PGA Tour: Akshay Bhatia finishes tied-16th as Theegala is T-25 and Fitzpatrick wins title
Hilton Head (USA), April 20 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Akshay Bhatia and Sahith Theegala played under par rounds to finish in Top-25 at the RBC Heritage on the golf tournament on the PGA Tour. While Bhatia moved up to T-16, nine places from his overnight position of T-25, Theegala moved to T-25, up from his overnight position of T-41. Another Indian origin player, Sudarshan Yellamaraju (68), finished T-53.
Matt Fitzpatrick (70) held off World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (67) in regulation play as the latter rallied from his three-shot deficit to force a playoff at Harbour Town Links. Both finished at 18-under.
In the play-off, Fitzpatrick, 31, stunned the pro-Scheffler crowd with a 4-iron from 204 yards, a little more left than he intended but very good. It rolled past the pin and stopped 13 feet away for a birdie. Fitzpatrick holed it to beat Scheffler and win the RBC Heritage for the second time.
The victory, his fourth on the PGA TOUR and 13th worldwide, moves him to a career-high No. 3 in the world ranking.
Fitzpatrick won for the second time in the last month. After his runner-up finish at THE PLAYERS, he won the Valspar Championship. He has won nearly $8.3 million in his last four tournaments.
The playoff was almost a repeat of the previous time when Fitzpatrick defeated another American favourite, Jordan Spieth, in a playoff at the RBC Heritage three years ago. This time, the closing hole was a brute, the toughest at Harbour Town.
Scheffler, trailing by three shots with four holes to play, forced a playoff with a pair of late birdies for a 4-under 67 and some help from Fitzpatrick, who hit a poor chip from right of the green and missed a 20-foot par putt for his only bogey of the day and a 70.
Scheffler followed with his worst swing of the day, a 6-iron that came up 37 yards short of the hole. He hit a superb pitch to 8 feet, but never had to putt when Fitzpatrick made the winning putt.
It was the second straight runner-up finish for Scheffler, who came from 12 shots behind going into the weekend to finish one back of Rory McIlroy at the Masters. This time, he was seven behind Fitzpatrick through 36 holes and finished 64-67.
As both finished at 18-under 268, Kim closed with a 68 to finish alone in third, his fourth top 10 of the year.
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