Before the start of the 2023 Fortinet Championship, Akshay Bhatia switched to a broomstick putter, one similar that Lucas Glover used to win consecutive Tour events only a month before.
Bhatia, a 20-year-old who broke through for his first Tour victory at the Barracuda Championship last summer, had a strong rookie season outside of his putter. He knew something needed to change to be more consistent. He switched his flat stick for one round at the Fortinet Championship and three rounds at the RSM Classic. It has been in the bag again this week, and through three rounds of the 2024 season, it seems that switch is paying off.
After three rounds of the 2024 The Sentry at Kapalua in Maui, Hawaii, Bhatia is sitting at 20-under 199, one shot behind leader Chris Kirk. However, the youngster is first in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting.
“I played nice today,” Bhatia said. “Didn’t make any mistakes. Made some putts. I wish I would have not 3-putted 18, and that’s what I’m going to think about, but it was a good day. We all played really well in the group. I’m looking forward to the opportunity tomorrow.”
What do winners over the last three years have in common at Kapalua? Leading the field in Strokes Gained: Putting.
The Sentry: Photos
As he mentioned, the lone blemish for Bhatia in his third-round 7-under 66 came on the closing par-5 18th, when he three putted for the first time this week. It resulted in a par, but nevertheless, Bhatia will be in the final pairing come Sunday’s final round.
“My caddie has been here plenty of times, and I’m relying on him,” he said. “Our game plan, we have a nice game plan of what holes we need to play conservatively, what holes we can attack, and then what holes we can just kind of plod around. If you make a couple birdies on the harder holes it’s a big jump, I think. Then, like you said, you got to make a lot of birdies. A lot of holes are birdieable, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t.
“You just keep plotting around and hopefully you play this golf course more and more you get more comfortable on certain things. So, that’s kind of what I’m going about.”
Hereare four more things you need to know from the third round of The Sentry.
Par save big reason for Kirk's lead
Kirk leads The Sentry, searching for his first victory since the Honda Classic last spring. However, his name is on top of the leaderboard thanks to a spectacular par save on the par-5 15th.
His tee shot leaked right with the wind and landed in the penalty area, forcing him to drop in the rough and have more than 300 yards left with his third shot. He hit a hybrid and landed in the fairway. His fourth shot from 94 yards out went long and left a 20-foot par putt from the fringe.
No worries, however. Kirk poured in the putt to continue his momentum. A pair of pars on Nos. 16 and 17, and he added a closing birdie on the par-5 18th, signing for a 7-under 66 and a one-shot lead with 18 holes to play.
“I didn’t hit that awful of a drive, I just didn’t adjust for the strength of wind as much as I needed to, compared to the line I was taking the last few days,” Kirk said. “I only hit it barely right, but with that wind blowing so hard over the left it just took it over there. But, yeah, to make that one after a nice run of birdies before that definitely kept the momentum going.”
Kirk, sitting at 21-under 198, had eight birdies in his third round, including a string of four straight from Nos. 5-8. His lone blemish came on the par-5 third hole.
This week, Kirk is losing strokes Off the Tee, but he’s first in Strokes Gained: Total thanks to his excellent approach shots, around the green play and putting.
“I mean, it sounds dumb and cliche, but you just got to go do your thing,” Kirk said. “I may go play great tomorrow, and somebody may play a little bit better. There’s only so much control you have over that. So, you just kind of stay with your process and just go do it. But it is always strange like after having a pretty good bit of time off at home and it’s been cold and haven’t been practicing a whole lot, you kind of don’t expect to come out and go play great.
“It’s fun just to be here and enjoy Hawaii and be able to make some nice free swings in this warm weather. I always loved coming here.”
The trials of Jordan Spieth
On the par-5 15th hole, Jordan Spieth stood over a 3 footer for birdie for a long time. Kevin Kisner, current PGA Tour player who’s helping out on the NBC Sports broadcast of The Sentry this week, said the 13-time Tour winner needed to stop overthinking the short ones and just knock it in.
Spieth finally made his stroke, and he lipped out.
“It’s 3 feet Jordan, just knock it in bud,” Kisner said after some Spieth commentary to caddie Michael Greller following the miss.
Even with the miss, Spieth is third this week in Strokes Gaines: Putting, more than five strokes up on the field, and he sits at 19 under after his second consecutive 6-under 67 at the tournament he won in 2016 and finished second in 2014. He doesn’t have a bogey this week (he did double the third hole in the first round) and is two shots back entering the final round.
“I’ve had a lot of two and a half to 5-footers this week, and they have been really solid for me,” Spieth said following his round. “I missed one today, but I’ve just had to hit those as second putts a lot, just from leaving it short. But a lot of that has to do with proximity on the second shots.”
A 30 first nine for Harris English
Harris English started on the easier nine Saturday morning at Kapalua, and he took advantage.
English shot 7 under on his first nine holes, the back nine, including an eagle on the par-5 18th to cap a stretch of 6 under in five holes. He birdied the par-3 11th, his second hole of the day, then birdies on Nos. 14-17 plus the eagle helped him turn in 7-under 30.
“Thought it was going to play pretty tough today and just got the putter hot,” English said. “Made a pretty long one on 11. It was just hard to get close to some of those pins. Then, obviously, hitting a stretch of 14, 15, 16, 18 are all really scorable, and got on a good stretch right there and reeled off a lot of birdies. Then eagling 18 making the turn definitely helped things out.”
He gained 4.689 strokes putting in the third round, best of the 59 players in the field.
When he turned, English bogeyed the first and third hole but added another eagle on the par-5 fifth and birdies on Nos. 6-7 to help him shoot 9-under 64, the best round of the day.
For the tournament, English sits 18 under.
“It’s playing how it should out there,” English said. “It’s windy, it’s tricky, got some good pins, it’s a lot of fun. I know everybody’s having a lot of fun this week and it’s probably the best shape I’ve ever seen it.”
Big names lurking
As if the case in the opening event of the year, there are plenty of big names lurking, waiting to pounce come Sunday. And as we saw last year, no lead is safe at Kapalua (as a reminder, Collin Morikawa led by six shots with 18 holes to play before Jon Rahm won).
Xander Schauffele is at 19 under. Scottie Scheffler, Sahith Theegala and Jason Day are at 18 under. Sitting at 17 under is Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa and Matt Fitzpatrick.
The low round of the week is Tyrrell Hatton with an 11-under 62 on Friday.
The stars are shining at Kapalua. Come Sunday, especially if the wind blows, there’s no telling who could make a charge from behind and challenge the leaders.
