Akshay Bhatia’s win at Bay Hill was tainted by cheating allegations. Fans accused him of using an illegal putting technique to gain an unfair advantage on the green. A week later, he’s not in contention at TPC Sawgrass. But the abuse from the spectators has still not stopped. That prompted Bhatia to suggest an unorthodox method to prove his innocence.

Dan Rapaport shared a picture from the broadcast of the event with subtitles that had Bhatia saying, “I want to take a picture of me brooming it with my shirt off.”

He’s suggesting that he wants to perform a putt just as efficiently as he has been doing so far, without a shirt. With no polo to obstruct the view, fans would be able to clearly see if he is actually anchoring the broom of his putter against his chest. For those who aren’t aware, anchoring the club against the chest is illegal.

If Bhatia continues to find the target without resting the club on his chest, then his innocence will be proven. As absurd as his method may be, that is probably the best way he can prove his doubters wrong. He probably won’t be able to do it at TPC Sawgrass. But Bhatia can always share the evidence on social media.

There was no reason for the issue to be dragged on to TPC Sawgrass. Bhatia is not even in contention for it to come into play. After two rounds of action, he was sitting 10 strokes behind Ludvig Aberg on the leaderboard.

Interestingly, despite the debate among the netizens, Bhatia hasn’t been criticized by his peers. In fact, one of them even pointed out how the situation is quite different up close.

Akshay Bhatia gets a vote of confidence from his peers

Akshay Bhatia’s anchoring has never been a topic of discussion among the PGA Tour pros. That says a lot considering that they are the ones most affected by it. Neither one of his PGA Tour mates has ever questioned him about his putting.

In fact, Michael Kim also revealed how the anchoring seems a lot different on television than it does in person. Having seen him putt before, the 32-year-old says that Bhatia is certainly not anchoring against his chest.

Kim tweeted, “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.”

He even stated that if this were an actual issue, then the players would have been more concerned about it than the fans. But since Bhatia’s peers are not bothered about it, the netizens shouldn’t be jumping to conclusions.