he managed to produce a birdie on the hole.
Bhatia got back in it with four consecutive birdies to begin the back nine after a three-bogey, one-birdie front side. He said a bogey on No. 9 led to a change of mindset.
“I played with some anger for those couple holes,” he said.
His birdie splurge included a 58-foot birdie putt on No. 11.
“That putt on 11 was a huge bonus for me,” he said. “That really switched my momentum.”
Young liked being near the top of the leaderboard.
“I got myself in a place where I hit a bunch of good shots and sometimes the putts just don’t go in,” Young said.
Sahith Theegala had the final round’s best score with 66, allowing him to share sixth place at 10 under with Russell Henley (68) and Australia’s Min Woo Lee (70).
“This week was big,” Theegala said. “I played some really, really nice golf. Just got to figure out how to get one of the really bad round.”
World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler’s 73 marked his worst round of the tournament. He tied for 24th place at 2 under, yet he was far from discouraged.
“I hit a lot of really, really nice iron shots,” Scheffler said. “Some worked out, others got some wind shifts, but overall, I felt like I struck it really nicely.”
PGA Tour
Ricky Castillo had a chip-in eagle on the sixth hole to take the lead and held on to win the Puerto Rico Open by one stroke for his first PGA Tour victory Sunday in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.
Castillo drained a birdie putt at No. 13 to break a tie with Chandler Blanchet for the outright lead, then added one more at the par-5 14th at Grand Reserve Golf Club before saving four pars down the stretch and carding a 5-under 67.
At 17-under 271, Castillo had just enough room to beat Blanchet, who birdied his final hole to also shoot 67 and reach 16 under.
“It’s super special,” said Castillo, 25. “To be able to win out here, my parents were able to watch and stuff like that. You know, I know my grandma’s looking down right now all happy and stuff, so just super surreal.”
Castillo, a native of California, had two top-five finishes, including a third place in 2025. He said he would have liked to qualify for this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational but entered the alternate event because he was eager to play, making the breakthrough even more rewarding.
Castillo did not have a single bogey Saturday or Sunday. His short- range chip-in from off the green at the par-5 sixth was quickly followed by a birdie at the par-3 seventh.
Blades Brown, 18, was vying to become the second-youngest winner in PGA Tour history but settled for third at 14 under after a round of 69. Davis Thompson (69) was fourth at 13 under and Paul Peterson (66), Luke Clanton (68) and German Matti Schmid (71) tied for fifth at 12 under.
PGA Tour Champions
Zach Johnson didn’t wait long to make himself at home on PGA Tour Champions.
Just two weeks after turning 50, the two-time major winner closed with a 3-under 69 on Sunday to win the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational in Boca Raton, Fla., by four shots in his debut on the 50-and-older circuit.
Johnson finished at 11-under 205 on The Old Course at Broken Sound, becoming the 22nd player to win his first start on the tour.
Johnson’s final round had an early hiccup – a bogey on the par-3 third hole – but then he maintained steady pressure. He recorded four birdies as he created separation from a leaderboard that stayed bunched most of the week.
Stewart Cink, one of the early-season pace-setters on the Champions Tour, finished four back after a closing 70 that tied him with George McNeill (72) for second place at 7-under 209. McNeill briefly grabbed a share of the lead with a birdie on the opening hole, but couldn’t keep pace once Johnson began stacking birdies through the middle of the round.
LPGA Tour
South Korea’s Mi Hyang Lee overcame a pair of double bogeys on the front nine and recorded a birdie on the final hole to seize a one-stroke win at the Blue Bay LPGA on Sunday at Hainan Island, China.
Lee, 32, won her third LPGA title and first since capturing the 2017 Women’s Scottish Open after firing a 1-over-par 73 on Sunday to finish with an 11-under 277 at the Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course.
She finished one stroke better than China’s Weiwei Zhang (69 on Sunday), who failed to hold the lead after a bogey on the 17th hole.
LIV Golf
Jon Rahm captured his first individual tournament win since September 2024 on Sunday, carding a 64 for a three-stroke victory at LIV Golf Hong Kong.
Tied with Harold Varner III and Belgium’s Thomas Detry entering the round, Rahm took over on the back nine with birdies on four consecutive holes, giving himself enough cushion to withstand a bogey at No. 18. His final round put him at 23-under for the event at Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling.
Also breaking a long title drought was the Dustin Johnson-led 4Aces, who grabbed their first team win in 974 days with their 58-under showing.
Rahm started the season with back-to-back runner-up finishes before hoisting the Hong Kong trophy.