{"id":437830,"date":"2026-03-19T02:40:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=437830"},"modified":"2026-03-19T02:40:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:40:28","slug":"akshay-bhatia-and-other-players-withdraw-from-valspar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/akshay-bhatia-and-other-players-withdraw-from-valspar\/","title":{"rendered":"Akshay Bhatia And Other Players Withdraw From Valspar"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend, the next PGA Tour event is set to start, the Valspar Championship at the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida.\u00a0 The players are already arriving and preparing for the main show.\u00a0 It\u2019s the eleventh event of the 2026 season, and the last for Florida.\u00a0 Afterwards, it will be nearly time for the homestretch towards the Masters Tournament.\u00a0 However, there have been a number of withdrawals from the event, including Akshay Bhatia<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Akshay Bhatia Withdrawals<\/span><\/h2>\n

Bhatia\u2019s withdrawal came as a surprise to fans.\u00a0 So far into this season, he\u2019s been on a roll.\u00a0 He recently achieved a victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and dedicated it to his late niece<\/a>.\u00a0 Bhatia is even performing well at the TGL practice rounds.\u00a0 He even finished within the top 20 during the Players Championship<\/a>.\u00a0 At the time of writing, there is no specification as to why Bhatia withdrew from the Valspar.\u00a0 The PGA Tour only made the announcement on the official Twitter account,<\/a> along with who will be taking his place for the tournament.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why The Withdrawal?\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Theories are moving around, ranging from injuries to simple rest time.\u00a0 Rest time is the most likely of the theories.\u00a0 Bhatia is also a member of the TGL<\/a>, and he was performing in these events back-to-back.\u00a0 This is a common thing for top players; their schedules fill out, and they grind hard.\u00a0 After such an intense stretch, he has done pretty well for himself, netting the victory in the Arnold Palmer, a top twenty finish, and even a hole in one during a TGL practice round.\u00a0 With the Masters coming up in April, the players need to get as much rest as they can before such a big tournament.\u00a0 Nonetheless, Bhatia has withdrawn, and Sam Ryder will be filling in for him.\u00a0 However, Bhatia is not alone, as there are other players who withdrew from the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Withdrawals<\/span><\/h2>\n

Before Bhatia withdrew, there were a few other players who withdrew.\u00a0 Two of which were in the top five of the Players Championship.\u00a0 Keith Mitchel, who tied for 46th, withdrew from the event and won\u2019t be attending.\u00a0 Neither will the fourth-place winner, Robert MacIntyre, be attending the event.\u00a0 Sudarshan Yellamaraju, who tied for fifth, won\u2019t be attending either.\u00a0 This does mean that the four players withdrawing are all in the top fifty, with three in the top 20.\u00a0 Like with Bhatia, a reason wasn\u2019t given as to why they aren\u2019t attending the event.\u00a0 Just an updated list of who will be on the field in their place.<\/span><\/p>\n

Valspar Without Bhatia<\/span><\/h2>\n

The Valspar Championship is the last stop on the Florida swing.\u00a0 So many withdrawals are a shame to see, as the season is reaching another milestone.\u00a0 On the field at least, the event organizers are prepared as always for this exact scenario.\u00a0 The positions have been filled as fast as they opened, and the event should go on without issue.\u00a0 Despite his solid performance, Bhatia will not be there, but the show must go on.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 GREG LOVETT\/PALM BEACH POST \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weekend, the next PGA Tour event is set to start, the Valspar Championship at the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida.\u00a0 The players are already arriving and preparing for the main show.\u00a0 It\u2019s the eleventh event of the 2026 season, and the last for Florida.\u00a0 Afterwards, it will be nearly time for the homestretch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":437831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19],"tags":[297,8111,307],"class_list":["post-437830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-akshay-bhatia","tag-robert-macintyre","tag-valspar-championship"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437832,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437830\/revisions\/437832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}