19th Hole
12 players to follow in 2022: (2) Akshay Bhatia

Over the next 12 days, the two presenters on our new ‘Across The Pond’ podcast, Matt Vincenzi and Jason Daniels give their 12 players to follow for 2022 to coincide with the 12 days of Christmas.
None so far have won on their respective tours, so here’s to a long-term watch and investment!
2. Akshay Bhatia (PGA Tour)
At just 17 years old, Akshay Bhatia decided to forego collegiate golf and turn professional in September 2019.
The North Carolina native won the 2019 Jones Cup and was the No. 1-ranked junior in the country and was the first high-schooler ever to become a member of the winning United States Walker Cup team in 2019. With seemingly endless talent and plenty of power, it made some sense to try his luck professionally.
Unfortunately for Bhatia, his journey in the past few years has not gone as smoothly as his beautiful golf swing. Although Bhatia has used sponsors exemptions to make eighteen PGA Tour starts thus far in his career, including a top ten finish at the Fortinet Championship; he failed to earn one of the 25 PGA Tour cards offered at the 2020 Korn Ferry Finals. He played his way into the event via non-member FedExCup points.
The COVID-19 pandemic also had quite an impact on the teenager who was trying to scrape and claw his way onto the PGA Tour. In March, Bhatia finished in the top 40 of qualifying for Canada’s Mackenzie Tour to earn conditional status, but the start of that circuit’s season was postponed due to the pandemic. He also was scheduled to play in the Hero Indian Open in March on a sponsor’s invite before the European Tour (now DP World Tour) canceled that tournament.
Despite the few setbacks, there were some highlights last year for the now 19-year-old. Akshay was able to qualify for the 2021 U.S. Open and made the cut, finishing tied for 57th at Torrey Pines. He also won three mini-tour events in 2020-2021, flashing the talent that made him such a highly regarded prospect.
Just this week, Bhatia won in a playoff on the Florida Elite Tour, winning $50,000.
With a birdie on the 1st playoff Akshay Bhatia is your 1st Florida Elite Tour Major Champion & the winner of $50,000!!! pic.twitter.com/lnCrMsGtw2
— FloridaEliteGolfTour (@FEGTour) December 8, 2021
Still a teenager, Bhatia has plenty of time to prove his talent. He has said in the past he is using his first few seasons as a professional as his “college”, and is taking all of the difficulties in stride as he develops as a golfer. His raw talent should allow for him to take a giant leap forward in 2022, and will surely have many accomplishments beyond this season.
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.