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Akshay Bhatia is making his debut at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic this week. That might explain the rules mishap he had during Friday’s second round.
Playing the par-5 13th hole at Emirates GC, the rising star drove one way right and into the trees. After consulting with his cadde, Bhatia determined his best option was to punch out down the eighth hole, which he did to perfection. There was just one, big problem: The eighth hole was marked as internal OB for those playing No. 13.
As Bhatia prepared to hit his third shot, a rules official drove up to him to deliver the bad news. The lefty contended it “didn’t say that on the sheet,” but then he was shown that, in fact, it did say that on the local rules sheet. Ouch.
The DP World Tour posted the entire series of videos from the hole on its Instagram account. After returning to the spot where he played his second shot, Bhatia, hitting his fourth shot now due to the penalty, punched out to the 13th fairway. He then hit a brilliant fairway wood to 10 feet, but came up agonizingly short on his putt, settling for a double bogey.
Internal OB is one of golf’s most controversial rules, but it’s implemented if tournament directors believe hitting to a certain spot is either unfair, unsafe or both. Just last year, the PGA Tour decided to add an internal OB at the Tour Championship left of the 18th hole at East Lake after players like Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele discussed purposely playing down the 10th hole instead.
On the bright side for Bhatia, he steadied himself nicely after that hiccup and still comfortably made the cut thanks to this closing birdie on No. 9.
But it’s yet another reminder that all golfers should read the local rules sheet before teeing off. Extra closely.
