Akshay Bhatia found several sources of late-day momentum, which led to another victory on the PGA Tour.
Bhatia used a late-round eagle to help secure a 3-under-par 69 before winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational in a playoff Sunday in Orlando, Fla.
His par on the extra hole was enough when Daniel Berger missed a putt from about 7 1/2 feet.
They both were at 15-under 273 for the tournament at Bay Hill Club and Lodge.
“Everyone knows when you show up to Bay Hill it’s going to be a test and to play one of the hardest golf courses,” Bhatia said. “And to succeed is really cool.”
Bhatia won for the third time on the PGA Tour with his first victory since the 2024 Texas Open. It was the tournament’s first playoff since 1999.
Berger, seeking his fifth tour victory and first in more than five years, shot 70 in the final round.
“Obviously it didn’t go the way I wanted it to,” Berger said. “But at the start of the week if you told me I would have a chance on the 18th hole to win Bay Hill, I would be ecstatic with that. So a lot of positives, a lot of things to learn from.”
There was plenty of drama on the last hole in regulation. With his tee shot into the rough on No. 18, Berger chose to lay up rather than try to carry the lake guarding the green. Bhatia put his second shot within 19 feet of the hole and then needed a tap-in for par. Berger sank a 13 1/2-foot putt, with the ball curling into the cup, to match Bhatia’s par and extend the tournament.
“You just never know what can happen in this game,” Bhatia said.
Berger was in the rough off the tee again on the playoff hole, and this time he couldn’t make a full recovery.
“It’s tough to win (a tournament),” Berger said. “It’s tough to battle. But I feel like I did a good job, and a shot here or there was the difference.”
Cameron Young (69) and Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg (67) tied for third place at 12 under and Collin Morikawa (70), seeking his second victory in four weeks, was fifth at 11 under.
Hours earlier, Berger’s lead dipped to one stroke on Bhatia after they were among a few groups completing the weather-interrupted third round Sunday morning. Bhatia posted birdie on No. 18 to finish the third round.
Berger and Bhatia were in the final pairing for the second round in a row.
Bhatia drew even briefly with an eagle 3 — courtesy of a 3-foot putt — on the 16th hole. The approach shot came from what Bhatia called the best 6-iron shot of his life.
Berger, however, left the green with a one-stroke lead after making birdie. He relinquished the final-round lead with a bogey on the following hole.
Berger dodged early trouble when his tee shot on the par-5 fourth hole went into a shallow creek off the fairway. He took a risk by powering his second shot out of trouble with water spraying, and he managed to produce a birdie on the hole.
Bhatia got back in it with four consecutive birdies to begin the back nine after a three-bogey, one-birdie front side. He said a bogey on No. 9 led to a change of mindset.
“I played with some anger for those couple holes,” he said.
His birdie splurge included a 58-foot birdie putt on No. 11.
“That putt on 11 was a huge bonus for me,” he said. “That really switched my momentum.”
Young liked being near the top of the leaderboard.
“I got myself in a place where I hit a bunch of good shots and sometimes the putts just don’t go in,” Young said.
Sahith Theegala had the final round’s best score with 66, allowing him to share sixth place at 10 under with Russell Henley (68) and Australia’s Min Woo Lee (70).
“This week was big,” Theegala said. “I played some really, really nice golf. Just got to figure out how to get one of the really bad round.”
World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler’s 73 marked his worst round of the tournament. He tied for 24th place at 2 under, yet he was far from discouraged.
“I hit a lot of really, really nice iron shots,” Scheffler said. “Some worked out, others got some wind shifts, but overall, I felt like I struck it really nicely.”
–Field Level Media
