Akshay Bhatia’s Arnold Palmer victory included an incredible comeback

It is hard to win on the PGA Tour. Some would say it is impossible.

Winning on the PGA Tour is even more difficult when you are five strokes back with nine holes to play. Somehow, Akshay Bhatia pulled it off nonetheless.

Bhatia defeated Daniel Berger on the first playoff hole of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard on Sunday. It was Bhatia’s third career victory on the PGA Tour. Amazingly, they have all come in playoffs. Even more amazingly, they have all come after only a single playoff hole.

In order for a playoff to happen there have to be players tied after 72 holes. Everybody knows this. Bhatia’s odds of reaching that point were quite long, though.

At the time when Akshay Bhatia and Daniel Berger made the turn at Bay Hill, the former trailed the latter by five strokes. Akshay sat at 10-under while Berger was at 15-under and simply had to protect a five-shot lead.

Berger managed to card two birdies, but he also had two bogeys which evened things out. An errant tee shot at 17 led to the second bogey which opened the door for Bhatia to push things to a playoff.

Akshay was on fire on the back nine, though. He opened it up with four straight birdies before going par and bogey. He then responded with an eagle at 16 and made par to close things out which set up the playoff.

It was wild enough to see this matchup go down to a playoff, but the path towards it was incredible theater. It was a bummer of a result for Berger, one that he likely wants to put in the past as soon as possible.

The Players offers that opportunity this week at TPC Sawgrass.