Akshay Bhatia. Isaiah Vazquez
It’s been well-established that golf is unlike most professional sports due to its athletes’ longevity, but a certain battle of the ages at this week’s Wyndham Championship is, well, one for the ages.
We’re talking about Akshay Bhatia and Stewart Cink being paired (along with Sam Burns) at Sedgefield Country Club. Why is that a big deal? Well, for one thing, one guy just turned 21 this year while the other has already started playing on the senior tour. Or, put another way, ol’ Stew wasn’t exactly snapping selfies when he won his first PGA Tour event.
But in addition to the three-decade gap between the two, there’s also this incredible stat that was unearthed by Sean Martin of PGATour.com:
Akshay Bhatia and Stewart Cink are paired at the Wyndham Championship. Bhatia is 21. Cink is 50.
Bhatia has been alive for 1,121 weeks.
Cink has been ranked 175th or better in the OWGR for 1,122.
— Sean Martin (@PGATOURSMartin) August 1, 2023
How ‘bout them apples? To be clear, this is way, way more impressive on the part of Cink because you’ve got to be really good for a really long time to pull off being in the top 175 of the Official World Golf Ranking for more than two decades. But it’s also yet another reminder of just how young Bhatia is.
Oh, and there’s one more interesting little wrinkle. Bhatia is coming off his maiden PGA Tour win and Cink was just named a vice captain for Team USA. So this could be a potential Ryder Cup audition as well. Good luck, young man. And tossing around “Mr. Cink” and “Sir” can’t hurt.
