“It’s just so many different emotions” - Akshay Bhatia opens up about the challenges of competing and winning on the PGA Tour 

Akshay Bhatia, who earned his PGA Tour card earlier this year, opened up about hardships and challenges golfers face while competing and winning tournaments.

The American golfer has been playing at the PGA Tour's Sanderson Farms Championship this week and with the conclusion of the first round, he settled for fourth position in a seven-way tie.

In his interview with the PGA Tour, Bhatia spoke about the challenges. He mentioned the Fortinet Championship, where he missed the cut as he was in a bad headspace.

After his victory at the Barracuda Championship, Akshay has witnessed a lot of different emotions. Speaking about his hardships, Bhatia said:

"It's really hard. Fortinet, I was in a bad headspace. You know, after I won, you think everything would be great and, you know, I'd be super happy. I mean, getting my Tour card and everything that's happened this year.

He went on to talk about his love for golf:

"I almost got to a point where I didn't want to touch my golf clubs, which has never happened because this is you know, this is my life. This is what I love to do. I love playing golf. I love competing and it was really hard for, you know, that short period of time just being my age and winning and everything that comes with it. It's just so many different emotions. And I'm happy to kind of get back to who I am and enjoy being out here again."

Akshay Bhatia, who went pro in 2019, has so far won five professional competitions. He has triumphed in three additional professional golf competitions in addition to one PGA Tour event and one on the Korn Ferry Tour.

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When will Akshay Bhatia tee off at the 2023 Sanderson Farms Championship on Friday?

Akshay Bhatia played the first round of the 2023 Sanderson Farms Championship on Thursday, October 5. He started the game with a birdie on the third hole after making a par on the first two holes.

He made two back-to-back birdies on the third and fourth holes before adding a bogey on the fifth followed by a birdie on the next hole. Bhatia carded four birdies and one bogey on the front nine of the opening round and three birdies on the back nine to score 66.

He finished with a score of under six and will start the second round on Friday, October 6, just two strokes behind the leader Chesson Hadley.

The second round of the 2023 Sanderson Farms Championship is set to begin at 8 a.m. ET with C.T. Pan, Martin Trainer and Scott Brown teeing off on the first hole while Jimmy Walker, S.Y. Noh and Hank Lebioda on the tenth.

Akshay Bhatia will tee off on the tenth hole at 8:55 a.m. ET. He will pair up with Adam Svensson and rookie Ludvig Aberg.