Bhatia inches closer to Masters berth with four-stroke lead at San Antonio

Akshay Bhatia birdied his final two holes for 4 under par 68 card and a four-shot lead with a day to go at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio on Saturday keeping him on track for a maiden Augusta Masters appearance.

The 22-year-old left-hander followed rounds of 63 and 70 at TPC San Antonio with a steady 68 for a 15 under tournament total of 201 that kept him on track for a second PGA Tour title. Only fellow-American Denny McCarthy with three birdies in the final four holes had closed up enough after 54 holes to push Bhatia in the final round barring an unexpected reverse.

The next closest player to the lead was Brendon Todd of the US, who shot a 70 on Saturday to sit seven shots adrift of the leader as fancied names like world number two Rory McIlroy and Jordan Speith fell off the pace, the PGA Tour said. The Asian challenge rides on 2021 Augusta Masters winner Hideki Matsuyama of Japan and Filipino Rico Hoey who were tied fourth and tied seventh respectively on 7 under 209 and 5 under 211 respectively.

Bhatia's lead is the largest in 20 years at the Valero Texas Open and he stayed on track  on Saturday with a “Race My Race” message inked on his wrist to keep his mind clean and on the job. “I’m just going at my own pace, focusing on myself, keeping the blinders right in front of me,” he said on pgatour.com later. “I looked at it all the time.”

“I was never calm today and it was the hardest thing to deal with. It’s just so hard. You feel so tense, and all these things in your stomach, your mind can kind of go one way. I kept to my game plan.”

McIlroy opened with a double bogey, got those two shots back with birdies, dropped back again with a pair of bogeys on the back nine and finished with two birdies. The Northern Ireland golfer trails by 10 strokes heading into the Masters.

Victory would give Bhatia the final spot in the Masters, set aside in case the Valero Texas Open winner is not already exempt and also entry to the US Open. McCarthy has never won on the PGA Tour, but he makes his Augusta National debut as he is in the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Bhatia has also been in solid points-scoring form this season with five top-20 finishes in nine starts this season, with a T11 at last week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open as his best outing so far. 

His previous title came at last year’s Barracuda Championship and if he does indeed win on Sunday, Bhatia will be the second Indian-American in the field along with Sahith Theegala Reddy who is already qualified on the basis of his world ranking.