Daniel Berger led Akshay Bhatia by five strokes on Sunday, but it wasn’t enough.
Bhatia’s impressive back-nine 31 on Sunday propelled him to a playoff where he defeated Daniel Berger, winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
With the weekend comeback, Bhatia climbs to No. 2 in the FedEx Cup standings.
It’s easily the biggest victory of the 24-year-old Californian’s career.
As Berger fades, Bhatia surges
It was Daniel Berger’s tournament to lose, but the momentum started to shift when the back nine started.
Berger’s lead got as high as five strokes on Sunday—he shot a front nine 34 to Bhatia’s 38—but it all came unglued on the back nine. Bhatia came roaring back with four straight birdies from hole 10 to hole 13, suddenly turning the tide.
Still down by two strokes heading to the 16th, Bhatia gained a stroke on Berger when he eagled 16, as Berger only birdied. Then he tied things when he managed a par on the difficult 17th—Berger bogeyed.
The momentum was shifting Bhatia’s way as the two approached the final hole of regulation.
Drama on the 18th
Bhatia drove the ball well down into the left side of the fairway, leaving a perfect angle into the dangerous 18th green.
Berger followed up with too much cut, finding himself in the right rough, with no real chance at reaching the green. He laid up into the fairway, 70 yards from the hole.
Bhatia’s approach nearly found the water, but sat up in the rough, just 18 feet from the hole.
Berger puts his scrambling approach to 13 feet, while Bhatia put his chip by 20 inches, forcing Berger to make if he wanted to force a playoff—from 13 feet away, Berger sunk it.
Bhatia’s tap-in sent them back to the tee box to replay 18.
The playoff
Daniel Berger got things started, pulling his drive left into the rough. Bhatia followed with a straight drive toward the left-center of the fairway.
Their approaches made the difference. Berger chopped his out of the rough, just barely trickling onto the green, leaving himself a 107-foot birdie putt. Bhatia put his approach safely onto the center of the green, 80 feet closer to the hole than Berger.
Berger left himself an 8-footer, while Bhatia just barely missed his birdie putt, giving himself a short putt for par.
Berger left his putt short and underneath.
That allowed Bhatia to clean up his par putt to win his third PGA Tour event of his young career.
Redemption for Akshay
Bhatia held a six-stroke lead on the field during the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but squandered it during the weekend rounds.
He found himself on the other side of the coin this weekend, crawling back from a big deficit to get the win.
Bhatia is playing his best golf right now. It’s his third top-10 finish of the season. He’s quickly established himself as one of the best young stars in golf.
Other storylines
- Scottie Scheffler doesn’t look like himself, finishing T-24, his worst of the season, and his worst finish since over a year ago at the WM Open (finished 25th).
- Rory McIlroy made the cut, but withdrew from the event before the third round with a back injury.
- Collin Morikawa continues to play like one of the best in the world this season, capturing his third straight top-10 finish.
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