Akshay Bhatia plays boldly, wins 2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational

ORLANDO, Fla. – Akshay Bhatia made a Sunday charge that would have made Arnold Palmer proud.

Five strokes back after missing a short putt at nine, he reeled off four straight birdies and then delivered the signature shot of the tournament, a cut 6-iron from 191 yards to a tucked flag at the par-5 16th to set up eagle. His caddie, Joe Greiner, gave him one simple instruction: "Try to hit the best 6-iron of your life."

Bhatia nearly jarred it and tapped in for eagle. Time and again over the closing stretch, Bhatia played boldly and fired at flags, making it only appropriate that the winner of the 2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational is the golfer who went for broke just as Palmer, who died 10 years ago, did in his heyday.

Bhatia, 24, rallied to shoot 3-under 69 at Bay Hill Club and Lodge and beat Daniel Berger in a playoff for his third victory, and (for the moment) the biggest of his promising career.

"Everyone knows when you show up to this tournament how hard it is, an elite field, obviously, and just very honored to win his event," Bhatia said. "I know he was up there watching and probably pretty proud of how that finish was for this week."

Bhatia had to play some extra golf on Sunday. He capped off a third-round 4-under 68 with a par-birdie finish in the morning, including a 15-foot birdie on No. 18 that sat on the lip before falling in, and cut his deficit to one after 54 holes. But Bhatia sprinkled three bogeys on the front nine of his final round to fall five strokes behind Berger, who was trying to go wire-to-wire for his first win in five years.

At the ninth, Bhatia missed a putt of less than three feet, which he called "a mental mistake," and Berger holed a 10-foot birdie putt to get to 15 under. That's when Bhatia's anger boiled over as he made the long walk to the 10th tee.

“He said he was so pissed and I told him, ‘Go play the next hole pissed off,’ " recounted Greiner. "Then when he made birdie, I said, 'Go play this one pissed off too.' ”

Greiner gave one more piece of wisdom to Bhatia, who he began working with late last year at the Hero World Challenge. Last month, Bhatia built a five-stroke lead at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am but ended up finishing T-6 at the signature event. "I said, 'Remember how hard it was for you when you had a 5-shot lead at Pebble Beach on Saturday? That’s how Daniel feels right now,' " Greiner said.

Bhatia embraced being the chaser and told Greiner, "We shot 4-under yesterday on this side, let's just try and do that again."

It didn't hurt Bhatia's chances that he enjoyed a career week with his long putter, ranking first in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting, and gaining more than 10 strokes on the greens for the week. He also set a new record for the most strokes gained for short game and putting combined in a Tour win in the ShotLink era (+16.3), making up for that short miss with a 58-foot bomb at No. 11. After a bogey at 15, he hit one of the shots of the year at the par-5 16th. With the eagle trimming his deficit to one, Bhatia stayed aggressive, taking dead aim with an 8-iron at 17 that stopped 18 feet from the hole. The crowd adopted Bhatia and gave him a boost. "It felt like Arnie's Army was out there for me," he said. "I could feel the energy and the buzz. It was awesome." He missed the birdie putt but Berger took three putts and they were tied going to the last.

Bhatia went flag-hunting again with a 9-iron at 18 that barely cleared the lake. Nevertheless, he nearly won it in regulation except Berger drained a clutch 14-foot par putt to post 70. Knotted at 15-under 273, they returned to 18 for the first playoff at Arnie's Place since 1999. Berger missed the fairway again and did his best to get the ball on to the front-left portion of the green, some 107 feet from the back-right hole location. He did well to rap it to 7 feet but missed the left-to-right curler for par. Bhatia stroked his approach to 27 feet and calmly 2-putted for par.

It's the biggest victory for Bhatia, 24, who first won an opposite-field event in 2023, then a full-field event in 2024 and now a signature event. He's won all three times in playoffs while it's another painful playoff defeat for Berger, who led by two strokes with three holes to play.

"I never really thought that I could really do this with that amount of pressure," Bhatia said. "I feel like I've shied away from that. And today I just, I dug down, I believed in what I could do and I executed nicely."

Shortly after he slipped into the famed red alpaca sweater awarded to the winner, a rainbow popped out in the sky and it made Bhatia think of his sister's 5-year-old daughter, Mia, who was in the Bahamas to attend his wedding in December and died that day of a rare disease.

"I had my niece definitely watching over me," Bhatia said. "When I saw that rainbow on 18, it reminded me of her...I've been thinking about her for a long time after she passed, and dedicate this win for her."

This article originally appeared on DAMAKORONKOWA:Akshay Bhatia plays boldly, wins 2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational

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