NASSAU, Bahamas – Every athlete’s journey is individual. Like a fingerprint, no two are identical. No golfers had the same upbringing, struggles and success stories. No path is linear. There are jumps and lulls, ebbs and flows. Yet human nature compels everyone to look around and compare as if a universal set of circumstances applies to all.

Akshay Bhatia’s winding path is as unique as it comes. He turned pro at 17 and shirked college golf at a time when all his contemporaries were headed there to develop and push off adulthood. Bhatia leaned into it all, jumping straight to the mini-tour scene and slowly working his way onto the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA TOUR. There was no PGA TOUR Accelerated Program then; he was in charge of creating his own.

Now six years into his pro career, he feels like an old soul with higher expectations. For most golfers, six years in is their prime years – late 20s, early 30s – filled with a sense of urgency to start performing now. Bhatia spent much of 2025 living in that headspace, one that proved unhealthy. Only recently has he had to remind himself to slow down.

“I think that I don't really realize how young I am,” Bhatia, 23, said Friday at the Hero World Challenge. “This week I'm the youngest guy in the field, which is really hard for me to process.

“One thing I ask myself, which is kind of funny, don't know if I should share it, but I've gotta ask myself, ‘What was Scottie Scheffler doing at 23?’” Bhatia continued, who trailed the 36-hole lead by one shot. “He was still working his way on the Korn Ferry Tour, or maybe even not, I don't know, but look where he is now at 27, 28 years old.”

It took time to arrive at that point. Back in August, during an interview with PGATOUR.COM at the BMW Championship, Bhatia noted he needed to do a lot of reflection with, “just my life and not having golf dictate my happiness.”

His golf wasn’t the issue, necessarily. He won twice in three full seasons on TOUR, and is one of the most tantalizing talents on TOUR, even if the familiarity with him diminishes his star in a media world that chases after the newest shiny toy. The fatigue he felt was mental, shouldering internal expectations with the reality that his life was quickly changing.

“The lift stuff is harder for me than anticipated,” he said in that one-on-one interview.

The offseason was the prime opportunity to address that. Bhatia got hot in the FedExCup Playoffs and played his way into the TOUR Championship after a lackluster regular season. With security in hand for 2026, Bhatia largely stayed away from the grind of pro golf, playing just twice this fall. It was the first extended time in his pro career that he didn’t needto play. He spent that time settling into his new home in Jupiter, Florida, and with his fiancée, Presleigh Schultz. The two are getting married next weekend in The Bahamas.

He also thought again of Scheffler and the balance the No. 1 player in the world has in his life. Bhatia yearned for that, he told PGATOUR.COM in August.

“Just find happiness for myself,” he said then. “This game can be really tough on you, especially when things aren’t going well.”

Whether he’s found that happiness long-term will take much more than a few months to answer. It’s easier to practice what you preach when removed from the weekly grind of work, and when things are going well, as they have through two rounds at the Hero World Challenge. But Bhatia is on the path to finding the balance he covets.

“I just try and remind myself that no matter how hard or easy certain things feel, it's a long career,” he said Friday. “I was talking to Rickie (Fowler), it's his 17th year coming up, and it's really amazing like to process that for me because I feel like I've been out here for a long time and I'm not even close.”