Akshay Bhatia’s fist pump injury, Jordan Spieth’s roof shot wraps wild Texas Open
Yahoo Sports’ Jay Busbee recaps one of the weirdest tournaments in recent memory — including the 22-year-old’s dramatic putt and ensuing celebration, plus Spieth’s interesting shot selection from the trees on Saturday.
Video transcript
- The week before the Masters is generally a pretty quiet time in golf. But not this year, where we had both the wildest shot and the weirdest injury of 2024 so far at the Valero Texas Open. Let's start with the injury. First off, Akshay Bhatia, 22 years old.
He's in position to win the tournament. He's going to get an invitation to the Masters at the very last second. And then Denny McCarthy goes and shoots a back 928 to force himself into a tie for the lead on the 18th hole of the tournament. That left Bhatia with a 12 foot putt to force a playoff, and he nailed it.
He fist pumped in, and he fist pumped so hard that he dislocated his shoulder, and he had to have it worked on during the playoffs. Now, fortunately for Bhatia, McCarthy put his shot his approach on 18 into the water in the playoff. Bhatia gets the victory and a sudden invitation to the Masters, but not before suffering the strangest injury of the year.
If you had a question about whether golfers are actually athletes, injuring yourself fist pumping might answer that question. Now, the day before and well down the leaderboard, Jordan Spieth had one of his characteristically chaotic Jordan Spieth holes on the 18th hole. Again, he goes and hits his tee shot behind a tree.
He hits a branch on his second shot. He ends up in a drainage ditch. And then he puts the next shot onto the roof of the clubhouse at TPC San Antonio because he got a free drop. Now, it ended up not helping him very much. He double bogeyed the hole and finished well off the lead.
But this kind of stuff is the kind of chaos that we expect from Jordan Spieth every tournament out. And this week at the Masters, the 2015 champion could be serving up more of it for us. For the best news in golf, including Nelly Korda's four tournaments and counting run, check out the Monday leaderboard this Monday and every Monday at Yahoo Sports.
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