Pro thinks he was clever. Then comes a conversation with rules official

Akshay Bhatia saw an opening. He saw an opportunity.

But he seemingly didn’t see the bottom of a sheet of paper.

In the end on Friday, Bhatia double-bogeyed the par-5 13th at Emirates Golf Club, though the sequence to get to seven strokes was notable. There was a wayward tee shot during the Hero Dubai Desert Classic’s second round. There was a clever second shot. Or so he thought. There was a conversation with a rules official. There was a retreat. There was some magic. There was some heartbreak. 

Going in order then:

— The tee shot? That went left for the left-hander. It finished among a collection of trees. 

Said an announcer on the broadcast: “Ooh, oh boy, oh boy.”

— The clever second shot — though not really? Here, Bhatia looked over his options. He could take his ball right, setting up a lengthy third shot. But he saw an opening left, down the adjacent 8th fairway, which would cut down the yardage for his third. He talked it over with his caddie. He went with the 8th-fairway option. 

Said the announcer: “Ideally, you want to try and get it back onto the hole that you’re playing because you can get yardages, you can see it, you’ve had practice shots from there, but … You can see that’s where he’s going to try and hit it, down there.” 

Said a second announcer: “I think he’s looking for just short grass anywhere, isn’t it?”

— The conversation with the rules official? There was a problem. As Bhatia stood over his third shot, the official pulled up in a cart. Mics picked up their conversation.

Said the official: “Have you just played a ball to here?”

Said Bhatia: “Yeah.”

Said the official: “This is out of bounds, this fairway.”

Said Bhatia: “This is?”

Said the official, gesturing: “It’s out of bounds, yeah. You see the posts here, that white post, that white post?”

Going down 8 from 13 was a no-no — there was internal out of bounds. Bhatia, though, argued that a sheet he’d received didn’t note that. The official then pointed out a white line. 

Said the official: “You see this white checkered line here, all the way? That’s all out of bounds. So you’re playing 13th, yeah?”

Said Bhatia: “Yeah.”

Said the official: “Yeah. So you’re out of bounds, I’m afraid.” 

Bhatia again said he didn’t see it on the sheet. The official said otherwise. He showed him a white piece of paper. On the broadcast, the first announcer said it was written at the bottom. 

“Oh no,” the announcer said. 

— The retreat? Bhatia went back to where he’d hit his second shot. He’d now play his fourth stroke. This time, he went right, to the 13th fairway. 

Said the first announcer, commenting on his first shot from the trees: “Well, there’s just a — huge mistake.” 

— The magic? Bhatia dropped his fifth shot, with a fairway metal, to about 12 feet. 

Said the second announcer: “Go on, knock it on, knock it on. Akshay Bhatia. Ah, that’s worth a round of applause.”

— The heartbreak? Bhatia came up just short on his first putt. He finished with a seven. 

In the end, though, he birdied 18 and made the cut.