The Bhatia Rule: A Proposal

 As I mentioned in my last post, this week marks the end of the FedEx Cup regular season. While there will be a fall series to sew up membership for less-fortunate golfers who don't make the playoffs, it's clear the easiest way to crack the new series of designated events is to make it and advance to the BMW Championship the week after next. These fifty fortunate souls, after all, are assured of playing all the events on the 2024 regular-season schedule, designated and otherwise.

You might have been anticipating my Upper Midwest Connection of the Month for July in this post. However, the timing was too good to pass up the present topic, so I took advantage. Rest assured the aforementioned honour will be announced in due course.

Anyway, several hours after Brian Harman had won the Open Championship on 23 July, the opposite-field Barracuda Championship came down to a playoff. Patrick Rodgers teed off at the final hole of Tahoe Mountain Club's Old Greenwood Course in Truckee, California, believing a par at the last would be sufficient to win after three career runner-up finishes, one of which had stemmed from a playoff loss to Charles Howell III at the RSM Classic in 2018. What he didn't know was that 21-year-old phenom Akshay Bhatia was attempting a tying putt for birdie.

As is well-known, Bhatia skipped university to go pro, making the Fortinet Championship cut as an 18-year-old in 2020 and reaching the top ten in that event. There had been ups and downs since then, but he'd finally attained STM via his second-placed finish at the Puerto Rico Open this past March only to Nico Echavarria of Colombia. Because he hadn't won on the PGA Tour, though, he was still ineligible for the FedEx Cup playoffs until he broke through to the winner's circle. When he sank the putt from the back of the green, he had forty points in the modified Stableford system the Barracuda uses.

(Before I go further, I should remind y'all of the scoring values under this special system. The points are capped at eight at best for an albatross. Five are given for an eagle and two for a birdie. One point is deducted for a single bogey and three for not even getting that. The system rewards aggressive play and risk-taking in a way stroke play never could, making the Barracuda Championship a favourite PGA Tour event of mine.)

Rodgers did his best to respond, but when his own birdie putt missed by inches, his tap-in for par only got him into a playoff. Then, on the ensuing playoff hole (also 18 at Old Greenwood), Bhatia got an excellent tee shot off, whereas Rodgers landed in a fairway divot. Rodgers missed the GIR and then failed on the up-and-down, suffering bogey. Bhatia then two-putted for par to secure not only the tall-boy trophy...but also secure PGA Tour membership for real at long last. Storytime over, right? Well, it's just beginning, so hold on to your golf bags.

Akshay Bhatia may have a trophy, but he didn't get points with it.

When the dust had settled on the trophy presentation, Bhatia collected a winner's check worth $684K and prepared for his next event, thinking a decent showing at the Wyndham Championship would be enough to secure every event under the sun for 2024 (except maybe the Masters Tournament or the U.S. Open). But as an article from Golf Digest indicates, a couple hours later, his agent told him that he had actually lost ground in the FedEx Cup relative to his previous, nonmember equivalence of points. In other words, he hadn't received a single point from his win, and to make matters worse, his Barbasol Championship nonmember points from the week prior wouldn't convert either!

The problem, as PGA Tour regulations indicate, lies in the co-sanctioned nature of the two events. You see, as part of the Tour's "strategic partnership" (whatever that means) with the DP World (formerly European) Tour, three events between the two tours last year became part of both tours' calendars and began to involved players receiving order of merit points on both tours as applicable. In addition to the two mentioned above, the Genesis Scottish Open is also co-sanctioned, largely as a result of high-profile players using its timing ahead of the Open to play it as prep for that major. Confusingly enough, though, the Scottish Open is given the usual perks of any PGA Tour event, probably because of its enhanced status on the DPWT. By contrast, the other two are opposite-field events, so they have lesser profile.

The Barbasol and Barracuda also only offer one year's PGA Tour exemption to the winner if he isn't already a Tour member. This was moot point for the former this year, as Vince Norrman of Sweden was in the reshuffle of Korn Ferry grads from the Class of 2022, so he got the full two-year exemption given most golfers who win on the PGA Tour. With Bhatia only being an STM prior to breaking through and accepting membership, though, he'll likely face a contract year in 2024 if he doesn't win again this year or next. (Ironically, if he had accepted DPWT membership, he would have been eligible over there the year after as well in Category 3 of the priority list for that tour.)

It's too late, obviously, to change Bhatia's failure to make the playoffs this year if he doesn't finish on the Wyndham Championship podium, so to speak. (At least he'll have the Sentry, the Players and the PGA Championship to look forward to in 2024.) But as a compromise, I propose a rule that I named after him called the "Bhatia Rule." It goes a bit like this:

1. If a nonmember of the PGA Tour wins the Barbasol Championship, all nonmember points previously accrued plus 150 points--half the winner's share under normal circumstances--would transfer to his FedEx Cup total.
2. If such a player does not win the Barbasol Championship but does win the Barracuda Championship, all nonmember points won prior to the Barbasol Championship plus half of any such points earned in that event plus 150 points would transfer.

This assumes, of course, that the PGA Tour maintains about the same schedule as previous years and doesn't co-sanction any further opposite-field events with the DPWT. The reason I suggest 150 rather than 300 member points is the one-year exemption, which seems a good compromise.

As usual, feel free to leave your suggestions and comments below, and spread the word about this idea if the mood takes you.

Edward the Scop