When the Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship teed off for the first time in 2016, DJ probably never imagined he’d be competing against a winner of his tournament in a major championship just five years later.

But when the World No. 1 tees it up this week at Torrey Pines in the U.S. Open, he will be competing against Akshay Bhatia, who won the 2019 DJ World Junior at TPC Myrtle Beach.

The 19-year-old Bhatia qualified for the U.S. Open by beating PGA Tour players Ben Martin and Zach Sucher in a 3-for-1 sudden playoff to earn a trip to his first major. While Bhatia is still finding his footing as a professional, he has flashed the potential that leads many to believe he is one of the game’s future stars, most notably when he hit all 18 fairways and shot an opening round 64 earlier this year at Pebble Beach.

Johnson and Bhatia are on opposite ends of the tee sheet, but Myrtle Beach golf fans will be closely following the progress of both players. DJ tees off at 1:36 p.m. (PST) Thursday afternoon and he, not surprisingly, will be part of one the U.S. Open’s featured groups playing alongside Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas.

Bhatia will go out at 8:46 a.m. for the first round with amateur Andrew Kozan and Alvaro Ortiz.

Click Here to View Round 1 & 2 Tee Times of the 2021 U.S. Open