On Sunday that was Bryson DeChambeau — although he probably wasn’t too thrilled with the outcome — and on Saturday it was Corey Conners.
But it was Akshay Bhatia and Ludvig Aberg who had front-row seats for the first two rounds. Bhatia (along with Keegan Bradley) was on last week’s GOLF’s Subpar podcast — which was recorded live at The Bank on Hilton Head Island during the RBC Heritage — and discussed what he saw from McIlroy early in the tournament.
“I wasn’t ever expecting to be in that group just based off World Ranking and what everyone else wants to see, but I check my phone and all of a sudden I see Rory McIlroy and Ludvig, and Ludvig I have played with multiple times,” said the 23-year-old Bhatia. “And I was like, man, this is the first time I get to play with Rory McIlroy.”
McIlroy shot 72 with two double bogeys on Thursday and shot 66 on Friday.
“I’ve never seen someone hit a driver that good; he played great the first round and made a couple of doubles and somehow I beat him the first round,” said Bhatia, who shot 70 on Thursday. “And I was like, man, that guy, he played so freaking good. And you almost feel like, how do I compete with that? He hits it far, he hits it straight, his wedge play was great. He didn’t miss I don’t think inside 10 feet on Friday.”
Of course, it all led to a green jacket and career Grand Slam.
“It was really cool for me to see, as he’s kind of been the guy of our generation, to finally cap it off,” Bhatia said. “It really inspired me and a lot of people I think watching that final round.”
You can listen to the entire Subpar episode with Bradley and Bhatia here or watch the YouTube video below.
As GOLF.com’s managing editor, Berhow handles the day-to-day and long-term planning of one of the sport’s most-read news and service websites. He spends most of his days writing, editing, planning and wondering if he’ll ever break 80. Before joining GOLF.com in 2015, he worked at newspapers in Minnesota and Iowa. A graduate of Minnesota State University in Mankato, Minn., he resides in the Twin Cities with his wife and two kids. You can reach him at joshua_berhow@golf.com.
