Who Is Akshay Bhatia's Caddie?

Akshay Bhatia turned professional at 17 after opting to skip college and pursue his dream. The left-hander enjoyed a stratospheric rise up to the top level, working his way up through the Korn Ferry Tour and onto the PGA Tour.

Throughout that time, he has only worked with a very small number of caddies - one of whom was his girlfriend.

Having met Presleigh Schultz shortly before the Valero Texas Open in 2021, Bhatia later asked his partner to become his caddie (before proposing an even bigger question in 2023). She said yes (to both, actually) and the pair set about forging their way on the PGA Tour for almost two years.

In 2023, Schultz chose to support her man from outside of the ropes instead as Bhatia brought Brian Dilley on board. The professional success there was almost instantaneous, with the California-born star clinching the Barracuda Championship in July for his first PGA Tour title and amassing nearly $2.5 million in career prize money by the end of the year. 

Dilley - an experienced caddie who has worked with the likes of Suzann Pettersen and Billy Horschel on the LPGA Tour and PGA Tour, respectively - helped Bhatia until the early part of 2024.

According to Golfweek, Dilley - who is friends with Jon Rahm's caddie, Adam Hayes - then departed the PGA Tour entirely in order to link up with Caleb Surratt in the LIV Golf League.

That left Bhatia with an open position, and it appears as though he has captured Justin Suh's former looper, Ryan Jamison between the end of the Valspar Championship and the start of the Texas Children's Houston Open.

Before beginning life as a professional caddie in 2021, Jamison was a college golf coach for 16 years, serving as assistant coach at Stanford University and head coach of Florida Atlantic University.

He then teamed up with Suh while the former amateur World No.1 was still a Korn Ferry Tour player. Suh quickly rose onto the PGA Tour, though, winning the Korn Ferry Tour Championship with Jamison at his side.

But now with Bhatia, it seems, Jamison is looking to quickly add another trophy to his cabinet while hopefully looping at The Masters following a win.

Speaking ahead of the fourth round of the 2024 Valero Texas Open where he held a comfortable four-shot lead, Bhatia said speaking to his new caddie really helped him stay relaxed and maintain his advantage.

Bhatia said: "I was never calm today [third round] and it was the hardest thing to deal with. It's just so hard, you feel so tense and all these things in your stomach, your mind can kind of go one way. I kept to my game plan. I tried to talk as much as I could to my caddie."

Jamison has a young daughter called Sofia Rose with his wife, who he married in June 2019.