Ben Griffin predicted that Akshay Bhatia forgot their first meeting. Both Griffin and Bhatia were playing at the Memorial Tournament, and after the second round of the tournament, Griffin shared the story about his first meetup with Bhatia.
Griffin joined the post-tournament press conference at Muirfield Village and shared his experience of meeting young Bhatia. He said:
“He probably doesn't even remember because he was so young, but yeah, just going back to junior golf, we played in the same kind of events in North Carolina, whether it be the Tarheel TOUR, Carolina Golf Association, there's a bunch of events in North Carolina where I would see little Akshay walking around. He was probably, I think we have maybe a six-year gap…he was significantly smaller than me.”
In the same press conference, Bhatia was asked whether he remembered crossing paths with Griffin, and the golfer said:
"I think he turned pro a little before me, but I remember -- you know, we talk about at Q-School, first year we did Q-School together in 2019, we stayed together and we have the same agency and played a little golf together in Raleigh, but he was never kind of there. He was either in Sea Island or back in Chapel Hill. So we have a great relationship, though."
Both Griffin and Bhatia will play the third round of the Memorial Tournament on Saturday.
When will Ben Griffin and Akshay Bhatia tee off for the third round of the Memorial Tournament?
Ben Griffin will play the third round of the Memorial Tournament at 3:10 pm with Nick Taylor. Before them, Akshay Bhatia and Scottie Scheffler will tee off at 2:59 pm. Hideki Matsuyama will solo start at 10 am on the first tee, and Cameron Young and Wyndham Clark will play at 10:05 am on the same tee. Here's a list of tee times for the third round of the event ( all times in ET):
Tee No. 1
10:00 a.m.: Hideki Matsuyama
10:05 a.m.: Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark
10:15 a.m.: Matt Kuchar, Adam Hadwin
10:25 a.m.: Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Thomas
10:36 a.m.: Max Greyserman, Michael Kim
10:47 a.m.: Alex Noren, Stephan Jaeger
10:58 a.m.: Adam Scott, Brandt Snedeker
11:09 a.m.: Nick Dunlap, Thomas Detry
11:20 a.m.: Jhonattan Vegas, Harry Higgs
11:31 a.m.: Denny McCarthy, Viktor Hovland
11:42 a.m.: Si Woo Kim, Sepp Straka
11:58 a.m.: Max Homa, Tommy Fleetwood
12:09 p.m.: Min Woo Lee, Sam Stevens
12:20 p.m.: Andrew Novak, Maverick McNealy
12:31 p.m.: Austin Eckroat, Ludvig Åberg
12:42 p.m.: Davis Thompson, Corey Conners
12:53 p.m.: Tony Finau, Bud Cauley
1:04 p.m.: Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler
1:15 p.m.: Robert MacIntyre, Patrick Cantlay
1:26 p.m.: Sungjae Im, Taylor Pendrith
1:37 p.m.: Eric Cole, Ryan Gerard
1:48 p.m.: Harris English, Justin Rose
2:04 p.m.: Mackenzie Hughes, Jacob Bridgeman
2:15 p.m.: Collin Morikawa, Ryan Fox
2:26 p.m.: Russell Henley, Xander Schauffele
2:37 p.m.: Jordan Spieth, Tom Hoge
2:48 p.m.: Sam Burns, Shane Lowry
2:59 p.m.: Akshay Bhatia, Scottie Scheffler
3:10 p.m.: Nick Taylor, Ben Griffin