	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP

March 20, 2019

Akshay Bhatia

Palm Harbor, Florida

JACK RYAN: We would like to welcome Akshay Bhatia at the 2019 Valspar Championship. Akshay is the top ranked junior player in the world and the No. 9 amateur player in the world. Akshay as you begin to make your PGA TOUR debut here, what's going through your head as a 17 year old kid.

AKSHAY BHATIA: I'm enjoying everything that's happening right now and I'm definitely fortunate to get the opportunity this week and I can't thank Tracy West, the tournament director enough for what she's doing for me and it's just going to be a great week overall.

JACK RYAN: You're surrounded obviously by some of the world's top players. You just had a nice interaction that I saw in there with Jason Day, taking the time to come and say hi to you. What does that mean to you as you see those guys around.

AKSHAY BHATIA: Yeah, it's definitely cool just walking in the locker room and say hi to Jason Day and I was fortunate enough to play with Jon Rahm this morning, so it was awesome. But just the experience of being out here and fitting in it feels like normal almost to me somehow, but overall I'm just super lucky.

JACK RYAN: We'll take some questions, please.

Q. Sort of what's the plan for you moving forward? I know Jack kind of asked you beforehand, but what's the timetable to try to get out here as a pro?
AKSHAY BHATIA: Yeah, so I'm planning on turning pro probably after the Walker Cup. That's definitely a goal of mine to make the team and to represent the United States once again. So after that I think I have a pretty good game plan as far as turning pro and my scheduling going forward.

Q. What was the thought process like that led you to decide you want to skip college all together and just go straight to the pros later this year?
AKSHAY BHATIA: Yeah, I mean when I was probably in the 8th grade I have never liked school, I've never been very smart going in, sitting in a classroom and I have the worst attention span when it comes to it. So I just love being outside, I love playing golf, and I love just competing. So my dad was like, you know what, let's just not go to college, let's not do it. And I said, yeah, that's fine. I'm an 8th grader, of course I'm going to say no to school. I mean, I don't know anyone who loves school, but just the progression of my game, my mental game as well, leading up to this point it's certainly made me feel a lot more prepared being out here, playing in big amateur events, so last year I had a really good first half of the year and then I closed it out with the Rolex Junior Player of the Year for the AJGA. I won one other event. I don't know what -- oh, the Rolex. And then to win the Jones Cup this year and earn my spot into the RSM was awesome. So everything's just, I'm stepping up and I'm performing at the level I need to perform. So I just, I feel like I have a really good plan and I'm ready to do it.

Q. My question is, when I was 17 there was adversity at every turn for me. You're 17, fixing to turn pro. How did you handle adversity then, how would you handle adversity moving forward?
AKSHAY BHATIA: Can you explain adversity to me?

Q. Trouble.
AKSHAY BHATIA: Trouble?

Q. I get upset. I hit a bad shot. I don't have a girlfriend or whatever.
AKSHAY BHATIA: I mean it's just, it's golf and it's life. Everything goes up and down in this game. You can go out, hit it as good as you can, you shoot even par. You can hit it terrible and go out and shoot 68. So I never, I mean whether I play bad or good as long as I give it a hundred percent and I understand what causes the bad shots and what causes the good shots, I mean just takes care of itself. All it is is just being strong enough to compete against the guys and make enough birdies coming down the stretch because that's, I mean that's all it takes out here. So I mean everything's just learning, a learning process in this game. I've played so many events and I've just got mentally stronger playing against some really good fields, golf courses, and just learning how to get around courses is big for me, because I'm a type of player to that loves to just hitting it as far as I can and trying to get as close as possible, but I've definitely learned how to dissect a golf course and play it as smart as I can.

Q. Who was the first time in your life where you realized that you were maybe on the track to be the kind of player that are you today and hope to be in the future?
AKSHAY BHATIA: Yeah, I mean I had a pretty good career when I was a freshman, sophomore, I won a couple AJGA's and that was pretty rare, just winning more than one. And then I played the Junior PGA, that was kind of my first really big event and I told my dad prior to the tournament, I said, I've just never played good enough to win a big event. And I just, I mean I told him, I said, I don't think I'm ready to be good enough or whatever. And that week was just, it changed my whole outlook on my game because I ended up shooting 22-under that week, I shot 11-under, I shot 61 on my third or second round and I birdied eight of my first nine holes on the third day and I made a pretty big charge and after that I mean it's just been progress in the way I practice really, I just have so much self belief in what I do and I mean that's the biggest thing in golf.

Q. Have you thought about Thursday on the first tee, what that's going to be like and what are your expectations for the week?
AKSHAY BHATIA: Yeah, I mean, Thursday it's going to be, I'll probably be -- like I'm definitely excited to play, I'm ready to tee it up. I've done a lot of good work the last couple days with my coach and having my dad out here just really, it's nice just having him inside the ropes for once. So overall it's another tournament to me, I'm trying to go out and win. Everyone tries to do it every week, I'm not here to just show up and try to make the cut, I'm trying to win.

Q. You said you're not a big fan of school. Other than golf what are your interests right now?
AKSHAY BHATIA: Well, I was telling someone earlier, the biggest thing for me when I travel, I love eating different foods. So I'll eat Korean, I'll eat Thai, I'll eat Vietnamese, I'll try and find the best spots. And Tampa certainly has some really good spots, so it's, I'm just looking forward to eating this week. And the coolest thing this week will be my whole family's coming and that doesn't happen very often. I mean, my cousins are coming all the way from California, my uncles are as well. So I don't know, I play video games. I play Fortnite on my phone. I've met so many people playing Fortnite from around the world. And then YouTube, I like watching stuff.

Q. When college recruiters ask, they're going to try to get you to come, what was their pitch, knowing that you were not really interested in college and then how did you respond to their inquiries?
AKSHAY BHATIA: Yeah, I visited a couple colleges when I was in the process of deciding whether to turn pro or not and I mean, I didn't talk to many college coaches, really. I only talked to two and one of them was the OSU coach and if I was going to go somewhere I mean it would probably be either OSU or Stanford, just because they produce very good players. So, I mean it just, I didn't hear anything bad from them, obviously they're going to tell me to go to college and I'm not, I mean, I'm not saying college is a bad thing, because so many great players have come out strong playing their, playing four years at college and trying to win a national championship is probably one of the best feelings and one of the most just greatest things, just to win something for your school and your coach and your team. So overall I didn't hear any negativity from them.

Q. How did the round with Jon Rahm come about? Did you approach him, did he approach you and how what did you guys talk about out on the course today?
AKSHAY BHATIA: Yeah, I have a friend that is good friends with him, so he hooked me up with the invitation to play with Jon. And then I mean there was just, we just had fun today. On the second hole he, I hit 3-iron, he hit 5-wood and he hit it way by me, threw me tee and said, you might want to tee it up here and try and catch that ball. So I had like 210 yards and I hit it to 10 feet with a 4-iron and I told him, try to hit it inside of that, and he didn't. So I just asked him some stuff what his experiences was when he was playing in his first PGA TOUR event and just got to know him a little bit and hopefully in the future I'll be talking to him more.

Q. What do you consider the best part of your game and how can that help you out here?
AKSHAY BHATIA: My putting's really, really good, it's always been one of my strengths and I work so hard to make sure that my structure and my setup and stuff's really good. So that's a really big key, but I hit my, there's not much that goes wrong in my swing, I just, I don't know, I have a lot of confidence in everything that I do that there's not one specific thing, but if I was going to say, my putting, I work as hard as I can to become the best putter in the world.

Q. Realizing this may go back as far as 8th grade, but other than your family, who did you talk to as far as advice that maybe college is not the place for you to be?
AKSHAY BHATIA: My coaches. My coach George Gankas that's here this week he, I mean he's produced some really good players, he teaches a lot of guys on TOUR and he's unique. So I mean I've always had the discussion with him whether to go to college or not and he's, I mean he sees the potential in me and so I talk to him and a lot of people, I mean you'll get different answers from different people. But I mean I talked to a couple TOUR guys, WEB.COM guys, PGA TOUR guys about it and it was actually cool, at the Walker Cup, my friend asked Jack Nicklaus -- we got to have lunch with him -- what he thought on someone not going to college and turning pro. And it was funny, I don't know if he realized what the answer was asking, but he's like, you know, when I went to college I didn't learn much. Which is funny, because he's, you know, arguably the best player in the game. But overall it's just been kind of an inner circle question.

Q. Dustin Johnson, you have a bit of a relationship with him too, is that correct? You played in his tournament and all that.
AKSHAY BHATIA: Yeah, yeah, I decided to play in his tournament last minute and then the first day of a practice round I got to hang out with him for a little bit and he watched me hit some balls and I got to know him. So seeing him this week, I saw him in the TOUR van with like seven putters, asking him what is he doing, because he's, I mean, he's the No. 1 player in the world, he doesn't need to be changing much. So it's cool though because I'm slowly building relationships out here and for the future it's going to be great just to lean on them a little bit.

JACK RYAN: We appreciate the time and best of luck as you make your PGA TOUR debut.

AKSHAY BHATIA: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297