How using lead tape helps Akshay Bhatia putt under pressure

Akshay Bhatia is just 21 years old, but when it comes to golf equipment, he has the knowledge of a seasoned veteran.

Bhatia made his PGA TOUR debut in 2019 at the Valspar Championship when he was just 17, and after using early adversity as fuel, Bhatia finally broke through with his first PGA TOUR win two weeks ago at the Barracuda Championship.

Although Bhatia admits that he wasn’t as in-tune with equipment when he first came out on TOUR, he’s since amassed a wealth of knowledge and understanding about his gear, and he sets up his golf clubs to optimize both performance and comfort.

If there’s one thing that sticks out about Bhatia’s Callaway setup, it’s that the lefty likes his clubs to feel heavy. He says that heavier clubs help allow him to feel where the face of the golf club is positioned throughout his swing, and it especially helps in pressure situations.

“I like to feel the club head, especially in tournaments where you get so much adrenaline,” Bhatia told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the Wyndham Championship. “It’s nice feeling that extra [weight] … you have a little more sense of the face. For me, at least.”

With a preference toward heavier clubs, Bhatia adds extra weight by applying lead tape, which is commonly used by experienced club builders and fellow PGA TOUR players. He doesn’t just stick the heavy substance onto his clubs in any random place though. He applies the tape with specific purposes for different clubs.

When it comes to his Callaway Rogue ST driver, Bhatia puts slabs of lead tape on the heel and toe sections of the sole. This dual-weighted configuration, according to Bhatia, helps boost the forgiveness of the club head by raising MOI (moment of inertia). Since there’s additional weight behind either side of the sweet spot, it helps stabilize the face to prevent twisting on off-center hits.

“The driver, I have a ton of lead tape because of higher MOI, and like I said, for head weight purposes,” Bhatia said. “All my woods are like D5, D6 (swing weight). And for whatever reason, I never knew that until I got out here this year on the PGA TOUR, and we started getting all the measurements from the Callaway guys.”

Bhatia uses slabs of lead tape on his wedges, too, but for a different reason.

“My philosophy with [my wedges] was making the CG (center of gravity) higher, so it launches lower and the contact is a little more solid,” Bhatia explained. “Whether it works or not, I’ve done it for the last couple years. I just like it. For whatever reason, I’m a little more comfortable with that, knowing that there’s so much weight up here that the ball is going to come out pretty low with a lot of spin.”

Prior to the John Deere Classic, Bhatia was using a stock gray Odyssey No. 7 Tri-Hot 5K counter-balanced putter with an armlock shaft. As a backup, he also had a custom black-white-black Versa version of the putter. After feeling like he needed a change, Bhatia asked his father to ship him the custom backup.

“I was using just the regular No. 7 5K, just the black and gray,” Bhatia said. “I just really like the Versa look. I think it looks good. It’s very different, very clean. So I had them make me this as a backup putter, if I was, for whatever reason, not aiming it right or anything like that, I had this to go to. I actually tried the Jailbird at the Rocket Mortgage, just with kind of the same counterbalance. I didn’t putt that good, so I had my dad ship – this was the only one at his house – I was like can you ship this to John Deere? Obviously I putted a lot better, more consistent, but now I don’t even want to touch my other one. The backup is the new one. I like it, I think it’s unique. Having customized stuff is always pretty cool.”

On both of Bhatia’s putter options, he uses a stack of wide-striped lead tape on the sole, saying that it helps both with weight and how the putters sit at address.

“Part of the reason is for head weight, but also because of the way the putter sits,” Bhatia said. “…it makes it sit pretty flush every time. Sometimes if I have a little shaft lean, it can kind of sit open, or the back end of the putter can sit a little high, so then sometimes I’ll hit it into the ground, which I realized using Quintic with my putting coach.”

Since making his PGA TOUR debut more than four years ago, Bhatia has gained experience, equipment knowledge and a PGA TOUR victory. This week at the Wyndham Championship, Bhatia – who is No. 99 in the FedExCup standings – will hope his preparation can propel him to a strong finish and a spot in the Playoffs.

Check out GolfWRX.com to see photos of Bhatia’s full club setup at the Wyndham Championship.