Akshay Bhatia is just 21 years old, but he’s been a professional for over four years. The First Cut crew discusses his contention at the Sentry and his path to the PGA Tour.
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ABOUT THE SHOW: The First Cut brings you everything you need to know in the world of professional golf. Nearly every day Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter, Mark Immelman, Greg DuCharme, Sia Nejad and Patrick McDonald bring you the best analysis in the game. From DFS to betting previews, interviews and recaps… everything golf is on the table when you listen to The First Cut.
AE batia shot a 7even under 66 that was bogy free highlighted by three consecutive birdies on five six and seven the other thing that has been pointed out uh on the broadcast throughout is he is number one in the field in Strokes gained putting he is
Gaining five and a half Strokes to the field what I love about this Greg is he took all the putting cheat codes and he added them up he put them together and that is what he is using so correct me if I if I’ve missed any he’s got the
Jailbird that’s a cheat code in itself he’s got the broomstick the long putter on that broomstick he’s got the split grip and he’s using the claw lower hand he he has gone like whatever anyone has ever told him to try he has put it all into one package that’s what that’s
Pretty good Rick you’re you’re right um everything well uh I mean this worked for the claw worked for morawa the jailbird worked for Keegan Bradley the long putter worked for Lucas Glover I’ll do all of them I’ll do all of them yeah and it’s worked so what really what
You’re saying is O is cheating basically it looks that way as as Josh points out in the chat he was 183rd out of 193 qualified Putters last year so now after he said I played I played with Lucas I saw what he was do doing I played with Adam Scott I kind of
Saw what he was doing and this is much easier uh for him to especially uh distance control for him to to get the get the ball started on the right line and and with the right weight you know there’s one thing about OE that he’s shown throughout his entire career which
I really admire him for uh he doesn’t care what anybody else thinks he can handle that I mean he when he went and term professional and didn’t go to college he was you know criticized for that pretty heavily lot of people thought that was a mistake and he’s very quickly proving to
Us all that it wasn’t um but the ability to say hey I I’ve had one full year on tour I’m near the worst putter on the PGA tour why not why not try it why not try it now why do I have to wait and become this bad putter uh when this is
Working there’s a clear blueprint that’s working for all these guys who have struggled so he does it and he’s getting immediate results I give him so much credit for it rick there’s one other thing about aay that I think is worth bringing up um would you consider this a
Tropical golf course thank you thank you Greg I absolutely would consider this a tropical golf course and he is a tropical golf killer yes he is I mean I’m kicking myself I’m looking at him here I’m saying it’s tropical let’s get tropical I feel like I’m watching
Semipro let’s get tropical AE batia how did I not mention him how did I not put enough thought and attention into OE on Monday it and I mean it’s it’s autoplay for me from here on out tropical golf course I’m playing OE so I just I was
Looking this up just an hour ago so even before so this does not include this week so whatever this result is going to be will help this tropical golf situation five of his six career best finishes have come in the Bahamas Puerto Rico or Mexico and nine of his top 15
Finishes have come in those locations plus mayakoba Bermuda and corales okay there you go and corn fairy tour that’s yep oh that’s in there right you mentioned Bahamas Bahamas yeah so uh yeah makes total sense loves he could do it tomorrow also worth noting he’s like three years younger than lud viig
Is yep and he’s been playing per he’s got two professional wins now uh one on corn faery one last year on the PGA tour it’s a different kind of experience you know there’s um he’s seasoned and he’s going to end up being one of these you know who’s a good ex Kevin n
Is the first guy that comes to mind where you you look at their age you’re like wait wait what what are you talking about he’s been out here forever the guy’s got to be a hundred he’s going to be one of those players Sergio Garcia is another example they’ve been out there
So long because they turn pro so young and and you have an opportunity for an extremely unbelievably long career January 31st 2002 O’s birthday so he’s actually he gonna turn 21 here uh or 22 excuse me in a couple weeks the number one song in
The US that day You Got It Bad by Usher ah the memories the memories wow wow the man they are all chasing Chris Kirk 67 65 66 add it all up that is 21 under par it was a little bit of a slow start for Chris he was one under through his
First four holes he remedied that by birding five six seven8 he then got another streak at 12 13 and 14 before notching one more Birdie on 18 and now Chris Kirk will hold the lead or co-lead for the seventh time on the PGA tour in his career he has converted on three of
His six previous 54 ho lead that’s a pretty good record pretty good well it’s good to have seven 54 whole leads too or Co leads right got like I think I saw I don’t have the I don’t have it up anymore but I think he has two more on
The corn fairy tour and I think he closed out both of those yeah so um he can do it doesn’t mean he will certainly capable we talked about him yesterday Rick um I I thought he hit the ball between he and Scotty and morawa yesterday those three guys hit the ball
The best um and Chris Kirk today didn’t hit the ball quite as well early now that being said those first four holes were the four most difficult holes on the golf course so the slow start is understandable to to a degree but he really had to scramble around a little
Bit more and had to lean on the putter a little bit more and when he needed to it showed up and he hold a lot of eight foot putts for par uh and and a couple for birdie there and ended up having his best putting day so far of the week I
Find Chris Kirk very difficult to try to predict and try to handicap he so so he won the Honda Classic in February at the end of February since then he only had one more top 10 the rest of 2023 and it was a T10 at the Texas open that was in
April so it wasn’t a particularly great finish to the year but this is starting to be kind of the time of the year where he shows up right if you like the the the body what are they like the body cycles that January February is a q1
Golfer big q1 guy yeah RSM big q1 guy that’s Chris Kirk yeah uh seems to be now he’s played well at the Sony has he won the Sony I just had it up he’s no he has finished second yeah uh he finished second in 2014 he finished second in
2021 he finished third in 2023 he’s got a a fifth a tenth so he has not won it but he’s but he’s been close yeah so uh maybe likes a little bit of off time to get himself ready to go for the season because he’s looking ready right now he
He looks sharp the wedge the wedge game is great um what he’s got going on on the greens is looking great tomorrow is going to be a big time birdie Fest I don’t think we’re going to see wins quite as high tomorrow um and they’ll be in out of an opposite
Direction I I think he can handle it I like what I saw in the greens out of him today that was a real positive sign
1 Comment
where's the odds board? thumbs down