Final Group Involved In Unique Ruling At Players Championship

The Rules of Golf continue to throw up surprises each and every week and, at The Players Championship, the final group were involved in a bizarre incident during the third round.

Teeing off last were Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia and, in testing conditions at TPC Sawgrass, both made a hash of the fifth hole, with both forced to take interesting drops after wayward tee shots.

At the par 4 fifth, Lee and Bhatia carved their tee shots left and, after locating them, were forced to take unplayable lies which ended up being on TPC Sawgrass' driving range.

Essentially, the golf balls were located in a bush and after taking unplayable lies, they were able to drop as far back as they would like, keeping the spot of the ball between the hole and where the ball is dropped. This rule falls under 'Rule 19 - Unplayable Ball'.

In the end, both Lee and Bhatia dropped around 60 yards back, leaving them more than 250 yards from the hole for their third shot. Following the drop, both made double bogeys with it taking around 25 minutes to complete the fifth hole.

It's not the first time Bhatia has been involved in a rules drama in 2025. During the second round of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, Bhatia found himself in trouble off the tee on the 13th hole.

Faced with no real option, the 22-year-old opted to chip out and on to the eighth fairway which, at the time, didn't seem to be an issue. However, after doing so, it was revealed that the eighth fairway was deemed to be internal out of bounds for those playing the 13th. Therefore, Bhatia had hit into an out of bounds area, thus receiving a penalty.

After the fifth, Bhatia parred the sixth before back-to-back birdies at the seventh and eighth kept him in contention. In terms of Lee, he followed his double bogey with a bogey at the seventh and ninth for a four-over front nine of 40.