Akshay Bhatia leads Valero Texas Open field, win will seal Masters berth

Young Indian-American Akshay Bhatia, already a PGA Tour winner, fired a second-round of 2 under par 70 to go with his opening 9 under 63 to take a five-shot lead into the weekend rounds of the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio on Friday.

Beating the strong TPC San Antonio field will also guarantee the 22-year-old left-hander a maiden start at the Masters next week. After two rounds Bhatia was 11 under par 133 ahead of a three-way tie for second between Brendon Todd (66-72), Russell Henley (69-69) and Denny McCarthy (68-70) on 6 under with former world number one Rory McIlroy (69-70) of Northern Ireland in sole third on 5 under 139.

McIlroy, who is still in search of a career Grand Slam at Augusta National 10 years after winning his last major, is the highest-ranked player in the field at no. 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking, In five starts this season, he is yet to finish in the top 10, which is his longest such streak since 2010 when he won the Wells Fargo Championship for his maiden PGA Tour title

At the top, Bhatia has been near-unstoppable, firing a career-best equalling 9 under on Thursday that was bogey free to boot and then followed up with a steady 70 in windy conditions at San Antonio, the tour said. He started on Friday three ahead of the field and quickly increased that to four with an opening birdie but two dropped shots before the turn saw him lose the lead.

Three gained shots on his way home and with others unable to counter the whipping breeze, Bhatia was soon back in the lead, which he consolidated thereafter. Winner of the Barracuda Championship last summer which was played as an additional event in the same week as The Open, Bhatia still needs to win to get into the Masters.

The cut saw 82 players make it into the weekend on 1-over 145.

Amongst the Asian challengers, Rico Hoey of the Philippines was in a share of 18th on 71-71, Hideki Matsuyama of Japan (73-70) was T34 alongside C.T. Pan (71-72) of Chinese Taipei.

Interestingly, 30 players who are in the Masters field started at San Antonio with 19 making the cut including Henley (T2), McCarthy (T2), McIlroy (5), Tommy Fleetwood (T6), Adam Schenk (T6), Corey Conners (T10), Thorbjørn Olesen (T10), Jordan Spieth (T10), Austin Eckroat (T18), Max Homa (T18), Lucas Glover (T18), Ludvig Åberg (T34), Matsuyama (T34), Adam Scott (T34), Brian Harman (T47), Collin Morikawa (T47), Matt Fitzpatrick (T63), Ryo Hisatsune (T63), and Nicolai Højgaard (T63).

The 11 who missed out were Byeong Hun An, Eric Cole, Harris English, Rickie Fowler, Ryan Fox, Lee Hodges, Zach Johnson, Joohyung Kim, Grayson Murray, Erik van Rooyen, and Camilo Villegas