Leading by one and staring down a wedge shot on the final hole, Akshay Bhatia did what any prodigy would do: He called his shot, and then delivered.
The 19-year-old Bhatia, who once dominated the junior ranks but has mostly struggled since eschewing college for the pros at age 17, faced 156 yards into the par-5 finishing hole on Wednesday at Sandals Emerald Bay. Moments earlier, Bhatia had turned to his caddie, girlfriend Presleigh Schultz, and declared, with the same confidence he used when he asked Schultz out through Instagram last year, “This is my time.”
So, he grabbed his pitching wedge, stepped up and flagged one off the stick.