Akshay Bhatia Scores A Hole in One at PGA Golf Tournament
Akshay Bhatia shoots a hole in one and wins a BMW car at the PGA's BMW Golf Championship
August 16, 2025
Akshay Bhatia hit a hole in one at the par 3 seventeenth hole during today’s third round of the BMW golf championship. “With this one I can rest my head on the pillow knowing I hit a hole in one on the PGA Tour,” Bhatia, 23, said during a press conference following today’s round.
Bhatia, a left-hander, hit a five iron at the 217 yard par 3, with the ball rolling into the hole. The BMW tournament is being held at the Caves Valley Golf club, near Baltimore, US. It was his fifth hole in one, with the first being at age 11 at the Pinehurst Golf Course 2 in North Carolina.
Bhatia’s reward for the hole in one includes an All-electric BMW iX M70. Since he does not need the car, priced around $113,000, Bhatia said he will give it to his caddie or donate it to a charity. BMW also donates a four-year scholarship to the Evans Scholars Foundation in Bhatia's name.
Bhatia has two wins and two second place finishes in 92 starts on the United States Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour, since he qualified in 2023. His prize winnings total $12 million. He has additional income from brand sponsors including Callaway and Mastercard.
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 nearly 350,000 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, 27-years-old, the other Indian American on the PGA Tour, 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.
In 2021, 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.
Last year, Bhatia won his second PGA title at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio, Texas. The key to his win was Ryan Davis, his mental coach. In a post game press conferrence, Bhatia said he did not sleep well after the first three rounds. 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.
In this week’s BMW Championship, Bhatia struggled in the first round finishing at four over par, 13 strokes behind the leader Robert MacIntyre. After today’s third round of four under par, Bhatia has recovered some ground. With an overall even score, he is tied in the 29th place in the FedEx cup standings. If he finishes within the top 30, after tomorrow’s final round, Bhatia will qualify for the Tour Championship, the final tournament of the FedEx Cup, to be held August 21 to 24, at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
Speaking of his plans for tomorrow, Bhatia said at the press conference, “if I get to one under par, given how hard this golf course is…every shot counts…I want to try everything I can.”