Akshay Bhatia Hit the First Ace of His Career and Won a BMW

Akshay Bhatia picked a great time to hit the first ace of his PGA Tour career. | @PGATOUR / X

Akshay Bhatia picked one heck of a time to hit the first hole-in-one of his PGA Tour career.

Staring down the par 3 No. 17 at the BMW Championship on Saturday, Bhatia dialed a five iron that landed just a few feet shy of the hole and rolled in for an ace. The crowd erupted.

First ace of his career as he battles on the bubble!

Akshay Bhatia is now projected into the Top 30 in the FedExCup after a hole-in-one! pic.twitter.com/YbvU9rERlF

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 16, 2025

While any time is a good time for a golfer to hit a hole-in-one, Bhatia’s timing was particularly stellar.

First, the eagle moved him off the bubble and into the top 30 spots in the playoff standings, at least for the moment. Bhatia will still obviously have work to do if he wants to play next weekend, but if he reaches the Tour Championship by just a hair, this ace will be why.

Second, because this ace was at the BMW Championship, Bhatia is getting a BMW. As a bonus, the ace will also provide a full four-year Evans Scholarship in his name to a young caddie courtesy of BMW, according to PGA Tour comms.

In conclusion, Bhatia took two strokes off his score, won a car, won a scholarship for a stranger, and put himself in position to potentially make a whopping $10 million at the Tour Championship next weekend, all in one swing.

It’s good work if you can get it.

---

More on Sports Illustrated

This article was originally published on www.si.com as Akshay Bhatia Hit the First Ace of His Career and Won a BMW.