Akshay Bhatia looks for return to Augusta; leads Valero Texas Open

Whereas Brendon Todd made birdies on the ultimate two holes of the day to get to eight beneath, the ultimate spherical of the Valero appears to be like to return down to 2 gamers: Bhatia and Denny McCarthy.

Apart from a few bogeys on the entrance, Bhatia skilled few hiccups on Saturday, utilizing three birdies on his remaining 5 holes to remain in command. At 15 beneath he enters the ultimate spherical with only a single participant inside seven strokes. The 22-year-old from Los Angeles turned professional in 2019 and is No. 87 within the Official World Golf Rating.

After speaking together with his sports activities psychologist on Friday evening, Bhatia scribbled one thing on his wrist earlier than Saturday’s spherical.

“It simply says ‘race my race.’ I’m simply going at my very own tempo, specializing in myself, preserving the blinders proper in entrance of me,” he mentioned. “I have a look at that on a regular basis as a result of you may get caught up in lots of issues out right here and if I’m simply sort of doing my very own factor and making an attempt to not let outdoors stuff hassle me, then I simply can give attention to myself and regardless of the end result is, it’s.”

The way in which McCarthy is placing, nevertheless, something is feasible. The College of Virginia product is poised to set a document for the fewest putts within the historical past of the century-old match and may break the Tour document. By means of 54 holes, McCarthy has simply 70 putts, a 29-footer on the ultimate gap of the day coming inside inches of dropping. If he has 21 or fewer putts on Sunday, he would eclipse the mark set by David Frost, who had 92 putts on the 2005 MCI Heritage at Harbour City.

“I feel possibly a little bit early on possibly (the greens) felt a little bit bit slower at this time, there was a little bit bit extra moisture in them, but it surely was good to see Rory (McIlroy) and Tommy (Fleetwood) possibly hit a couple of putts earlier than me to get a gauge of that,” McCarthy mentioned. “I had some good ones roll in. I had another good alternatives I didn’t actually fairly reap the benefits of at this time, however all in all I performed a strong spherical of golf.”