Akshay Bhatia’s ‘dream week’ in India gets off to nightmare start with rules blunder

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Playing in this week’s Hero Indian Open was always going to be a memorable experience for Akshay Bhatia. Born and raised in the United States, the 24-year-old comes from a family of Indian descent (both his parents were born in the country). After turning pro just out of high school in 2019, and with no status at the time on any tour, he was given a sponsor’s exemption into the 2020 event, only for it to be cancelled by the DP World Tour a day before his departure due the COVID-19 pandemic.

Six years later, Bhatia, a three-time PGA Tour winner after his victory last month at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, was finally teeing it up at DLF Golf and Country Club—only to have his first round become memorable for all the wrong reasons.

When all was said and done, the highest ranked player in the field at 22nd (only three other players in the top 100 of the OWGR are competing), posted a five-over 77. But how he got there deserves some explaining.

First Tee Woes

From literally his first swing of the round, Bhatia was in trouble. Starting on the par-4 10th hole at the Gary Player designed course, the lefty hit his drive out of bounds, leading to an eventual double-bogey 6. To his credit, Bhatia birdied his next hole, but then made bogeys on the 13th and 14th holes to sit at a disappointing three over through five holes.

Rules blunder

The real pain, however, game on the par-5 15th hole. That’s where Bhatia wound up posting a triple-bogey 8 after being hit with a penalty for playing a wrong ball.

According to reports, Bhatia was hitting his second shot on the hole, only to realize the ball he hit wasn’t his. After making the swing, he discovered his actual ball nearby. It was a violation of Rule 6.3c, and was assessed a two-shot penalty. Thankfully for him, he was able to correct his mistake before proceeding on to the next hole; had he started the next hole he could have been DQ’d.

(In case you want to brush up on how to proceed if this happened to you, take a look at this Rules Review post from our rules expert Ron Kaspriske.)

Now six over after six holes, Bhatia encountered more trouble on the par-5 18th hole, making a double-bogey 7 to turn with an eight-over 44.

https://www.golfdigest.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2026/3/akshay-bhatia-indian-open-2026-first-round-nine-hole-scorecard-44.jpg Now that’s more like it

Genuinely nervous that he might not break 80, Bhatia managed to set aside all the trouble while playing DLF’s front nine. He made three birdies and the rest pars for a three-under 33.

“I’ll never give up, and that’s kind of the goal,” Bhatia said of the turnaround.

Still, the 75 was the highest score he has shot since was nine shots back of leader Freddy Schott and left Bhatia in a tie for 98th place (the round will conclude on Friday after being called for darkness).

“Yeah, I mean, definitely just got to get more comfortable with the golf course,” Bhatia said. “It’s a tough golf course. I mean, I hit it OB on the first hole. So it’s just like, you can hit shots that are five, 10 yards off your line and just be really in a tough position.”

Bhatia will have some work to do to make the cut, but he sounded confident that he could get the job done on Friday.

“All in all, I’m just gonna try and rest and just try and kind of continue the momentum I had on the back nine today.

“I’ll never give up, and that’s kind of the goal.“

That and no more wrong ball penalties.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com