Akshay Bhatia begins the Tour Championship weekend with a 3-word message

Akshay Bhatia is all set to tee it up at the East Lake Golf Club this week. He is a part of the thirty-man field at the 2025 Tour Championship seeking to win the FedEx Cup.

Ahead of the opening round on Thursday, he posted a reel on Instagram giving fans a teaser into his golf game leading up to the highly anticipated tournament.

The viral post began with a slow-mo of him walking on the golf course before cutting to an iconic clip from the 2000s. Akshay Bhatia added a clip from the cult classic film Hardball starring Keanu Reeves.

In the scene, the kids who advanced to the championship game in their baseball league chanted - "We're going to the ship! What! We're going to the ship!"

Keeping it consistent with the Hardball references, Akshay Bhatia captioned the post (via Instagram @akshaybhatia_1):

"To the ship! 🛳️"

Here's a look at Bhatia's latest video (via Instagram @akshaybhatia_1):

He also included hype music from rap sensation Gunna's The Last Wun album. The Sakpase song played as background music to a highlight reel of Akshay Bhatia's skills and championship attitude on the golf course leading up to the 2025 Tour Championship.

Has Akshay Bhatia ever played the Tour Championship before?

This week's tournament will mark Akshay Bhatia's second time taking on the challenging East Lake Golf Club as part of the Tour Championship. He played the event for the first time in 2024.

Having made it through to the final stage of the FedEx Cup Playoffs last year, the PGA Tour sensation opened up the 2024 Tour Championship with a 1 under par 70. He bettered his score by one stroke the next day. However, the East Lake Golf Club's par 4 17th hole proved to be a challenge as he carded in a double bogey 6 on Thursday and Friday.

Despite his best efforts to climb up the leaderboard. Bhatia posted rounds of even par 71 on the last two days. He claimed the solo 26th position at the 2024 Tour Championship in the 30-player field.

The 23-year-old recorded 1 eagle, 13 birdies, 49 pars, 6 bogeys, and 3 double bogeys that week. He tied for fourth place in the field with the most amount of pars and least amount of bogeys, respectively.

Heading into this week's tournament in Atlanta, Georgia, the World No. 34 golfer sits in the 30th position on the FedEx Cup rankings with 1,409 points.

Akshay Bhatia will tee off the opening round of the 2025 Tour Championship on Thursday, August 21. He will take on the East Lake Golf Club from the first hole alongside Chris Gotterup, who ranks 29th on the rankings with 1,414 points. As the first group out, they will tee it up at 11:16 AM ET.

About the author

Lathika is one of the newer additions to Sportskeeda’s budding golf journalism team and has brought plenty of in-game experience to the role. Having been a golfer for over 12 years now, some of her crowning achievements include winning titles on the Indian Golf Union Ladies tour and Junior Girls Amateur tour.

She currently competes in Division 1 golf in Florida, and hopes to play in the U.S. Open and Chevron Championship one day. She is set to cover the 2025 Ryder Cup as well. She is currently pursuing a degree in Business Administration and Management, and holds a Sports Marketing certification from Northwestern University, which helped her learn to draft press releases and ultimately transition into journalism.

Lathika has thus developed a knowledge base that allows her to view golf from both player, spectator and media lenses, enabling her to bring statistics, insights and an understanding of fan emotion together in her copies. She only uses verified information from reliable sources like the PGA TOUR.

Her favorite golfers are Nelly Korda and Tiger Woods, both for their playing style as well as their mental strength. Much of her time away from work is spent playing golf, but she also enjoys spending time with her family and friends, and learning new hobbies or upskilling.

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Edited by Lathika Krishna