America's New Favorite Golfer: Akshay Bhatia Slides Into A Girl's DMs, Convinces Her To Caddy For Him, Wins His First Korn Ferry Event

19-year old Ahskay Bhatia is a bit of a golf prodigy. Dude graduated high school early, passed college just so he could become a pro. He legit won just about every single damn junior event so it seemed like a no-brainer. That's just setting the backstory so you know a little bit about him. Fast forward to when he was playing in the Valero Texas Open last year and decides to do what basically any 19-year old would do. Slid into the Instagram DM's of Presleigh Schultz. Now they are dating and she's out here helping him win Korn Ferry Tour events. 

Actually he even one-upped himself. Convinced her to become his caddy! As he says, she doesn't know anything abut golf. Think that matters? Dude is 19 and living the life. Clearly he had the right idea because she helped him win yesterday for his first Korn Ferry Tour event over in the Bahamas. (h/t Yahoo)

The 19-year-old Bhatia, who once dominated the junior ranks but has mostly struggled since eschewing college for the pros at age 17, faced 156 yards into the par-5 finishing hole on Wednesday at Sandals Emerald Bay. Moments earlier, Bhatia had turned to his caddie, girlfriend Presleigh Schultz, and declared, with the same confidence he used when he asked Schultz out through Instagram last year, “This is my time.”

Confidence. Oh and here's the shot: 

Nails. No shot I put that on the green. 100% chance that bad boy is ending up right. Oh and naturally we got some TikTok material out of it. 

Now it's worth noting that he hasn't had the best luck with caddies. (h/t GolfChannel)

One of the hottest players in amateur golf had his U.S. Amateur run end Wednesday under unusual circumstances. 

Bhatia was all square against Tilley as they played Pebble Beach’s par-5 14th hole. After knocking his second shot onto the green, Bhatia and his caddie, Chris Darnell, stopped to use the restroom. Bhatia walked up to the green afterward, but Darnell asked what he thought was a USGA official for a ride up to the green.

“The gentleman was wearing a USGA pullover,” Darnell explained afterward. “I asked if I could get a ride to the green to keep up pace, and he said yes. So I hopped on the back, got up to the green, hopped off and thought nothing of it.”

Conditions of the competition prohibit players and caddies from riding on any form of transportation during a stipulated round unless authorized.

It turns out that the cart that Darnell rode on was not driven by a USGA official. Rather, it was just a volunteer wearing USGA apparel. A rules official who was in the area spotted the infraction and assessed Bhatia an adjustment penalty, so instead of winning the hole with a birdie-4 to move 1 up, the match remained all square.

All Presleigh has to do is not commit penalties and she's an upgrade. Now they got a win too. All I know is I need this dude on a Ryder Cup with her on the bag. There are very golf weekends that deliver content like the Ryder Cup. It's my favorite event, right there with the Masters. She'd be delivering on Instagram and TikTok. He'll be hitting approach shots right in Europe's face. 

America just found another golfer.