It’s odd when any PGA Tour switches to a long – or broomstick putter – but Akshay Bhatia seems to have made it work. Bhatia and his 44-inch putter – with an Odyssey Versa Jailbird 380 head – won this past week’s Texas Valero Open in a playoff against Denny McCarthy.
The broomstick putter is usually associated with PGA TOUR Champions players like Bernhard Langer and Scott McCarron, not players in their 20s.
The victory was Bhatia’s second on the PGA Tour—he won the 2023 Barracuda Championship in Bermuda—but the victory at TPC San Antonio can be considered his “coming out” party of sorts, given that it came just a few days before this week’s Masters.
Bhatia began using a broomstick – with a different head – this past fall. He goes into the Masters ranked 38th in overall putting on Tour.
“I’ve built a really nice team around me, people that I trust, and we went through kind of the stats last year of what I can improve on,’’ said Bhatia shortly after arriving at Augusta National Golf Club. “My ball striking was always really good; putting always lacked. When you want to contend in tournaments, you must make some putts when they count.
“I just felt like the style I was using was good—it just wasn’t as consistent. So we took a chance to switch to the broomstick. I talked to a couple of players about it, and they gave me some good advice, just kind of what to work on.”
When he made the decision to switch to a broomstick putter, Bhatia said he had promised himself he would use it for at least six months. He’s still in that cone of promise.
“So far, my stats have skyrocketed. So it’s a nice improvement, especially from the 10—to 15-foot range.”
Photo Credits: PGA Tour
