By the time the Men's Golf competition for the Paris Olympics got underway, Akshay Bhatia had already accomplished his initial goal for 2024.
“I never made goals ever, and this year I decided to write it down on my phone,” Bhatia said ahead of the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Bhatia, 22, earned his second career PGA Tour victory in April at the Valero Texas Open. He has two top-5s this summer, and enters the PGA Tour regular season finale ranked 15th in the FedExCup standings. He's firmly in place to qualify for, at least, the second stage of three postseason events: the BMW Championship in Denver. (The playoffs begin next week with the St. Jude Championship in Memphis.)
The top-30 post-BMW will make the TOUR Championship at East Lake.
“One of the goals was to play all four majors, and going into Valero we knew it was a small percentage that that was going to happen. But we had a goal to try and get qualified for the U.S. Open,” said Bhatia. “I was already in the PGA and obviously The Open Championship. So every week was a different story. The Masters was such a high.”
Bhatia's a burgeoning star in the sport. He's already a two-time winner ranked 27th in the world and 14th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained. He's carded 11 top-25s in 22 starts this year — though he'd like more of them to come in majors. Bhatia finished T35 (Masters), missed cut (PGA Championship), T16 (U.S. Open) and missed cut (Open) in the biggies.
“A goal next year is definitely going to be in contention more and more in those major championships,” he said. “To start the year saying I want to play all four majors and to have that kind of checked off the box was pretty cool.”
For the time being, Bhatia has two immediate goals. For starters, solidifying his spot for East Lake. Solid showings in Memphis and Denver should do the trick.
“To see that most of the goals I've had come to fruition is really, really cool,” added Bhatia. “Obviously, Tour Championship's a big step for me … Hopefully, you know, I can check that goal off and try and make a run towards the end of this season.”
Watching the surprisingly rowdy and emotional vibes at the Olympics, Bhatia is jonesing to represent Team USA. At some point “later in the year”, he inputed a Presidents Cup goal into his notes app.
“That was added … when I kind of started to know I had a little bit of a chance, especially after I won,” Bhatia said. “Presidents Cups' definitely a goal. Playing for your country is really special. Watching the Olympics is very, very inspiring and I hope to try and make my way towards that team. I've just heard a lot of great stories when it comes out of those team rooms.”
Conveniently, these goals align. Bhatia currently ranks 11th in the Presidents Cup standings. The top-six in three weeks will automatically qualify. U.S. captain Jim Furyk will then make six captain's picks. If Bhatia ends up in the TOUR Championship field, it's likely he'll have played his way onto the squad headed to Royal Montreal in late September.
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