Akshay Bhatia’s putting adjustments leading to rise on PGA Tour | Golf Central | Golf Channel

Akshay Bhatia continues to make strong improvements on the greens at The Sentry, sitting one back of leader Chris Kirk entering the final round, and Golf Central discusses his rise on the PGA Tour and a potential breakthrough week in Kapalua. #GolfChannel #GolfCentral #AkshayBhatia
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Akshay Bhatia’s putting adjustments leading to rise on PGA Tour | Golf Central | Golf Channel
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Golf Central on YouTube is brought to you by the new Chrome tour golf ball from Callaway third round of the century from spectacular Maui in the plantation course season opener on the PGA tour in 2024 little bit of wind and a big impact on the scoring almost three shots harder

Today than it was that record scoring day round number two were 11 players with overpar rounds today none on Friday not lot of difficulty for this guy the 21-year-old who may have a breakout week AE batia here he is brandle at the par 47 yeah start of the

Day three back the time he made that putt he was right in the middle of The Fray that was after a 440 yard drive and a beautiful iron shot a nice Putt and nice putt would be the refrain today as it relates to oet fatia day number one

He made 73 ft of putts day number two 93 today he made 108 that’s his swing from Chris Kirk you compare to which great player well I had little Freddy Couples in it in transition you know just kind of goes to sleep like when Freddy makes

A golf swing gets to the top you think he’s just making a practice swing like he’s like joking around he’s going to stop the same thing with Chris Kirk we get back to OA batia putting story at the 13th which had more bite in it today

Was playing into the wind and here we are at the 13th right on Q into the win you see that flag whipping right in their face I thought this was one of the best shots to the day looks like nothing but but players were having fits with

This shot you know they were hitting it long they were hitting it left they were hitting it short but he flights it down beautifully hits those trap draws and into the wind with wedges that was working beautifully speaking of working beautifully how about this roll down the

Hill OA batia as I said every day he’s gotten better 21st day one Strokes game putting 10th day two second uh today you add it all up he’s leading Strokes game putting back to the low draw wedge Chris Kirk man that’s gorgeous you know that is just gorgeous I’m going to try that

Rich next time I’m playing in the wind but I live in Scottsdale wind doesn’t blow uh this not gorgeous not gorgeous you know you’re trying to get up there and Bleed it down the right Edge because that’s where you can get a little bit of

A run and a flatter line and a better angle but this one overcut penalty era cost him a shot had to go to work had 20 ft down the hill for bogey or excuse me for par and he made it kept him from giving one back 18th hold this par five just off

The front edge yeah not a bogey on the card we birdied 1213 and 14 so when he would make that one it would be a bogey free day of eight under par to get him to 21 under all right so it’s Chris Kirk looking for a six career

Victory broke a better than seven-year drought when he won in Palm Beach Gardens last year emotional Victory after some of the personal battles that he had been dealing with Ander schley’s kind of the Maestro of Maui won here in 2019 lost a playoff the following year to Justin

Thomas Jordan spe won here in 2016 by eight shots both shley and spe were without a win last year so they’re hungry Harris English won here three years ago we know he’s capable think one of the stories of this third round obviously Scotty sheffler he led going

Uh to this third round but backed up with 71 and took 34 putts so the Improvement uh and he a little bulky today a rich learner brandle shamble I talk about uh AA batia because I think the world’s sort of being introduced to AE this is a

Guy who turned Pro right out of high school at the age of of 17 brand what are you what are you seeing look we don’t talk a lot about about junior golf because you know junior golf sets you have to play college golf or Amer golf

We spent a lot of our time talking about college golf Amer golf because it leads into the PGA Tour but his Junior career actually led to professional golf he did things that were unprecedented he won the 2017 PGA Jr 2018 off the back of the green needing to chip in to win how

About that back toback years he was the first person in the history of the PGA Junior it’s been going on a long long time to win backto back PGA Juniors that was when he was 16 years old he parlayed all that success considerable success in junior golf to a position on the Walker

Cup team at the age the tender age of 17 this is at Royal Liverpool when the United States just absolutely boat raced Europe they won 15 and a half to 10 and a half now what was significant about that was he was 17 the youngest previous

Person to ever play on The Walker cup was Jordan Speed who played at 18 and two months so you know interesting in that group today with OA batia and and Jordan SP were the two ever youngest players to play on The Walker Cup team think about other players who turn

Professional as teenagers successfully I would say Kevin naan obviously sewu Kim who’s won a Players Championship among other tournaments some other cases where it didn’t work out or hasn’t yet worked out Ty Trion turned at 16 Tad fujikawa at 15 guantan long remember the Big Splash he made at the Masters was 14

When he turned professional Michelle we on the women’s side was yeah you see it more often obviously uh on the LPGA Tour but it’s it’s a big risk for the men uh because they run the risk of turning a professional too early getting beat up psychologically by considerably better competition than

They had been faced and it takes a little while to get over that scar tissue uh but it does look like oaaa has done that uh big question mark for OA batia coming into this year we talked a lot last year about Scotty sheffer’s woses on the green they were nothing compared to

OA batia wo on the green you take a look at where he was now Strokes G putting only went to 193 he was 183 and you look at these numbers from all of these distance 4 to 8 feet 10 to 15 15 to 20 and these are these are poultry numbers

These are bad numbers I mean rank towards the bottom every single aspect of putting and you see the effect of the long putter which he put in play last year late in the year for the last three rounds at RSM you see he’s one of the

Best almost 90% from 4 to 8 ft really good 10 to 15 almost doubled percentage make over last year making his share from 15 to 20 ft made a couple outside of 25 ft so we’re taking a look at some of the putts he made today we go

Back uh look there’s no sign that the stroke is quick it’s not wobbling on the way back it’s not wobbling on the way through it’s got a nice Tempo to it upbeat kind of sticking the Finish you know a lot of times you’ll see a recoil in the

Stroke excuse me that’s one of the things I love about the long putter is that typically players who are really struggling with their putting will have a lot of recoil tells you there’s not a lot of commitment there’s not a lot of pop in the stroke but the long putter

You know it’s got enough weight in it it’s got enough flow to it goes back there and just the weight of it will let you have some pop to it and so over the years it has been a bit of a Panacea for those with problems on the greens and

When you talk about problems on the green we’ll go way back 1969 Us open this guy here Orville Moody was one of the best ball Strikers of all time I dare say everybody who saw him hit it said he was but he only won once that

Was the 1969 Us open because of his woes on the green well fast forward to when he turns Pro PGA Tour Champions now he turned Pro in 84 and was having a heck of a run but they didn’t start keeping statistics in putting until 1990 1988

And the PGA Tour Champions and guess who led the tour in putting average I mean this guy right here Orville mat Orville Moody with the long putter it absolutely transformed his putting and when you speak about players with the long putter transformed their putting well you don’t

Have to go much further than Bernard Langer who several times in his career dealt with The Yips but has settled in on this Putter and another player who really struggled with the long putter uh even after the anchor band has sort of found his way uh on the greens Adam

Scott was in the top 20 uh last year so the long putter has proved to be a Panacea for players who struggle with their putting and add yet one more name AA batia potentially to that list but usually it’s older guy Adam Scott not withstanding it’s older guys who’ve lost

Their nerve lost their touch this is a 21y old but I if he can become a a pretty good putter matched with the ball striking which is quite good we might be looking at a force in the game he’s World Class of what he does uh from T to

Green so you’re right Rich uh has a chance on Sunday to go to a whole new level in the game 4:00 Eastern on NBC the century