Draws and Fades: Can Akshay Bhatia's putter stay hot in Travelers Championship weekend chase?

The week began with news that the PGA TOUR would be diverging into two tours in 2028.

Well, Friday was an emphatic reminder that when Scottie Scheffler brings his best, he’s still in a league/TOUR of his own. He left a 25-foot putt narrowly short on the final hole for PGA TOUR history, but a second-round 60 vaulted the World No. 1 to 16-under par and seemingly in control of this tournament.

The scorching round changed the tone at TPC River Highlands, turning what had been a jam-packed leaderboard into a weekend chase down of Goliath. We’ve been waiting on this kind of round from Scheffler, and thus, the weekend math and odds board has changed drastically. With two rounds remaining, there is room for volatility, but it’s going to take exceptional golf to unseat the man at the top through 36 holes.

That said, Viktor Hovland did well to keep pace, playing a few groups ahead of Scheffler and firing a bogey-free 61 of his own. He came flying out of the gates with four consecutive birdies in the softer morning conditions, which again played much easier than the afternoon. Akshay Bhatia, Matt Fitzpatrick, and our first-round leader, Eric Cole, remain in the mix heading into the weekend.

If the course conditions continue to advantage the players with earlier tee times, we could see players make a run at the top, given the no-cut Signature Event structure. It opens up possibilities if you are willing to venture into the placement markets. The abundance of birdie chances and easier scoring this year can rearrange the look of the leaderboard in a hurry.

Updated odds to win Travelers Championship (Draftkings):

• -250: Scottie Scheffler
• +590: Viktor Hovland
• +2300: Akshay Bhatia
• +2800: Eric Cole
• +3300: Matt Fitzpatrick

Draw: Matt Fitzpatrick to Win in "without Scheffler" market (+1000, Fanduel)

A 4-under 66 on Friday felt like it could have been so much more. A pair of uncharacteristic bogeys in the final three holes prevented Fitzpatrick from throwing his name at the top of the list of players that we believe can chase down Scheffler.

Erasing the six-stroke deficit to World No. 1 is highly unlikely, but the +1000 price to beat out the rest of the pack is much more palatable. Fitzpatrick leads the field in driving accuracy, hitting an astonishing 96% of fairways over the first two rounds. This is all about maximizing opportunities on the weekend, and we know the best way to achieve quality birdie looks at TPC River Highlands is playing from the short grass. You need birdie chances, and Fitzpatrick is creating them.

He also fits the exact type of player who can hang around if conditions firm up even slightly over the weekend. If you look beyond Hovland, who is the favorite in the market without Scheffler, and often a roller coaster on the course, no player possesses the win equity in 2026 that Fitzpatrick does.

Fitzpatrick doesn’t need anyone to implode along the way; he’s more than capable of generating explosive birdie runs and catching a hot putter. The end of his round on Friday was unfortunate. But the glass-half-full approach shows us that the small blip has created a value opportunity for the weekend on a proven contender.

Weekend fade: Akshay Bhatia

Akshay Bhatia’s blistering 62 on Friday was terrific. It was also the kind of round that can lead to an overreaction in the betting market.

He’s found himself right in the thick of it, and technically within striking distance of Scheffler, trailing by just four strokes. A closer look at how Bhatia is succeeding through 36 holes feels hard to sustain and makes me believe that the juice has already been squeezed.

His jump up the leaderboard has been powered by the putter, a simplistic way to look for a weekend fade. Bhatia has gained nearly six strokes putting on the field thus far, but more importantly, he does not rank inside the Top-25 in any of the other tee-to-green metrics. If the setup gets more difficult over the weekend, this formula is impossible to maintain.

He’s a naturally aggressive player who will be actively trying to catch Scheffler, which makes him vulnerable to mistakes if he can’t sure up his ballstriking. At TPC River Highlands, one loose stretch off the tee box, something Bhatia is prone to, can ease his great Friday round in a hurry.