By Joy Chakravarty
He plays for India. Lives in Dubai. Pursued college golf and professional dreams in Florida. And has been regularly winning tournaments in Serbia.
That’s not the only thing that makes Arkesh Bhatia – India’s international man of mystery at this week’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship – interesting.
He warms up and plays right-handed, but at the end of the day, he cools down hitting balls left-handed.
And yet, everything above feels trivial when the 27-year-old relates the remarkable story of how golf was the biggest motivation for him to overcome a debilitating back injury that turned 18 months of his life into a nightmare.
It all started on a sunny December morning in 2022. Bhatia picked up something in the gym and could hear an audible pop in his back.
“I knew it was something serious straightaway. It wasn’t just the sound. I could also feel as if some liquid oozed from my spine inside my back,” recalls Bhatia, the highest-ranked Indian in the field at No. 344 on the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).
That eventually led him to leave Jacksonville University of Florida a semester before graduating (he later completed his marketing degree) and return to his dentist father, Rakesh, and mom, Maddy.
Three months of rest reduced the inflammation, but getting out of bed every morning was a task, with sciatica shooting down his legs. Bhatia soon realized surgery was his best option, but there was one major issue that needed to be resolved.
The surgeon categorically told him the quality of his life would improve, but he wouldn’t be able to play golf. The spine would not be able to handle the torque of a golf swing.
As he recuperated over eight months, Arkesh decided he needed to prove the surgeon wrong. “I trusted him enough for the surgery, but I did not trust him on golf,” he adds with a smile.
One thing was for sure, though… his dream of becoming a professional golfer was over.
“It was hard to accept. I had a long chat with Shiv Kapur (Indian professional golfer) and he told me I needed to get my priorities right. If I wanted to be a pro golfer, I couldn’t put my family and quality of life ahead of golf.
“I wanted to play golf, but my family is important to me. I love my work (ship recycling). Looking back, I think I am in a happy place where I can do all of these.”
Bhatia decided that if he can’t turn pro, he would become a proper mid-amateur.
“I now mix my business and golf. I travel a fair bit, and I go to Belgrade often. So, I always try to coordinate my travel dates with a local tournament. I have played a lot in Serbia and won a few events,” said Bhatia, winner of four WAGR-recognized events in that country.
The L5 herniation eventually worked wonders for his golf swing.
“I obviously realized there were things in my swing before that were adding to my imbalances. A lot of spine tilt that shouldn’t have been there. I learned to swing around my injury, and the funny thing is, I feel like my ball striking got better,” says Bhatia.
“When I started playing golf again, I was mostly hitting left-handed shots. That’s become part of my routine now. I mean, golf is such a one-dimensional sport in the way we swing. It’s like someone going to the gym and saying I will only work on my right leg and arms only.
“This was just my observation, but I wanted to fix some of the imbalances in my muscles. I hit at least 30-40 left-handed shots after every round.”
With the injury nightmare behind him, Bhatia is a happy person now. And the joy has been doubled this year as he ticked off two of the main goals he set when he decided to become a mid-amateur.
“I always wanted to play the AAC again (he played in his hometown Dubai in 2021) and I wanted to play the U.S. Mid-Amateurs. I qualified for the MidAm earlier this year and played at Sand Valley in Wisconsin. And I am here now at Te Arai Links for the AAC,” says Bhatia.
“It feels pretty special to be here…I am so excited. Augusta National Golf Club, The R&A and the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) do such a phenomenal job in setting this up and they treat us like Tour players.
“As for the result, you always want to do well for your country. Representing India has always been one of my goals. We are just trying to go out there and put a few good swings, and if things work out in our favor, I think it will be a pretty special week. Actually, it already is.”
India’s best-ever finish in the championship is tied second by Bhatia’s friend and fellow Dubai resident Rayhan Thomas in Singapore in 2018.
