[Picture: Andy Lyons]
Akshay Bhatia owes Viktor Hovland a drink. A very expensive drink.
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Thanks to Hovland’s birdie putt at the 18th hole on the final day, Bhatia became the recipient of FedEx Cup point providence, as Hovland’s putt moved Michael Kim down the BMW Championship leaderboard … and Bhatia into the season-finale Tour Championship.
Bhatia, who made an ace in the third round, seemed to be on the right side of the line for most of the afternoon on day four. However, the issue became in doubt after Bhatia stumbled down the stretch at Caves Valley, carding four bogeys in a six-hole stretch and failing to birdie the par-5 16th. It appeared Bhatia, who logged a T-3 at the Players in March along with a T-6 at last week’s St Jude Championship, would miss out on Atlanta. Which, while his East Lake ticket is fortuitous, puts Kim on the wrong side of hard maths. Kim, who’s enjoyed a career revival in 2025, appeared set for the Tour Championship until Hovland poured in his final putt. To Kim’s credit, he appeared to take it in stride, tweeting “Viktor and I used to be friends.”
Also on the right side of the line were Harry Hall, Sungaje Im, and Chris Gotterup. Hall, who moved up 19 spots in the standings thanks to a sixth-place finish, now has an outside chance to assert himself as the final man on Europe’s Ryder Cup team. “Yeah, massive. Really happy,” Hall said afterwards. “Can’t wait to play in the FedExCup next week and hopefully keep continuing to play well.”
But there were causalities, most notably Rickie Fowler. He was projected inside the Tour Championship cutoff for most of the final round. Unfortunately for Fowler, he picked the exact wrong time to go south, bogeying the 14th hole and doubling the 15th from the fairway to drop down the BMW leaderboard and thus the FedEx Cup standings. Needing a birdie at the last, Fowler’s attempt slid by.
“Obviously bummed. I knew what I needed to do. Really just made a poor swing. I just needed to give myself a little bit more time and get fully committed to what I was trying to do. Eight-iron into 14, I hung it out, left it out right. Really don’t feel the breeze down there in the fairway, and just got my start line out to the right too much, and I had the ball below my feet. A few variables. So bummer on that one. Next hole, I thought I flagged an 8-iron, ends up airmailing the green. There wasn’t that much room behind the hole, but I thought I was going to put one in there and have a good look at birdie and walk away with double. Kind of a kick in the you-know-what there. Been a lot of good stuff. Been a fun run through the summer.
“Tried to make a couple coming in, but yeah, I wish we were playing next week, but we’ll head off and get to recovery and get ready for next year.”
Here are the 30 players that will be playing at East Lake in this week’s Tour Championship. Unlike previous years, there will be no starting strokes for the tournament.
Scottie Scheffler
Rory McIlroy
J.J. Spaun
Justin Rose
Tommy Fleetwood
Ben Griffin
Russell Henley
Sepp Straka
Robert MacIntyre
Maverick McNealy
Harris English
Justin Thomas
Cameron Young
Ludvig Aberg
Andrew Novak
Keegan Bradley
Sam Burns
Brian Harman
Corey Conners
Patrick Cantlay
Collin Morikawa
Viktor Hovland
Hideki Matsuyama
Shane Lowry
Nick Taylor
Harry Hall
Jacob Bridgeman
Sungjae Im
Chris Gotterup
Akshay Bhatia
