Brittany Lincicome is back and ready to go, with baby in tow

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The hype around junior standout Akshay Bhatia was palpable when he decided to forgo college and turn pro last year. After becoming the youngest player ever to represent the United States in the Walker Cup, Bhatia made the leap to professional golf at just 17 years old. Needless to say, expectations are high after his utter dominance of the junior level, and all eyes are fixed on the young standout. Bhatia and coach George Gankas developed a very realistic plan to combat Bhatia's lack of collegiate experience—one that didn’t involve wins and top 10s as much as it relied on learning how to be a pro. And that’s what we are seeing with young Bhatia now. Since his debut last September, the made cuts have been few, but the process has been right on schedule, culminating with a T9 finish two weeks ago at the season-opening Safeway Open. Bhatia, now 18, was the youngest player to finish in the top 10 of a PGA TOUR event since Justin Rose finished fourth at the 1998 Open Championship. Bhatia's top 10 earned him a start in this week's Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic. It takes young pros, especially teen-aged ones, time to mature and gain an understanding of themselves and their games. And of course, one of the most important things you need to learn once on the big stage is managing yourself and your golf bag. Bhatia has the backing of Callaway tour support, and in particular tour manager Jacob Davidson. With Davidson's help, Bhatia is slowly adding nuance to the bag—while relying on the DNA that has worked tremendously his whole career. GolfWRX had a chance to chat with Davidson and this is what he had to say: WRX: How has Bhatia's knowledge of equipment evolved since last year? Davidson: Akshay has an extremely good eye and feel for his equipment. He can immediately tell the difference in specs, grinds, and weight. He is very sensitive to this because of how good his feel is. It's the sign of someone who has great hands and is a creative player. Akshay does all these things very well for someone his age. He is very mature and articulate with his equipment. WRX: Where do his sensitivities to equipment lie? Is he a numbers guy or a feel guy? Davidson: Akshay can tell you immediately when it is in his hand before he even hits a shot. However, Akshay has had a Trackman for 3-4 years now and pays obsessive attention to his numbers. He is a rare breed in the fact he goes both ways. WRX: As a high-speed player, it would seem face stability and spin control trump everything else. What are his optimal launch conditions with the driver? Davidson: If I recall, he is around 12.5 degrees of launch and 2,150 rpms. Akshay is a world-class driver of the golf ball. Pound for pound maybe even the longest on TOUR. What does he weigh, 122 pounds (laughs)? Bryson eats more steak in a month than Akshay weighs. WRX: His irons are strong-lofted. Do you do anything special grind wise to offset the lack of bounce? Davidson: Yes, we straighten the leading edge and adjust the bounce for better turf interaction. WRX: What is the most challenging part of his bag to get dialed? Davidson: Three-wood and putter. Akshay likes to hit several different shots with his 3-wood both off the tee and ground. Akshay has been in and out of putters but recently has settled on this armlock the last few weeks and has been putting great. Joe Toulon and Akshay have a great relationship. WRX: Is there a miss in his bag you are trying to mitigate at all costs? Davidson: We are continuing to dial in his distance control and approaches around the green. Akshay switched into the Chrome Soft X Double Dash before the Wyndham and has seen increased stability in the wind and much tighter spin dispersion numbers throughout the bag. Since his debut, the bag has changed very little beyond updating the driver and 3-wood to the current Callaway Mavrik Line, Jaws MD5 wedges, and a new putter. The only part that seems to shift gears week to week is his 3-iron, which is currently an Epic Forged but at times can be the Apex Forged UT. That’s it. On TOUR, those are small shifts and, besides the putter, there are no wholesale changes ever made. Debut WITB VS Current DEBUT: *driver not pictured DRIVER: Callaway Epic Flash Sub Zero Triple Diamond (8.5 degrees) Shaft: Project X HZURDUS "Hulk" Smoke Green 75 6.5 TX 3-WOOD: Callaway Epic Flash Sub Zero (13.5 degrees) Shaft: Project X HZURDUS "Hulk" Smoke Green 85 6.5 TX IRONS: Callaway Apex Forged UT (3), Callaway Apex MB 18 Raw (4-PW) Shafts: Project X HZURDUS Black 95 X 6.5 (3), KBS $-Taper Black 125 S+ (4-PW) WEDGES: Callaway MD4 Raw (50S, 54S, 60C) Shafts: KBS $-Taper 125S+ PUTTER: Odyssey Stroke Lab Ten GRIPS: Iomic Sticky 2.3 Black Akshay Bhatia Current WITB DRIVER: Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero 8.5 Shaft: Project X HZURDUS "Hulk" Smoke Green 75 6.5 TX 3-WOOD: Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero (15 degrees) Shaft: Project X HZURDUS Hulk Smoke Green 85 6.5 TX IRONS: Callaway Epic Forged (3), Callaway Apex MB 18 Raw (4-PW) KBS TG Hybrid Proto 95 X (3), KBS $-Taper Black 125 S+ (4-PW) WEDGES: Callaway MD5 Jaws Raw (50S, 54S, 60C) Shafts: KBS $-Taper 125S+ PUTTER: Odyssey SL Black Armlock 7 GRIPS: Iomic Sticky 2.3 Black

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SAN DIEGO – When Adam Scott putts well, Adam Scott contends. It’s a simple saying that could apply to most PGA TOUR players but it most certainly applies to the 13-time TOUR winner. Known as a premier ball-striker throughout his career the former PLAYERS champion has long struggled to match up his putting stats with the rest of his game. In 10 of his last 11 seasons Scott’s year-long rank in Strokes Gained: Putting has been outside the top 100 on TOUR with six of those outside the top 150. But on the rare occasions he gets it right – like the Australian did this week at the Farmers Insurance Open – Scott becomes a monster to contend with. Since the beginning of 2016 Scott has finished just 10 tournaments inside the top 25 players of Stroked Gained: Putting. Eight of those weeks resulted in a top six finish, including two wins and two runner ups, the latest at Torrey Pines this week. Scott was 14th in putting at Torrey Pines needing just 28 putts each round across four days. He did it after moving to an armlock putter with a claw grip and leaving the flagstick in for all of his putts. Armlock putting has been successfully used recently by Matt Kuchar, Bryson DeChambeau, Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson. All have won at least once in the last year. “Making the putter change was a pretty good experiment this week, it worked nicely,â€� Scott admitted. “Definitely something to build on. I learned a lot with that style of putting this week and it was quite a big adjustment and I made some errors out there with it, but it’s looking all positive and I like that. Twenty‑eight putts four straight days is probably the best I’ve ever done.â€� The errors Scott spoke of were certainly ugly. And without them he may just have been able to take down Justin Rose rather than finish two shots behind the Englishman. On Sunday he missed a putt from 21 inches. On Thursday he had a three-putt from six feet. Those were just a few of the miscues. But given he only picked up the armlock putter in the days prior to the event there were sure to be teething problems. Armlock putters have different loft angles because of the setup needed to use them, a visual the 38-year-old veteran certainly wasn’t used to. “All of a sudden six degrees of loft and the grip is three inches in front of the blade, so it was a little fiddley getting into position,â€� Scott said. “And when I didn’t put it in the right position, it was in a more natural position, I didn’t start putts where I was intending. “So I missed a couple really short putts throughout the week, which was carelessness.â€� Scott intends to continue the method at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Open in coming weeks.

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