Rory McIlroy killed Akshay Bhatia’s confidence at the Masters with just one move

Akshay Bhatia expressed the effect playing with Rory McIlroy at The Masters last week had on him. The 23-year-old golfer, who is teeing it up at the RBC Heritage in South Carolina this week, appeared on a podcast where he spoke about several topics surrounding golf.

The Subpar, a podcast co-hosted by Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz had Keegan Bradley and Bhatia as guests in its latest episode. The episode featured discussions about Ryder Cup, The Masters, TGL among other topics.

Akshay Bhatia at the RBC Heritage 2025 - Source: Getty

While on the topic of the recently concluded Masters at Augusta, Bhatia was asked about his experience of being paired with McIlroy and Ludvig Aberg for the first two days of the tournament. The young golfer expressed how unexpected the pairing was with two top players, given their world ranking.

Talking about his first time playing with McIlroy, he said (5:30 onwards):

"It's the first time I got to play with Rory McIlroy and you know he was playing as good as any, obviously the best of the week. I've never seen someone hit a driver that good you know."

"He played great the first round and then made a couple doubles and somehow I beat him the first round," Akshay Bhatia added.

The 23-year-old continued to express his admiration for Rory McIlroy and shared the intimidation he felt watching him play up close.

"He played so freaking good and you almost feel like, 'How do I compete with that' in a sense. He hits it far, he hits it straight, his wedge play was great. He didn't miss a putt."

Speaking about the 2025 Masters Champion's final round, Bhatia said:

"It was really cool for me to see as he's kind of been the the guy of our generation to finally cap it off. It really inspired me and a lot of people I think, watching that final round."

Akshay Bhatia finished at Augusta in a tie in the 42nd position with Danny Willett, Shane Lowry, and J.T Poston with a total score of four-over-par 292.

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Rory McIlroy's speed is an 'eye-opener' for Akshay Bhatia

One of the hosts of the Subpar podcast, Drew Stoltz, asked Akshay Bhatia about his improvement in the ballspeed and how much emphasis he lays on it moving forward.

Referring to Rory McIlroy's speed, Bhatia said (20:42):

"Playing with Rory last week was like a huge eye opener, because I'm not even slow on the PGA Tour and I'm still 40 behind him, and he hits it straight."

Rory McIlroy at The Masters 2025- Source: Getty

Bhatia went on to mention the training he got under Xander Shauffele's strength coaches and his goal is to hit the ball further.