Akshay Bhatia and Scheffler among five leaders at Hero World Challenge

 Akshay Bhatia. 

V Krishnaswamy

Albany, Bahamas: Akshay Bhatia came to the Bahamas with a new caddie, Joe Greiner, and also packed a tuxedo in his luggage to get married next week in the islands after the Hero World Challenge. On Thursday he proceeded to give himself a great start with a six-under 66 at his own sponsor’s event, the 2025 Hero World Challenge.

Bhatia, who was the first to finish shot to be at the top and he stayed there for the day. He was joined by four others, including World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who is attempting the first-ever ‘three-peat’ at the Hero World Challenge, the 2025 US Open champion JJ Spaun, the 2023 US Open champion, Wyndham Clark and Austrian Sepp Straka for company.

Scheffler, armed with a new driver, played imperiously as only he can with two sets of back-to-back birdies and a three-in-a-row birdie effort to go into sole lead at 7-under through 15 holes. He parred the next two but dropped his only bogey of the day on the 18th. He missed the fairways and went into the rocky area, missed the green and then hit over the putting green on way to a bogey to fall back to 6-under in the five-way lead. It was his first dropped shot at Albany in 41 holes going back to last year’s tournament.

Bhatia, who is of Indian origin – his parents came over from India to the United States, has never been to India, but plans to come over for the Hero Indian Open, which is another event backed by his sponsors, Hero MotoCorp. Fourth on his maiden appearance at this very event last year, Bhatia mentioned that winning this week would be the icing on the cake of what has been a good season and a great wedding present for his to-be wife. “She’s done all the work, I have just played and brought my tuxedo for the occasion,” said Bhatia with a big laugh.

Bhatia and his playing partner, Aaron Rai, who also has Indian origins, and an Indian wife, got the 2025 edition of the Hero World Challenge started off. Both birdied the first hole. Bhatia kept going fine, but Rai who had five birdies overall, also dropped two doubles, one on each side of the Ernie Els designed course at Albany. Rai finished a 1-under 71 in Tied-14th place, exactly where he had finished a year ago.

Bhatia holed out from a greenside bunker for an eagle two at the par-four seventh. He had four other birdies and was bogey free for the day.

Bhatia was playing his first-ever competitive round with Max Homa’s former caddie, Joe Greiner.

Bhatia saw a lot of pluses in having a left-hander as a caddie. “I think certain golf courses, certain shots, certain cues that we have, he really understands that,” Bhatia said.

About his caddie, Bhatia said, “It’s been really cool. We grew up in the same town in California. Obviously, it’s really cool to have a lefty on my bag …I’ve really been eager to work with him. Finally, it just worked out timing-wise. So, it’s been really cool this week just to kind of understand each other, and yeah, it’s been fun.’

“I think from the majority of lefties that I’ve met — Phil (Mickelson), Bubba (Watson), myself – are very creative. I think lefty has something to do with that. It’s an exciting thing for me for someone to see a shot the way I do.”

Like Scheffler, Spaun also had seven birdies before closing with a bogey. Spaun has also had a super season in 2025 with seven top-10 finishes in 25 starts, including his second career PGA TOUR title at the U.S. Open and three runner-up results at the Cognizant Classic, THE PLAYERS Championship and FedEx St. Jude Championship.

Clark had an eagle and six birdies with two bogeys in his 66, which is his first sub-70 card in nine career rounds at Albany. His previous best in this 20-man tournament is ied-17th last year. He looks ready to better that.

Straka also opened bogey-free, his six birdies including back-to-back birdies at the 17th and 18th to grab his share of the lead.

Till the final hole, Scheffler looked likely to be one clear by himself. Scheffler had four birdies on the front nine and added a hat-trick of birdies at 13, 14 and 15 to take a one-shot lead. Then he dropped his only bogey to fall into a tie with four others.

“I feel pretty good,” said Scheffler, who is teeing it up for the first time since the United States list to Europe in the Ryder Cup in September. “I think there’s always going to be some rust in there, but I don’t really think about that when I’m out there playing. I’m just trying to shoot a good score.”

Bringing in a new driver into a tournament, which has five Par-5s and five Par-3s, Scheffler hit 11 out of 13 fairways and 15 out of 18 greens. And he also made some good putts like the 30-foot birdie on his second hole. He gave himself a lot of chances and took many of them. He was almost ambling through his 4-under front nine, indicating he is ready for a third win at Tiger’s event, the Hero World Challenge.

One stroke behind this lead bunch were Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley and Canadian Corey Conners, with 67 each.