Give Akshay Bhatia a break - he is playing by the rules

Unless you have spent the past few days on the planet Zorg you cannot have failed to be aware of the controversy swirling around Arnold Palmer Invitational winner Akshay Bhatia.

The American left-hander uses a long putter and social media has been alive with wild accusations of cheating - namely that Bhatia consistently anchors said putter against his chest.

Let me say here and now that I am not a fan of long putters. When anchoring was banned way back in 2016, an opportunity was missed to place a limit on the length of putters. There is a limit on driver length so why not putters?

I understand that some golfers experience the yips but most have overcome them by adopting the claw grip or going left-hand low.

There are those who will tell you that anchoring does not offer an advantage but I take serious issue with that.

It was just last month when Bhatia dismissed those claims at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

And the debate raised its ahead again after Bhatia’s dramatic victory at Bay Hill, with fans taking to an assortment of social media feeds to accuse him of cheating by anchoring his club against his chest.

Fellow PGA Tour player Michael Kim felt the need to defend his friend and rival.

Kim wrote on X: "It’s funny to me that Akshay anchoring is a thing. In person, it’s not that close. This is not a concern amongst the players."

Responding to a comment on X, Kim replied: "It would be breaking the rules if the butt end of the putter was in contact with his chest during his putt. It can be more stable and easier to start putts on line in theory. I am terrible with the broomstick but if belly anchoring was possible, I’d switch to that for sure."

This is what Bhatia had to say: "I’ve been doing the same thing for a long time. And the funny thing is that at Bay Hill I felt like Joe [Greiner, his caddie] and I do this drill where I throw a Chapstick around and do Aimpoint stuff and try and guess the percentage of slope.

"And I was really dialled in before the tournament started. But I think I just had more awareness of what it takes out here to make putts. Because I struggled with that last year. My putter slides on these greens, and so I think I figured that out.

"I figured out a lot of things this week with my coach of just how to attack the golf course. And my speed was great. I had a couple 3-pointers, but that’s going to happen here."

It is interesting to note that this should raise its head in a week when so many players suffered horribly on the greens, which were rock hard and lightning fast.

For the record, I don’t accept that he does anchor his putter. For sure it touches his polo top but I am convinced that with so many cameras on him and with PGA Tour officials on hand at all times, if he had been cheating then he would definitely have been challenged and penalised.

I may not be a fan of this putting technique but Bhatia is not breaking any rules so give the guy a break please.