The thrilling ending at the 2024 Texas Open

America A spectacular birdie streak and a shoulder injury in Denny McCarthy's duel with Ashay Bhatia pushed the drama to a climax at the end of the Texas Open.

When they started together on hole 1 for the final round of the 2024 Texas Open on April 7, McCarthy was second at -11, but four strokes behind Bhatia. At the end of hole 11, Bhatia was still at the top of the leaderboard at -18, McCarthy was only -13, on the par-72 Oaks course at TPC San Antonio. With such a correlation, Bhatia thought he could easily advance to the championship.

However, McCarthy unexpectedly made a birdie streak from hole 12 to the end of the course, in which the last birdie was a 12-foot putt to set the mark to -20, forcing Bhatia to catch up with a putt also 12 feet from the hole. With that only chance, Bhatia finished accurately. When he saw the ball go into the hole, he waved his arms in celebration and hurt his right shoulder.

Bhatia hurt his shoulder while waving his arms in joy. — Bhatia hurt his shoulder while swinging his arm to celebrate a successful putt.

At this point, only Bhatia and McCarthy remained in the field, while the preliminary results pegged third place for McIlroy at -11.

Bhatia endured the pain on the sidelines with McCarthy, and had to seek medical help after his second shot. By this time, McCarthy had finished his third shot with the ball in the creek, receiving a one-stroke penalty and was expected to make at least a double bogey.

McCarthy looks for a ball that fell into a creek at the auxiliary hole. Photo: AP

After being temporarily treated, Bhatia returned to the course, with his third shot hitting the ball 1.8 meters from the hole. At that distance, he could have beaten his opponent if he had lost three putts. However, Bhatia birdied to end the duel and just waited to take home the cup and the prize of 1.656 million USD this morning, April 8, Hanoi time.

It was Bhatia's second win on the PGA Tour, following the 2023 Barracuda Championship. It also earned him a spot in next week's Masters major and a full PGA Tour berth through 2026.

Bhatia lifts the 2024 Texas Open Cup at the par-72 Oak Course at TPC San Antonio. Photo: AP

McCarthy, who received $1 million for finishing second at the 2023 Texas Open, has yet to win a championship after 174 events in the US premier golf tournament system.

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