Akshay Bhatia Lost A Ball In The Strangest Way Possible Due To An Inexplicable Oversight At The Rocket Mortgage Classic

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There’s no shortage of ways for golfers to lose a ball during the round, but it’s pretty hard to top the borderline inexcusable situation Akshay Bhatia found himself facing during his second round at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Golf courses are littered with a wide variety of objects that you typically want to avoid while you’re playing.

That includes obvious natural obstacles like trees and ponds, and while most places do what they can to situate manmade hazards in places that don’t interfere with play, the nature of course maintenance means things like sprinkler heads and drainage covers frequently end up being placed in high-traffic areas.

Now, you would think that a golf course—especially one that’s been picked to host a PGA Tour event—would exercise some common sense when it comes to ensuring those objects don’t cause more issues than necessary.

For example, if you’re going to place a drain cover in the middle of a fairway, it’s probably a good idea to make sure it’s not covered in holes that are big enough to allow a golf ball to drop through.

That brings us to what transpired when Akshay Bhatia was competing in the second round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club on Friday.

The man who’s currently ranked 29th in the Official World Golf Rankings hit a 314-yard drive on the par-5 17th that landed right in the middle of the fairway only to disappear through the top of the drain pipe speckled with five holes that were (somehow) all larger than the size of a golf ball.

Bhatia quickly called for the assistance of a rules official who let him know he was entitled to free relief (he wasn’t required to dig his ball out of the drain), and he was ultimately able to par the hole.

It appears Bhatia (who is sitting at -13 after the first 36 holes) will be leading the rest of the field by two strokes when the weekend kicks off, and you have to wonder if the folks at Detroit Golf Club will whip up a fix to ensure a similar situation doesn’t unfold again.