“He'll just keep getting better”: Phil Mickelson sings huge praises of upcoming prodigy Akshay Bhatia at Masters 2024 (Exclusive)
Sahith Theegala is convinced that Akshay Bhatia is top talent and legend Phil Mickelson feels he needs to do nothing to get to the next level and that he is on a great path.
Speaking to Sportskeeda, Theegala had no hesitation saying, “No doubt he's going to be top 10, top 5, and maybe even World No. 1 at some point.”
Is Akshay Bhatia hard on himself, I ask ? Theegala thinks just that bit, and says,
“I don't know. I don't get the sense that he's too hard on himself. He has a good line between confidence and not being too cocky, I don't know the right word for it. It's a line between cockiness and confidence, and he has a lot of that. He does a lot of things really well. I think he's going to represent Indian-Americans very well."
When asked what does he need to do next to get to an even higher level, Phil Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion, told exclusively to Sportskeeda,
“No, he doesn't need to do anything different. Just keep fine tuning what he's doing. He's on a great path, and he's gotten so good that all he has to do is just fine tune, fine tune. He doesn't have to do anything different, and he's already incredible. He'll just keep getting better, just like he has.”
Phil Mickelson further added,
“I have a lot of respect for him. We first met and started spending time when he first turned pro. He came to the conclusion that over the course of the next four years he'll progress more as a player if he were to turn pro and go through the challenges of playing professional golf during those four years that he could be in college.
“He had the foresight to make a really tough decision and make the right decision for him because it's turned out that after winning a couple of times he's progressed very fast in these last four years and come a long way. He's got an incredible golf game. What a career he has.”
The two Indian-Americans, Bhatia and Theegala, had a solid following all week at Augusta, as Theegala made his second cut in as many starts at Augusta and Bhatia made the weekend on his debut. Akshay Bhatia (72-75-74-73) finished 6-over and T-35, while Sahith Theegala (74-74-74-75) was 9-over and T-45.
Bhatia has had an amazing fortnight, winning his second PGA Tour, getting into the Masters as the last man in, and making the cut on his debut.
“Akshay is great. Just saying how mature he is. He's just turned 22, and it's like -- he'll give you the illusion that he's got it all figured it out. Nobody has it all figured out. But he's such a great player, and just an incredible talent, and I know he works hard at it.”
He went on, “But he's one of the best ball strikers I've ever seen. Now that he's got the broomstick working and I think he's working hard on his short game, he could be a force for a very, very long time.”
“He's got that kind of skills off the tee, and his iron game -- his start lines are so precise. It's really impressive what he can do, and his distance control is really good, too. Just playing with him, it's like, I have a lot of room for improvement. It's funny looking at someone that's so much younger and saying they do these things a lot better than I do. He's going to have a bright future.”
Does Akshay ask a lot of questions? Sahith Theegala says,
"I think he's got it mostly figured out already. He doesn't need to ask me too many questions.”
He added, “it's funny because he's been pro longer than I have. I don't even feel like I have anything to offer him. He has more pro experience than I do.”
“I played with him at PLAYERS and he missed the cut, but I played with him already five, six rounds, and I was like, dude, you're playing great. Honestly, I could have used better timing on when I said that because he had just missed the cut and he was upset. But he was striking it so, so good. He just wasn't making some of the putts and just some mental errors that led him to missing the cut by one, and I think he missed a few cuts by one. But all the cuts he made were top 15s, top 17s. He had a great week every time. Then sure enough, he dominates Valero with the exception of Denny.”
“There's a million things he can learn. I'm sure once he gets a stable caddie -- whatever it is, figure stuff out outside of the golf course, then it's only going to get better for him.”