Bhatia builds big lead without his ‘best stuff’
SAN ANTONIO — Some PGA Tour players insist they’re in such a zone when they climb to the top of the leaderboard that they’re not concerned with how others are playing or what scores they’re shooting.
Akshay Bhatia is not that guy. After Friday’s second round of the 2024 Valero Texas Open Bhatia admitted that he’s prone to checking out where he sits on the board, and he continued that trend on Friday.
“I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing,” he said. “I’ll peek at it and it’s fun, I guess. It’s like when you’re in a good spot and you’re in contention, that’s where you want to be and it’s exciting. You look at that leaderboard and you say, wow, this is where I want to be. It’s a good thing, I think.”
Bhatia has seen his name atop that board for much of the first two days, leading off our five things to know after 36 holes of play:
Bhatia maintains impressive lead
Imagine if he was playing well. Akshay Bhatia might have been given a slight break with his tee time, giving him a window in which the winds at TPC San Antonio’s Oaks Course stayed manageable, but the 22-year-old put on another show in Central Texas on Friday. He followed up his scintillating 63 on Thursday by teasing the field a bit, dropping a couple shots on his first nine holes, but backed it up with a 33 on his final nine to maintain a healthy lead.
While many others were struggling with the wind on the Greg Norman design, Bhatia stayed smooth and steady in finishing with a 70 to close the day at 11 under.
Yet Bhatia wasn’t impressed with his own play, noting that the day was a bit of a slog.
“It was stressful, for sure, wasn’t my best stuff,” he said. “I felt like I struggled a lot off the tee today, golf swing didn’t feel great with any of the longer stuff, but iron play was still phenomenal, wedges were good, made some nice putts. I know I’m reading the greens really good so I kind of understand when I’m missing putts right now why that’s happening. So it’s good, a good kind of understanding of kind of where I need to improve the next couple days.”
Rather than skipping back to his hotel room with the big edge, Bhatia hung around for Smylie Kaufman’s Golf Channel ‘Happy Hour’ and insisted he’d rather sit and watch more golf than lay in the resort’s lazy river.
McIlroy playing ‘boring golf’ in advance of Augusta
In Wednesday’s pre-tournament press conference, Rory McIlroy said that “good golf at Augusta feels like boring golf,” and with just a few days until he makes a trip to Augusta National, the four-time major champion followed that script in posting a ho-hum 70 that included one bogey, three birdies and a whole lot of pars.
He sits at 5 under, six shots behind leader Bhatia at the tournament’s midpoint.
“Yeah, I can do it,” McIlroy said. “At LACC, the U.S. Open last year is probably the best example of me doing that, I was very patient. St. Andrews a little bit, even though the scoring was low. Same sort of thing, you pick and choose where you’re aggressive and then you’re conservative a lot of the time. You add it up at the end of the week, you’re always going to be pretty close.
“I think it’s an acceptance that you’re going to make a lot of pars, it’s maybe going to feel frustrating at times, but knowing that you’re not losing ground by doing it and accepting that fact, that’s a big key to it.”
Fleetwood playing without his normal caddie
Tommy Fleetwood posted a bogeyfree round on Friday, with 15 pars and a string of three consecutive birdies on Nos. 13-15. He’s in a solid position heading into the weekend at 4 under, seven strokes behind Bhatia, but in a tie for seventh, so he won’t have a ton of players to leapfrog.
But the 33-year-old did so without his regular caddie, Ian Finnis, who has been dealing with an illness.