Akshay Bhatia has admitted that he was underwhelmed with the large majority of his form in 2026, and suggested that he needs to improve his driving if he wants to become a top-10 player in the world.
Bhatia looked to be a certainty to make the US Presidents Cup team earlier this year following his victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.
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He had previously finished inside the top-10 at the WM Phoenix Open and at Pebble Beach. However, he would go on to register just one more top-10 before the end of the season.
Bhatia did not receive a pick from Brandt Snedeker for the Presidents Cup.
Akshay Bhatia focused on improving his driving after a mixed PGA Tour season
For a player of the 24-year-old’s quality, there is no question that he has a pretty terrible major championship record. He missed the cut at The Masters, the PGA Championship, and The Open Championship in 2026.
And when asked about his season on The Smylie Show, Bhatia suggested that he has plenty of work to do off the tee to reach that next level.
Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
“Obviously, winning is an amazing accomplishment each year if you can do that. When you look at someone like Dustin who won every season for 20 straight seasons or whatever he did, it’s pretty incredible. That was a big achievement for me,” he said.
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“I think pretty much everything else in between was pretty mediocre. I think the main thing that I need to focus on is to become a better driver. I think to compete in big events and be top-10 in the world, that’s a major factor. I think you look at most of the guys who are top-10 in the world and they’re elite drivers whether they hit it long, or you look at a guy like Russell Henley, he’s the straight driver on tour, so that’s a big, big thing I really need to work on.”
What Akshay Bhatia’s caddie told him about his driver struggles
The concern for Bhatia is that he is not particularly long off the tee, and he is not particularly accurate.
He averaged 304.1 yards in 2026, leaving him 98th on tour for driving distance. Meanwhile, he was 123rd for accuracy, having hit the fairway just over 56 per cent of the time.
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And he went on to explain what he thinks he needs to change to become a much better driver of the golf ball having had some feedback from his caddie, Joe Greiner.
“We definitely have talked about it a lot where he’s like, ‘you are so good at this game, and so talented. To be 15th going into the Tour Championship but being 120th in driving is really impressive’. Obviously, having closer to a go-to shot or a one-way miss, I struggled with two-way misses for this whole year. And I drove it my best at Sawgrass which he can’t fathom because it’s one of the hardest places to drive the golf ball optically. It’s very nerve-racking,” he said.
“I think a lot of it has to do with my matchup in my golf swing has to change, and the delivery of my golf swing. And then two, the mental scarring I have of not wanting to hit it both ways is a big thing that it’s going to take time to overcome. But yeah I think if I can get my golf swing in a more consistent pattern, it will be huge, and then I can work around with the Callaway guys to get a driver that is probably more beneficial for me.”
Bhatia will be driven by missing out on making the Presidents Cup team this year.
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He is exactly the kind of player that Jim Furyk should want at the Ryder Cup in 2027. It must not be forgotten that all three of Bhatia’s wins have come in a playoff.
He is someone who knows how to step up when the pressure is on.
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