Akshay Bhatia, armed with his long putter, rolled in a 71-foot putt on Friday at Spyglass Hill and a 59-foot long putt on Thursday at Pebble Beach.
He then took to Instagram to make a “2 inch” comment.
The question was whether Bhat had broken the rules while grabbing some of AT&T’s midpoint lead Pebble Beach Pro-Am. An Instagram user on Friday, captioned a photo of Bhatia posing with his long leg, wrote this comment:
“Is Akshay anchoring here?
“I am not accusing, but the question has a point.
“The USGA and R&A screwed up royally when they banned anchoring but didn’t ban shot length.
“Because touching clothing is legal, it’s impossible to detect now.”
The commentary includes rule 10.1b, which entered into force on January 1, 2016. That rule it reads this way:
“In making a stroke, the player must not anchor the club, either: directly, by keeping the club or hand gripped by any part of the body (except that the player may keep the club or hand gripped by a wrist or forearm); or indirectly, through the use of an ‘anchor point’, by holding a forearm against any part of the body that the hand can grip another point around the hand.
“If the player’s stick, hand or forearm touches the player’s body or clothing during the stroke, without being held behind the body, there is no violation of this Rule.
For the purposes of this Rule, “forearm” means the part of the arm below the elbow joint and includes the wrist.
Bhatia said he was doing it legally.
About an hour after @waystogolf posted the photo and comment, Bhatia responded by writing:
“Not the anchor. Literally 2 inches off my chest haha.”
About half a day later, Bhatia began his third round. This year, Bhatia has played three more games, missing the first two before tying for third last week in WC Phoenix Open.
“Yeah, I mean, I think everyone’s always a little bit anxious – maybe not Scottie (Scheffler) — to start the year,” Bhatia said of his return from his first two tours. “So, yeah, just AmEx I’m on the golf courses I love, I wasn’t playing well. Torrey Pinesgolf course that I love, I haven’t run it well. And then I really, I don’t know, I’m the same person, but I just found some things in my golf swing that were really nice. I found a few things in my review that were really nice.
“Joe (caddy Joe Greiner) and I’m still very fresh, which is really hard for me to think about sometimes because we kind of bond, I think. So we’re still getting to know each other, he’s still getting to know my game, but we’re starting to gel together where when we go to a shot, we’re on the same page the whole time.”
