Akshay Bhatia had every reason to believe that the 2025 PGA Tour season would serve as yet another step in his strong and popular rise. Over the previous two years, the lanky North Carolinian, who skipped college and turned pro at the age of 17, has grown into a much-respected competitor. Bhatia won once in each of the last two years, and a pair of goals seemed lofty but realistic: making noise in major championships and getting the attention of U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley for Bethpage Black.

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To Bhatia’s enormous disappointment, neither has happened, though he’s still facing huge stakesnto next week’s regular season finale and the FedEx Playoffs that follow.

Battling to improve his spot at No. 46 in the FedEx Cup standings—the top 50 will make the playoffs’ second event—Bhatia chipped in twice and fired a nine-under-par 63 in the 3M Championship on Saturday to hold the co-lead at 18 under with Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen (67). Four players are tied for third, one shot back, including Kurt Kitayama, who shot 28 on the front nine at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minn., and threatened 59 before shooting 60.

It probably says something about how far Bhatia has come that he’s been so frustrated with his play and how he didn’t handle the pressure he put on himself. He scuffed around in most of the biggest events, with two missed cuts in the majors and a best finish of T-30 in last week’s Open Championship. The highlight was charging to an 11-under start heading into the weekend of the Players Championship, only to shoot 75-70 to tie for third.

Since Sawgrass, Bhatia has only one top-20 result in his last 12 starts.

“Yeah, I definitely feel like it’s been a demoralizing season for most of the year,” Bhatia said. “Obviously, Players was my best finish and felt like I had a good chance to win there. And then after that it’s just been a decline.

“Struggled with my driver for a little bit, didn’t play great in the majors, just too much pressure on myself trying to make Ryder Cup, trying to win, trying to contend in majors. I’ve just compartmentalized at this point where if I don’t make [FedEx Cup] top 50, it’s OK, and at least I have my job next year.”

Bhatia, who toiled in golf’s developmental circuits initially for several years, called his “toughest year” in the big leagues. “I feel like every year has been an incline and this year has felt like a decline most of the year.”

Bhatia could put himself in a completely different frame of mind with a win in Minnesota that would vault him into the top 20 in the FedEx Cup—a strong position for making the top 30 who reach the Tour Championship.

“I’m coming here knowing that if I can get to a certain number, then it will be really great,” Bhatia said. “But at the same time … it’s not so much pressure to where I feel like I’m coming here to win; it’s more so, ‘OK, I need to have a solid enough finish to get in a better position.’

“Obviously, winning out here is very tough, there’s so many guys within how many shots of the lead, so it would mean a lot. But again, I’m just trying to play solid golf and hopefully the cards fall my way tomorrow.”

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com