{"id":278214,"date":"2025-04-09T20:57:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T20:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/puerto-rico-open-indian-origin-golfer-akshay-bhatia-finishes-runner-up\/"},"modified":"2025-04-09T20:57:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T20:57:25","slug":"puerto-rico-open-indian-origin-golfer-akshay-bhatia-finishes-runner-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/puerto-rico-open-indian-origin-golfer-akshay-bhatia-finishes-runner-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Puerto Rico Open: Indian origin golfer Akshay Bhatia finishes runner-up"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/data.indianexpress.com\/election2019\/track_1x1.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Puerto Rico Open: Indian origin golfer Akshay Bhatia finishes runner-up\" title=\"Puerto Rico Open: Indian origin golfer Akshay Bhatia finishes runner-up\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"pcl-full-content\">\n<p>Akshay Bhatia, a 21-year-old who turned pro at 17 and plays on the Korn Ferry Tour, closed with a 65 to finish alone in second in the Puerto Rico Open and earned special temporary membership on the PGA Tour, giving him unlimited sponsor exemptions for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m crying,\u201d Bhatia had said on Sunday as quoted by the PGA tour website. \u201cIt means a lot. Worked really hard; it\u2019s been a crazy journey, for sure. Last year was really disappointing; I got hurt and didn\u2019t get my card through the Korn Ferry Tour. It\u2019s crazy. I have so many people to thank \u2026 it\u2019s a crazy day. Didn\u2019t even know I shot 7 under. Chipped in three times on the same hole through this week.<\/p>\n<p><ev-engagement group-name=\"contentLogin\"\/><ev-engagement group-name=\"myNotification\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"ev-meter-content ie-premium-content-block\">\n<p>\u201cThis is a great story, and I want to write a book about my life and my journey. It\u2019s definitely going to be a really good chapter, for sure,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Welcome to the PGA TOUR, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/akshaybhatia_1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow, noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@AkshayBhatia_1<\/a> \ud83d\udc4f <\/p>\n<p>Bhatia was emotional during his interview after securing Special Temporary Membership <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PuertoRicoOpen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow, noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@PuertoRicoOpen<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/TOURBound?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow, noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#TOURBound<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mjo7QbuJao\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow, noopener\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/mjo7QbuJao<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PGATOUR\/status\/1632493648989286401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow, noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 5, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Talking about achieving the special temporary membership, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a lot of emotion. I know my dad\u2019s going to really cry, which I\u2019ve only seen him do one time. My goal this whole year was to finish No. 1 on the Korn Ferry Tour (standings), play that way, get my card that way. But you know, just a different path. I\u2019ve been in this position before, and it really makes me happy that I\u2019ve handled it so much better and learned from all the experiences I\u2019ve had. I mean, how can you not be happy being on the PGA TOUR?\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"osv-ad-class\" style=\"background-color: #f2f2f2;height: 375px;margin-bottom: 15px;\">\n<p>Story continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Meanwhile, Colombian rookie Nico Echavarria seized control with two straight birdies on the back nine and closed with a 4-under 68 for a two-shot victory in the Puerto Rico Open for his first PGA Tour title.<\/p>\n<p>Echavarria was soaked on a sunny day at Grand Reserve, with friends and family dousing him with champagne after he tapped in for par. He tied the tournament record at 21-under 267.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m happy with life right now,\u201d Echavarria said. \u201cAfter missing four cuts in a row, only making two cuts, you just doubt yourself. I\u2019m very grateful I kept pushing and got it done.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Carson Young, who led through 36 holes, had a 71 and finished third tied with Nate Lashley (69).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script>\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\nif(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\nn.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\ns.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\nfbq('init', '444470064056909');\nfbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/sports\/golf\/puerto-rico-open-indian-origin-golfer-akshay-bhatia-finishes-runner-up-pga-tour-8482653\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Akshay Bhatia, a 21-year-old who turned pro at 17 and plays on the Korn Ferry Tour, closed with a 65 to finish alone in second in the Puerto Rico Open and earned special temporary membership on the PGA Tour, giving him unlimited sponsor exemptions for the rest of the season. \u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m crying,\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/data.indianexpress.com\/election2019\/track_1x1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[605],"tags":[2719,210823,215063,215065,215064,215066,38953,26374,3510,1025,210836,39,5944,1471,126700,215067,215068,215069,126701,61221,12479],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278214"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278216,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278214\/revisions\/278216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}