After a win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational 2026 and a decent T13 finish at the Players Championship, it is natural for one to think that Akshay Bhatia would continue his momentum on the PGA Tour. Yet, a surprising update came when he announced that he would skip the $9.9 million Texas Children’s Houston Open 2026, the TGL finals, and a scouting trip to Augusta National. Instead, he opted to fly to India for the Hero Indian Open 2026, a move that is currently not going his way.

On Thursday, Bhatia had a string of issues with his front nine in India. At the DLF Golf and Country Club, he was then questioned by the media about how he overcame obstacles before shooting an impressive 33 on his back nine.

“Glad I didn’t shoot 80. Yeah, tough day. Hit the wrong ball, which was very unfortunate. Just to not play good on the first nine. And then shooting three under on my backside was great. And look, this golf course is hard, so if I can just try and get it back to even par, I think it’ll be a nice comeback for me. I’ll never give up, and that’s kind of the goal,” the American professional said at the end of Round 1.

“Just got to get more comfortable with the golf course. It’s a tough golf course. I mean, I hit it OB on the first hole. So, it’s just like you can hit shots that are 5, 10 yards off your line and be really in a tough position. But all in all, I’m just going to try and rest and just try and continue the momentum I had on the back nine today.”

Akshay Bhatia teed off at the Hero Indian Open on the 10th hole. Despite having Indian roots, it was his first time playing in the country.

The 3x PGA Tour winner started by hitting the ball out of bounds, and then hit the wrong ball. Thanks to that disastrous start, his very first hole at the DLF Golf & Country Club went for a double bogey. He then bogeyed both the 13th and the 14th holes before a triple bogey on the 15th and another double bogey on the 18th. The only good thing on the front nine was a birdie on the par-4 11th.

By the time Bhatia was through holes 10 to 18, he was 8 over par. However, he had a good comeback on the back nine, which went bogeyless. He hit three birdies on holes 3, 5, and 8. This helped him finish at 5-over 77 in Round 1.

This comes after he had been eyeing his competitive debut in India for years. Shortly after turning pro in 2019, he signed a contract to compete there in 2020. Bhatia was playing on a sponsor’s exemption back then, but less than a day before his flight was supposed to take off, the tournament was canceled due to COVID. Now, after six years, Bhatia traveled from Orlando to Delhi via Amsterdam for eighteen hours.

While things began in an unfortunate manner, Bhatia wants to focus on the remaining three rounds. In fact, he said that he wants to spend a couple more days in India. The American is currently ten shots behind Freddy Schott, the leader of the first round. He was further asked about whether he genuinely thought he could still win the golf tournament.

“Yeah, I mean, definitely just gotta get more comfortable with the golf course,“ Bhatia responded. “It’s a tough golf course. I mean, I hit it OB on the 1st hole. So it’s just like, you can hit shots that are five, 10 yards off your line and just be really in a tough position.”

This is exactly where his mental shift would be extremely useful.

Akshay Bhatia changed his thinking thanks to his wife

In an interaction with Smylie Kaufman on the Smylie Kaufman Show, Akshay Bhatia admitted that he was feeling anxious at the start of the 2026 PGA Tour season. He couldn’t help but think if the season would go in his favor.

It was only natural, considering he had been winless since April 2024. And to make things worse, he missed the cut at the American Express 2026 and the Farmers Insurance Open 2026. However, his wife gave him a blunt reality check.

She said that the American professional gives too much control to anxiety and keeps saying things like, “This is holding me back.” Presleigh Schultz hence recommended not giving that power to anxiety. Thus, they decided to change his mind about the word. He either didn’t use the word ‘anxiety’ or replaced it with something better.

This shift in mentality has helped him surge back on the PGA Tour, as he made it past the finish line at the Arnold Palmer Invitational 2026.

Now, Akshay Bhatia needs the same mentality shift to stay focused at the Hero Indian Open 2026 after a poor start to the event. He has everything cleared up in his mind. He knows he first needs to get to even par, then aim for at least 4-under par, which was the winning score in 2025. What remains to be seen is how well he implements.