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Akshay Bhatia meet Evans Scholarship recipient Juliya Tabaka at her home caddie club, Bellerive (Courtesy WGA/ESF)
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Akshay Bhatia counts a handful of holes-in-one in his life, but never one that meant so much or had as much impact as the ace he made last year at the BMW Championship.
During the third round at Cave’s Valley in Maryland, Bhatia hit a 5-iron from 227 yards on the par-3 17th hole that rolled into the cup and propelled him into the top 30, helping him secure a spot in the following week’s Tour Championship.
It also meant the funding of an Evans Scholarship as part of a promotion that BMW has sponsored as part of the tournament.
The recipient of that caddie scholarship was Juliya Tabaka of Manchester, Missouri, who was granted an Evans Scholarship earlier this year and named the recipient of the BMW Hole in One Award recently.
It means that her four-year grant to the University of Missouri is being funded by BMW.
Bhatia and Tabaka met earlier this week at Bellerive Country Club, where she has been a caddie for several years and from where she earned the scholarship that will see her attend the Missouri beginning next week.
“I had no idea about it at the time,” Bhatia, 24, said earlier this week after posing for photos and Tabaka. “I didn’t know the extent of that shot. It’s a blessing for her and a blessing for me. It’s changing her life, helping her family. Just amazing. Just amazing what the Evans Scholarship is, these kids walking with us and it’s crazy, that one shot.
“Obviously it helped my season, which is such a small sample. It’s changing her life and the fact she’s a caddie here, too. Just awesome.”
Also in today’s DD …
Woodland seeks first Tour Championship in seven long years
A few stray shots scoring Scott O’Neil’s pep rally and LIV 2.0
Bhatia finished tied for 26th last year at the BMW and then went on to tie for 13th at the Tour Championship.
He opened this year’s BMW with a 3-under-par 67 at Bellerive that included three birdies and 15 pars on the par-70 course.
Tabaka is the seventh recipient of the BMW Hole-in-One Scholarship, which awards a full tuition and housing grant to a deserving caddie in the name of the first player to record a hole-in-one during the BMW Championship.
It’s a clever way to bring attention and awareness to the Evans Scholars program, which is the beneficiary of tournament proceeds this week. The scholarship program, which started modestly in 1930, has seen more than 12,000 caddies go through the program, with more than 1,300 currently attending 28 universities.
Tabaka will join them next week at Missouri, where she plans to major in animal sciences. She began caddying at a nearby club when she was 14 and for the past three years has worked at Bellerive.
“I found out about a month ago that the scholarship I’m getting is in Akshay’s name,” said Tabaka, who also played golf at her Westminster high school. “It was just so nice to meet him, to be out here watching him and to take part in caddying in the pro-am.”
Things worked out pretty well for Bhatia, too. The winner of this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, Bhatia’s ace also came with a new BMW, which he gave to his sister.
BMW became the title sponsor in 2007 of the tournament — which used to be known as the Western Open — when it became a FedEx Cup playoff event. The event dates to 1899 and has long been a fundraising vehicle for the Evans Scholars Foundation. The BMW Championship has raised $63 million for the foundation since 2007, which has helped send more than 4,860 caddies to college.
Previous BMW Hole-in-One Scholarship recipients were:
Diana Llamas (2022): Named in honor of Viktor Hovland, who aced the second hole during the final round of the 2022 BMW Championship at Wilmington Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware.
Brooklyn Gabriel (2017): Named in honor of Jason Day, who aced the 17th hole during the second round of the 2017 BMW Championship at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Hayden Bauschka (2015): Named in honor of Jordan Spieth, who aced the second hole during the first round of the 2015 BMW Championship at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Melyzjah Smith (2013): Named in honor of Hunter Mahan, who aced the par-3 17th hole during the third round of the 2013 BMW Championship at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Mark Abtahi (2012): Named in honor of Steve Stricker, who aced the par-3 sixth hole during the second round of the 2012 BMW Championship at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana.
Haelena Schwemmer (2010): Named in honor of Sean O’Hair, who aced the par-3 second hole during the second round of the 2010 BMW Championship at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont, Illinois.
A word from our sponsor …
This this week’s Daily Drive newsletter is being brought to you by the Western Golf Association and the Evans Scholars Foundation, which has been sending caddies to college since 1930.
The WGA, which was founded in 1899, sponsors among its events the BMW Championship, which is being played this week at Bellerive Country Club near St. Louis. The proceeds from the tournament benefit the foundation, which currently supports 1,310 students attending 28 universities.
Since 1930, more than 12,870 student caddies have graduated from college as Evans Scholars.
Gary Woodland has been more comfortable since sharing his PTSD issues (Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
Woodland stalks Tour Championship invite
Gary Woodland is on the verge of making next week’s Tour Championship, a thought that barely entered his mind at the start of the year.
The 2019 U.S. Open champion has not made it to the 30-player season-ending event since the year of his major title, much of the focus of late on the surgery he had in September of 2023 to remove tumor in his brain.
In March, Woodland produced one of the best stories of the year, winning the Texas Children’s Houston Open just a short time after revealing he had been dealing with PTSD following his brain surgery. The meant qualifying for the Masters.
“I got a lot of relief from that,” Woodland said Thursday after shooting 6-under 64 to share the first-round lead of the BMW Championship with four others including Rory McIlroy. “I still battle the same things now that I was battling then, but I feel the love and support, I don’t feel like I’m hiding anything. I have more energy and that’s the big deal. I was wasting energy hiding that and I’m not wasting the energy anymore.”
Woodland entered the BMW 31st in the FedEx Cup standings after he finished tied for 42nd last week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. In each of the past two years, Woodland, 42, had failed to make the playoffs and he hasn’t made it back to East Lake since 2019.
His Houston victory propelled him up the points list and he added four more top-10 finishes, including a tie for seventh at the U.S. Open.
On Thursday, he made an eagle, five birdies and a single bogey on his final hole and ended up in a five-way tie for the lead with McIlroy, Wyndham Clark, J.J. Spaun and Chris Gotterup.
He is projected to be 17th in the FedEx Cup standings if he wins, but any kind of finish in the top half of the 50-man field at Bellerive would more than likely be enough to move up into the top 30 as only 3 points separate the four players coming in the week from 28th to 31st in the standings — Kurt Kitayama (1,259), Bud Cauley (1.258), Rickie Fowler (1,258) and Woodland (1,256) — and that many points to get in the top 30 are attainable for as low as T48.
“I’m proud of where I’m at right now,” Woodland said. “I can promise you East Lake wasn’t on my mind to start the year. It’s a goal, I think you write it down, but it seemed far, far away. The game’s just continued to grind.”
Click here for BMW Championship scores
LIV or die? Scoring O’Neil’s pep rally, er, presser
By Peter Kaufman
A few notes regarding LIV Golf after CEO Scott O’Neil’s press conference performance on Wednesday ahead of the league’s 2026 season finale in Indianapolis:
1. Almost the first third of O’Neil’s news conference in Indy can be seen as eulogizing LIV 1.0 and all those who toiled hard to contribute to it being a failure. Which sort of makes sense, because if there is a LIV 2.0, it will be leaner, meaner and with lower fixed costs than the original.
2. BC Partners, the mystery investor who has supposedly signed a term sheet to fund LIV 2.0, is run by Ted Goldthorpe. He is a veteran of both high-level Wall Street finance (Goldman Sachs is on his résumé) and also distressed investing. He is a very sophisticated lender. He is definitely not a financial Santa Claus like the Public Investment Fund, which backed LIV Golf to the tune of roughly $6 billion until earlier this year, when it decided to pull its funding. BC Partners has investors, who expect their money to actually make money. If Goldthorpe does lead a deal here, that will be the expectation.
3. With deep experience in bankruptcy, Goldthorpe is likely prepared to flush the many LIV vendors owed money through a bankruptcy. Ditto all the players contracts, absent all (or enough) of them agreeing to take less money and amend their contracts outside of a Chapter 11 filing. In turn, the supposed speed of LIV 2.0 taking place would auger a Chapter 11 filing (pre-packaged, pre-negotiated, 363 sale), there would seem to be too many parties needing to agree to terms outside of Chapter 11. Not impossible, just unlikely. Unless, of course, the PIF is good for all the money owed to all such parties.
4. Finally, moving past all the pretty O’Neil words about the golf world having enough room for LIV 2.0 — is there really a reason for it to exist? Personally, I don’t believe so. Despite its claims, Classic LIV failed to “grow the game” and nothing that has been said about 2.0 portends a different outcome.
5. This much can also be true: the worm has really turned since the PGA Tour now no longer fears LIV. Because if the PGA Tour did fear LIV 2.0, it would make it much easier for LIV alums/defectors to return to the Mother Ship — and immediately, without penalty. The more LIV loses its big-name talent to the PGA Tour, the less likely it is that there will be a LIV 2.0. Presumptive new money here wants to back marquee names (Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, etc.) and not the great unheralded who comprise most of the LIV roster.