Akshay Bhatia overcame untimely shoulder pain and Denny McCarthy's historically hot putter to win the Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio in epic fashion on Sunday. In doing so, the 22-year-old secured the final spot in the field for The Masters.

Bhatia — who led after Thursday, Friday, and by four strokes at the end of Saturday and wrote “WTW” (“Wire to Wire”) on his shoes Sunday — produced a stone-cold final round 67, the second-best number in the field. He entered the back-nine up by six strokes.

Inconveniently, the lowest round belonged to one of his playing partners, McCarthy, who was vying for his first PGA Tour crown.

McCarthy, long one of the premier rollers in golf, entered the week ranked 51st in the world but 19th in strokes gained: putting. The 31-year-old birdied eight of his last nine holes, including the final seven. His 12-footer on No. 18 momentarily moved him into the lead, at 20-under.

Bhatia, though, proved equal.

That's when things went from simply dramatic to suddenly strange.

Bhatia fist-pumped a little too hard (as one does), throwing his left shoulder out of its socket. Not what you want before heading to the first playoff tee box — a 606- yard par-5 — with a spot in The Masters on the line.

Bhatia, though, received a gift (a sign of justice, perhaps, from the Augusta gods). McCarthy wasted his scorching 63 by plopping his approach into the water.

“Wish I could have had that wedge shot back there,” McCarthy said. “I backed off a couple times. There was a bug on my ball and some noise in the stands and a bug jumped back on my ball. I probably should have backed away again, but I thought I could kind of not let it distract me and maybe it did a little.”

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Golf is cruel.

McCarthy's mistake gave Bhatia leeway to play it safe and, more importantly, about three minutes to exit the fairway and have his shoulder re-taped. He landed his wedge shot six feet from the pin, setting up a birdie putt (McCarthy double-bogeyed).

“It was hard … You feel like you're kind of losing, right?” Bhatia said about McCarthy's unstoppable surge. “You're losing the golf tournament. This guy's making a ton of birdies, I'm not making any mistakes. And yet, I was tied for the lead going into the last.

“Denny played unbelievable, you have to give him credit,” he continued. “It's hard because he's one of the best players out here and when you see him get hot it's scary, because I had a six-shot lead going into the back nine and all of the sudden we're tied going into 18. And then of course he makes that putt, and man, what a crazy, crazy day.”

Bhatia earned $1.66 million and 500 FedEx Cup points for his second PGA Tour win (the Valero marks a step up from the opposite-field 2003 Barracuda Championship). He's now finished top 2o in his three pre-Masters starts, coming off a T17 at the Valspar Championship and a T12 at last week's Texas Children's Houston Open (T12).

Bhatia is a factor at Augusta — if his shoulder holds up. McCarthy, at least, is already in the Masters field.