Akshay Bhatia, armed with his long putter, rolled 75 feet of putts at Spyglass Hill on Friday and 55 feet of putts at Pebble Beach on Thursday.
He then logged into Instagram to make a “2 inches” comment.
The question was whether Bhatia broke the rules when he took a share of the lead halfway through the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. An Instagram user on Friday, superimposed on a photo of Bhatia putting with his long putter, wrote this comment:
‘Is Akshay anchoring here?
“I’m not accusing, but there is a point to the question.
“The USGA and R&A messed up big time when they banned anchoring, but not putter length.
“Because touching clothes is legal, it is now impossible to detect it.”
The comment refers to rule 10.1b, which came into effect on January 1, 2016. That rule reads this way:
“When making a stroke, the player must not anchor the club: directly, by holding the club or a gripping hand against any part of the body (except that the player may hold the club or a gripping hand against a hand or forearm); or indirectly, through the use of an ‘anchor point’, by holding a forearm against any part of the body to use a gripping hand as a stable point around which the other hand can swing the club.
“If the player’s club, gripping hand or forearm only touches the body or clothing during the stroke, without being held against 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, including the wrist.”
Bhatia said he was putting legally.
About an hour after @waystogolf posted the photo and comment, Bhatia responded and wrote:
“Not at anchor. Literally 2 inches from my chest haha.”
About half a day later, Bhatia started his third round. This year, Bhatia has played three other events, missing the cut in the first two before taking third place at the WM Phoenix Open last week.
“Yeah, I mean, I think everyone’s always a little worried, maybe not Scottie [Scheffler] – to start the year,” Bhatia said of his turnaround after his first two tournaments. “So yeah, only AmEx is on the courses I love, didn’t play great. Torrey Pines, the golf course I love, didn’t ride great. And then, I don’t know, I’m the same person, but I just found some things in my golf swing, which was a lot of fun. I found some stuff in my well, which was fun.
“Joe [caddie Joe Greiner] and I’m still very fresh, which is sometimes very difficult for me to think about, because we have such a good connection, I think. So we’re still getting to know each other, he’s still getting to know my game, but we’re starting to work together a little bit, where when we’re walking up to a shot we’re kind of on the same page the whole time.
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