Smylie Kaufman shares why Jim Furyk could regret leaving Akshay Bhatia out of the Presidents Cup team

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Jim Furyk has named his 12 players for the upcoming Presidents Cup but Smylie Kaufman believes one young star is unlucky not to be included.

Furyk finalised his choices last week as he opted to go with the likes of Keegan Bradley, Brian Harman and Max Homa in his final dozen.

Some big names have also been left out in Furyk doing that, with Billy Horschel admitting he was not surprised to be one of the big names omitted.

Still, it does feel like Furyk has played it very safe with his selections and he has opted to leave some of the game’s top young stars out.

• READ MORE: Smylie Kaufman says what would be ‘shocking’ to not hear in Scottie Scheffler’s match vs Bryson DeChambeau

One such young player, Akshay Bhatia, has had a superb 2024 and looks on course to become one of the top players around in 2025.

And chatting about Bhatia, Smylie Kaufman has suggested the US might have missed a trick in terms of his development by leaving him out.

Smylie Kaufman explains why Akshay Bhatia should have been picked for the Presidents Cup

Speaking on the latest episode of his Smylie Show podcast, Kaufman was discussing the picks and who might have been sensible in terms of developing the game.

And according to Kaufman, Bhatia is a player who the US might regret not picking.

“The only other thing I would mention on the way out is we didn’t talk about Akshay Bhatia not getting picked,” Kaufman said.

“He seems like he fits that same mould and category of Min Woo Lee. Young star, very popular in the game, so to your point on wanting Min Loo picked on the international team, for me if you’re the US Team and you say ‘hey, we want to develop our young stars a bit’ then Akshay would have been a make sense pick in that regard.”

Bhatia’s time will come soon

There is actually a chance that Akshay Bhatia ends up on the Ryder Cup team next season, such is his talent and the way he goes about the tournaments.

For now, he’ll have to settle for a watching brief but make no mistake, Bhatia is one to watch.

• READ MORE: Ernie Els shares what few understand about representing the International team at the Presidents Cup

Justin Leonard spoke about why Furyk had left Bhatia out and the reasoning is fair enough really.

But Bhatia is certainly a player for the here and now as well as the future and come the next Presidents Cup, it would be a big surprise to see him not involved.