Different Tours, Same Battle: PGA Tour’s Akshay Bhatia & LIV Golf’s Dean Burmester Win the Nerve Game

The golf world seems to be hit by a curious turn of events. Yes, you read that right! The community, surprisingly, witnessed playoffs being played on the two tours of the men’s sport. Interestingly, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf witnessed a tie in scores between two golfers, each forcing them to contend against each other in a tiebreaker. And, excitingly enough, Akshay Bhatia emerged victorious on the Jay Monahan-led circuit at the Valero Texas Open, while Dean Burmester won the event on the breakaway league.

Naturally, the question arises: who fought with whom? Well, the battle on the PGA Tour witnessed Akshay Bhatia emerging triumphant against Denny McCarthy on his first playoff hole, while Burmester won his first LIV title in Miami against Sergio Garcia. But even so, the community couldn’t help but notice the interesting turn of events that led to both the two circuits witnessing a playoff.

Akshay Bhatia had propelled himself to the top of the leaderboard on Sunday with McCarthy with figures of 20-under 268 before raking in the winner’s cut of $1,656,000. Although he faced a nerve-racking playoff on the par-5, 18th on the final day, a birdie from the pro, which pushed his total count of the same to 26, helped him clinch his second PGA Tour win, the first of which came at the 2023 Barracuda Championship.

Coming down to Miami, the South African pro tied with Garcia with an 11-under 205 over the three days of play at Trump National Doral. But exhilaratingly, he managed to beat the Spaniard in the playoff with an even-par score at the par-4, 468-yard long 18th hole. What’s more, it marks his 12th professional victory as well as his 3rd triumph in 4 months, following the 2023 Investec South African Open Championship and the 2023 Joburg Open.

Even though both golfers came out glorious at the end, a stark difference remains between the two wins. One provides the athlete with OWGR points, while the other does not. Interestingly, Bhatia will receive a total of 55.62671 points on the world ranking along with 500 FedEx points, while Burmester will be granted a figure of 40 on the 2024 LIV Golf leaderboard, thereby helping him jump to T3. That’s not all; the PGA Tour champ will also be getting a ticket to Augusta National, unlike the South African Pro.

Bhatia becomes part of the 2024 Masters field

Akshay Bhatia, through his win at the recently ended Valero Texas Open, as per the criteria, “Winners of PGA Tour events that award a full-point allocation for the season-ending Tour Championship, from previous Masters to current Masters.” However, the same cannot be said for Burmester, who also seemed eager for an appearance at the iconic major championship.

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“I obviously wanna be there,” replied the ecstatic LIV golfer while alluding to the Masters after winning the title in Miami. Adding on, he said, “I feel like I’ve played some of the best golf of my career and I feel like I’ve played against a lot of good players all over the world and won. And this kind of just proves it. Do I wanna be there? For sure.” Anyhow, we can only wait and watch if the victory, along with his previous two wins, is enough for the golfer to be given an invitation to the Masters.

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