Bhatia cards 1-under to be Tied-2, stays in contention at St. Jude golf

Memphis (Tennessee), Aug 9 (PTI) Indian-American Akshay Bhatia followed a career low 8-under 62 with a second round 69 to be tied second on the second day of the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

With a total of 9-under for 36 holes, he is tied with three others and they are four shots behind Tommy Fleetwood (63-64) who is at 13-under.

Bhatia, a two-time PGA TOUR winner, is making his second career start at the FedEx St. Jude Championship – he was T-12 in 2024 - and has three top-10 finishes this season with T-3 at the PLAYERS Championship as his best.

Bhatia who had two birdies and a bogey in his first four holes, parred the remaining 14 holes on a day when play was suspended early due to lightning in the area.

Bhatia (62-69) is tied second with Collin Morikawa (66-65) and Justin Rose, who after a first round 64 is 3-under through 16 holes in the second round.

Indo-British Aaron Rai (70-69) is T-39 and he is 55th in FedExCup standings and needs to be inside the Top-50 to make the second of the three Play-offs.

Making his first start since his 17th PGA TOUR victory at The Open Championship, World No. 1 and reigning FedExCup Champion Scottie Scheffler (-7) has another chance to have a back-to-back win.

Scheffler was Tied-seventh with Bud Cauley and Jacob Bridgeman and Maverick McNealy, the last needing to complete their second round.

Fleetwood at No. 9, is the highest-ranked player in the FedExCup standings without a victory on the PGA TOUR. The seven-time DP World Tour winner has six runner-up finishes and 42 top-10 finishes, the most of any player without a win on TOUR since 1983.

He seeks to become 13th first-time winner on TOUR this season and 10th player to make the FedEx St. Jude Championship their maiden TOUR victory. PTI Corr AT AT AT