Akshay Bhatia Wins Second PGA Golf Title with Help of Mental Coach

April 7, 2024

Akshay Bhatia today won his second United States Professional Golf Association (PGA) title at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio, Texas. Bhatia, 22-years-old, beat Denny McCarthy in a play off after the two were tied at the end of the fourth and final round.

Bhatia, who plays left-handed, is only the third player in the tournament’s 92- year-old history to lead in all four rounds. The key to his win today was Ryan Davis, his mental coach. In a post game press conferrence, Bhatia said he did not sleep well after the first three rounds. This morning, before starting his final fourth round, Bhatia chatted with Davis. Following the conversation, with a black marker Bhatia wrote “WTW” – “Wire to Wire” or leading from the start to finish - on his left wrist.

“I was never calm today…You feel so tense…your mind can kind of go one way” Bhatia told the media after his third round yesterday. Before starting on his third round Bhatia chatted with Davis about the good and bad aspects of being the leader playing in the last group. Following the conversation, he wrote “Race Your Race” on his left wrist. “I’m just going at my own pace, focusing on myself…I looked at it (the words on my wrist) all the time,” Bhatia told the media.

A psychiatrist based in Beverly Hills, California, Davis specializes in the “treatment of Mood, Anxiety, Adjustment disorders” and attention deficit disorders, according to his LinkedIn profile. Davis founded the Center for Athletic Performance Enhancement five months ago in December 2023. He was a resident in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, 2005 to 2009. He earned his MD from the University of Virginia, 2005.

Bhatia, who is ranked 34th in the world, has finished in the top 10 in six of his 54 starts in PGA tournaments since March 2023, when he earned a temporary PGA Tour membership after finishing second at the Puerto Rico Open.

He has won $5.2 million in prize money, including $1.7 million for today’s win. While he has additional income from sponsors like Greyson Clothiers, whose shirts he wore at the Valero tournament, today’s win will likely bring him additional income from major sponsors.

In July 2023, Akshay Bhatia won the Barracuda Championship at the Tahoe Mountain Club, California, his first PGA title.

"It's obviously been a really tough road," Bhatia, 21-years-old, said after his first PGA title win. "I've had a lot of up, a lot of down. A lot of good, a lot of bad. But I knew I was going to get here. It was just matter of time. For it to happen this year…and to get it done today was, I can't even describe it…your brain and everything, you can feel all this adrenaline, all this shakiness. It's pretty crazy."

In 2022, Bhatia won the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic, which is part of the Korn Ferry Tour, the junior tour where a high rank enables professional golfers to qualify for the PGA Tour. Bhatia, though, went on to miss 13 cuts in 24 starts and failed to earn entry into the PGA Tour.  

In his junior years Bhatia was labelled by the media as a “phenom” and a “sensation.” In 2019, he was the first high school student to play on the U.S. Walker Cup team, the golf contest held every odd year between amateurs from the U.S. against those from Great Britain and Ireland.

In 2017, and again in 2018, Bhatia won the Boys Junior PGA Championship. In 2017, he had an undefeated 3-0-0 record that helped lead the U.S. team to a 14-10 victory over the International Team in the Junior President’s Cup.

Bhatia was born and grew up in Northridge, a suburb of Los Angeles. He took to golf watching his older sister Rhea. She was on the women’s golf team at Queens University, Charlotte, North Carolina. Their father Sonny – who plays golf on weekends - and mother Renu Bhatia are immigrants from India. In 2011, the family moved to Raleigh, North Carolina where Bhatia got to play on better golf courses. He also enjoys bowling.

“Just because it hasn’t been done, doesn’t make it impossible,” is the title of Bhatia’s Instagram feed, which has more than 204,000 followers.

Indeed, Bhatia is unlike the typical professional golfer in several ways. Though 6 feet tall, he is skinny weighing only 130 pounds (59 Kg). Sahith Theegala, 26-years-old, the other Indian American on the PGA Tour and ranked 15th in the world, is 6’3” and 200 lbs.  

Yet Bhatia’s long limbs and “rubber-band elasticity allows him to generate a swing speed of around 125 miles per hour,” similar to that of the other top golfers, notes Golf Digest. Bhatia’s drives average 301 yards in length.

“I’ve never seen someone hit the ball as well as he does, and I’ve seen a lot,” swing coach George Gankas, who has worked with Bhatia since he was 13, told Golf Digest. “He’s got a gift. His work ethic is also off the charts, and he loves the game.”

Bhatia was schooled at home finishing from Penn Foster High School, an online for-profit school. Several U.S. colleges, with top rated golf programs, were eager to recruit Bhatia. But, in 2019, at age 17, Bhatia turned professional, bypassing competing as a college student, the route to sharpen golf skills favored by most golfers from Tiger Woods, Stanford University, to Theegala, Pepperdine. 

While Bhatia was a teenager, his mother took on a second job mainly to help pay for his golf expenses. “One day, I’ll repay my mom,” Bhatia told Golf Digest in 2022.

During his first season as a pro, Bhatia failed to qualify past the first two rounds in the first six tournaments. The next year, he was also cut after two rounds at seven of his eleven tournament starts.

In 2023, finishing second at the Puerto Rican Open gave him a different path to enter the PGA Tour. “I can't believe I'm crying, oh, my God," Bhatia told golfchannel.com after winning the tournament.

“I was talking to my psychologist last night,” Bhatia told the media yesterday at the Valero Texas Open. “Just all the stories that could happen. What if I lose this lead? What if this lead goes to 10? So many things are in your mind.”

After winning the Puerto Rican Open Bhatia told the media, “Since I was a little kid, I’ve…dreamed about being the best player in the world. And now I have the opportunity to do it.”

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