The PGA Tour is riding high coming out of The PLAYERS Championship. Rory McIlroy captured his 28th career victory on Tour, beating JJ Spaun in a playoff on Monday morning. But not all of the news was good for the PGA Tour as one of their rising stars, Akshay Bhatia, announced that he is withdrawing from this week’s Valspar Championship.
Bhatia is coming off a stellar performance at The PLAYERS. He finished tied for third at 10-under par, two shots back of both McIlroy and Spaun. That finish earned him a cool million bucks. Well, technically, he won $1,325,000. But the point remains: it was a hefty payday.
A reason was not provided upon the withdrawal, per Golf Digest. But it stands to reason that there is less motivation to tee off for the final stop on the PGA Tour’s Florida Swing.
Bhatia has climbed all the way to No. 21 on the Official World Golf Rankings. He is in even better position in the FedEx Cup, ranking 16th following his PLAYERS finish.
But fatigue might very well have played a factor in Bhatia’s decision.
He has been very busy in 2025. The 23-year-old lefty has already played in seven tournaments this year, making the cut in six of them. The Arnold Palmer Invitational was the only tournament he did not play the weekend.
The week leading into The Masters, the PGA Tour heads to San Antonio for the Valero Texas Open. Bhatia is the defending champion, having won there last year. He’ll obviously be in the field looking to defend his title.
Had he remained in the field for the Valspar Championship, Bhatia would have played eight of the preceding 10 tournaments ahead of Augusta National. So, he’ll now have two weeks off to prepare to defend his title in Texas and then the Masters.
Bhatia is also not slated to be in next week’s Houston Open.
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