Akshay Bhatia birdied six of the first seven holes on the way to a four-under par 68 to seize a two-stroke lead after Saturday’s third round of the PGA Pebble Beach Pro-Am.<\/p>\n
With gusting winds at the seaside course’s signature 18th hole keeping balls wobbling and rolling out of position, Bhatia<\/a> endured a hefty wait before missing a seven-foot birdie putt and closing with a par.<\/p>\n “Always nice to get off to a good start,” Bhatia said. “Making six out of the first seven was pretty nice.”<\/p>\n Despite his sizzling start, the 24-year-old American never made another birdie and finished 54 holes on 19-under 197, seeing a five-shot lead trimmed to two ahead of Sunday’s final round.<\/p>\n “Just battling the elements at Pebble Beach is always fun,” Bhatia said.<\/p>\n “Then you’re holding on for a little bit once you get to eight, nine, 10, 12. And then 17 is a brutal hole today. Happy with today for sure.”<\/p>\n Sharing second on 199 was two-time major winner Collin Morikawa<\/a>, who birdied five of the last six holes to fire a 62, plus fellow American Jake Knapp<\/a> and Austrian Sepp Straka<\/a>. American Jacob Bridgeman<\/a> was on 200 and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama<\/a> on 201.<\/p>\n “I wanted to come out and win the tournament,” Morikawa said. “Now we’ve given ourself a chance.”<\/p>\n Bhatia, who shared third last week at Phoenix, seeks a third career PGA title after wins at the 2023 Barracuda Championship and 2024 Texas Open.<\/p>\n “One out of every 30 events we play can get this challenging,” Bhatia said. “I’m just looking forward to that and having a good time.”<\/p>\n Sunday’s forecast features gusts around 35 mph after wobbling golf balls at 18 had Bhatia hoping for a moment for a delay to Sunday.<\/p>\n “I was hoping so but tomorrow doesn’t look any better,” Bhatia said. “Our golf balls were just oscillating and technically it’s not a moving ball but it’s just hard to get over a putt when you see your golf ball moving forwards, backwards, backwards, forwards. It’s just brutal.<\/p>\n “It’s hard to hit a putt like that with those conditions and with everything going on in your head. I was happy to make five there.”<\/p>\n Bhatia began with birdie putts from five feet and nine feet on the first two holes, an eight-footer at the fourth and a 27-foot birdie putt at the par-three fifth.<\/p>\n His superb start ended with a six-foot birdie putt at the par-five sixth and a birdie putt from just inside eight feet at the par-three seventh.<\/p>\n Bhatia took bogeys at the par-three 12th and 17th holes.<\/p>\n Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune<\/a>, who had shared the 36-hole lead with Bhatia, stumbled to a 74 to stand on 203.<\/p>\n World number one Scottie Scheffler<\/a> fired a 67 to share 22nd and stand eight adrift on 205, while defending champion Rory McIlroy<\/a> fired a 72 to share 39th on 207.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Akshay Bhatia birdied six of the first seven holes on the way to a four-under par 68 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-428929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}