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SAN ANTONIO — Akshay Bhatia rode the uncommon expertise of figuring out a PGA Tour course with a chic day together with his irons for a 9-under 63 on Thursday, giving him a 3-shot lead within the Valero Texas Open and taking a small step towards a possible journey to the Masters.
The Texas Open is the final likelihood for gamers to qualify for Augusta Nationwide by successful. The 22-year-old Bhatia gained the Barracuda Championship final summer season, but it surely was held reverse the British Open and did not rely towards a Masters invitation.
And that is considering too far forward for Bhatia, anyway.
“Would not matter to me,” Bhatia stated of his lead. “I am excited to go and sleep. It has been an extended day, it has been extremely popular. I am simply attempting to do the issues that my psychological coach and I’ve been speaking about and I am not attempting to win the golf event right this moment. Nevertheless it’s simply good having a pleasant day.”
Brendon Todd birdied 4 of his final 5 holes for a 66 to affix Justin Lower, who performed within the morning. Neither of them are within the Masters but.
It wasn’t a nasty day for Rory McIlroy, recent off a go to to swing coach Butch Harmon in Las Vegas and two days at Augusta Nationwide earlier than his last event forward of the one main maintaining him from the profession Grand Slam.
He additionally performed bogey-free, however managed solely three birdies. He did not birdie each par 5s on the again 9 on the TPC San Antonio, lacking a 3-footer on the 14th.
“I feel it is the primary spherical I’ve had with no bogey in fairly some time,” McIlroy stated. “My recreation over the past couple months has been fairly unstable, so to go on the market and play a stable spherical of golf in fairly tough situations, fairly proud of it.”
Jordan Spieth had one other edge-of-the-seat efficiency. He hit his tee shot out-of-bounds on the par-5 14th and took double bogey, placing him at 4 over and in peril of lacking his third straight reduce for the primary time for the reason that fall of 2020.
He adopted that with a hole-in-one with a 7-iron on No. 15. He went from the bunker on the seventeenth to 12 ft for an additional birdie and salvaged a 73.
“I am taking part in so significantly better than I have been scoring and it does not appear to be it,” Spieth stated. “It is laborious to elucidate. I’ve performed means worse and had consecutive prime 10s than the missed cuts that I’ve had. It is simply very weird.
“I received a pair good breaks late that possibly make me really feel like the sport is just not as laborious as it has been feeling.”
Max Homa and Cognizant Basic winner Austin Eckroat have been within the group at 68.
That is Bhatia’s second 12 months on tour. He performed a mix of Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour occasions earlier than locking up his card, however the Texas Open is one which he performed twice earlier than.
“That is my third time right here. Not many golf programs on the tour have been my third time,” Bhatia stated. “I simply performed actually stable. It was only a good day.”
Solely two of his 9 birdies have been outdoors 10 ft — each have been within the 15-foot vary — and he completed his spherical with a greenside bunker shot to tap-in vary on the 18th.
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