Anchored Putters Rules Change (Effective January 1, 2016)

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by newtogolf

Yeah, ask James Harrison what he thinks of the NFL rule changes and how he's liked being fined over $100K for flagrant fouls after years of them being legal hits.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bplewis24

I agree.  It seems pretty absurd to me too, and somewhat petulant in the case of guys who just switched recently and are still implying they would bring legal action.

Or ask anyone outside of Pittsburgh what they thought of him being a headhunter.  Since he's been reeled in, he isn't nearly the player that he should be.  He isn't a bad player, but there are many others who are much better at playing within the rules.  He made his career in college and pro by hitting, not tackling, and having to relearn the game hasn't been that friendly to him.  When you look at the stats, he's very average.

But this is a very different issue than putting.  Putting is the ultimate finesse skill, and nothing about Harrison's job can be called "finesse".

[neophytea]

The "powers to be" want to keep viewership and attendance figures as high as possible.  This rule would make it easier for Tiger, Rory, and Phil to be winners or at least in contention on Sunday.  If Tiger, Rory, or Phil can't win attendance and viewership numbers will be down, Do you think this would be considered if Tiger used an anchored long putter?

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by newtogolf

Yeah, ask James Harrison what he thinks of the NFL rule changes and how he's liked being fined over $100K for flagrant fouls after years of them being legal hits.

[dave67az]

Originally Posted by neophytea

The "powers to be" want to keep viewership and attendance figures as high as possible.  This rule would make it easier for Tiger, Rory, and Phil to be winners or at least in contention on Sunday.  If Tiger, Rory, or Phil can't win attendance and viewership numbers will be down, Do you think this would be considered if Tiger used an anchored long putter?

Seriously?  Did you just say that the #1 and #2 golfers aren't winning because of anchored putters?  You do realize how ridiculous that sounds, right?

[dsc123]

Sounds like its going to be banned...

Quote:

"They're convinced the research has shown that under pressure on a Sunday afternoon the long putter just kind of takes one extraneous movement out of the putting stroke," McDowell said at Kingston Heath.

"It just makes it physically easier to stroke the putter when the nerves are there (and) I think we should be levelling the playing field (by banning it).

"I think it's probably something they're disappointed in themselves that it's got to this point. They probably should have nipped it in the bud many, many years ago."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/graeme-mcdowell-says-golf-authorities-know-long-putter-gives-an-edge/story-e6frf9if-1226516128483

[hampshire2012]

Try telling Adam Scott that the long putter gives you an advantage on Sunday afternoon

[x129]

Maybe Adam should switch to a belly putter. As Ernie could tell him it sure does help the nerves on Sunday

I sort of assume they are just going to ban the belly putter and keep letting the old guys use the long putters.

Originally Posted by hampshire2012

Try telling Adam Scott that the long putter gives you an advantage on Sunday afternoon

[Valleygolfer]

If there is an advantage then it has to be banned. Politics are the same way as this. Any time any change to the country's way of doing things there is a uproar. A few years ago it was the grooves. Now this. I think that anchoring the putter takes the "y" movement out of putting and helps control "z" movement more so than non anchored putting. The rule change makes sense and it is not going to ruin golf.

[newtogolf]

To my knowledge, the R&A; initiated the discussion of a rule change after The Open this year.  If I remember correctly, the R&A; stated that anchored putting wasn't nearly as popular in the UK and Europe as it was in the United States but that after The Open was won by a pro using one they felt they needed to evaluate the rule change before they gained in popularity.  In their initial analysis, it is wasn't a proper stroke and they wanted to squash it before more pro's and amateurs starting to use them outside the US.

[mvmac]

Brandt Snedeker who appeared on Morning Drive , voicing his support for a ban on anchoring putters.

Quote:

"Their charge is protecting the game of golf, not making sure it's OK for Tour players," he added. "What's best for the game of golf might hurt a couple guys in the short run, but it might benefit the game in the long run."

[Stretch]

Quote:

"Their charge is protecting the game of golf, not making sure it's OK for Tour players," he added. "What's best for the game of golf might hurt a couple guys in the short run* , but it might benefit the game in the long run."

(* But not me, so that's OK.)

[phan52]

Originally Posted by neophytea

The "powers to be" want to keep viewership and attendance figures as high as possible.  This rule would make it easier for Tiger, Rory, and Phil to be winners or at least in contention on Sunday.  If Tiger, Rory, or Phil can't win attendance and viewership numbers will be down, Do you think this would be considered if Tiger used an anchored long putter?

That's nonsense. Tiger, Rory and Phil would be in contention regardless. And the young guys like Simpson and Bradley who use the anchored stroke will adjust and be just fine. It's just something that was legal and they got used to it. I don't think that using the traditional putting stroke would have held them back.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by Stretch

(* But not me, so that's OK.)

There are two categories of putters, for purposes of this discussion: those who anchor their putters and those who don't.  If we assume everybody from each group is biased in favor of their group, what are we left to analyze?

I say stick to the merits.  I believe it IS best for the game from a principled standpoint, and that it has NO effect on the game from an economical/marketability standpoint.

[mvmac]

Ron Sirak considers the upcoming decision on anchoring and says the USGA's legal team is just buttoning up the language for the USGA Executive Committee's consideration.

Quote:

Or at least the announcement of the end is near. The whispered word is that lawyers for the USGA have spent the last couple of weeks closing all the loopholes and making as specific as possible the language on the new rule, which would not go into effect until 2016.

If the USGA and R&A; do ban anchoring, and if there are lawsuits, those suits will not come from manufacturers -- the long putters are not being banned, just the way they are used -- but by individuals. Would Bradley, Els, Simpson, Carl Pettersson, Tim Clark, Adam Scott and the like sue, saying the ban hurts their right to make a living?

Could they "grandfather" in those already anchoring the long putter as baseball did when it banned the spitball in 1920 but allowed 17 guys already tossing it to continue? (Burleigh Grimes was the last to throw is legally, hurling until 1934.) I suppose they could, but I'm guessing no. Golf likes to have everyone playing the same rules, and I agree.

If anchoring the putter against the body is banned, the timing is as good as it could be. Those employing the method have three years to adapt until the next update to the Rules of Golf is issued.

And if the move is made, you can bet that the opponents of the move will be very vocal. The announcement of the end of anchoring may be near, but that won't mean the end of the argument. In some ways, it may just be beginning.

He also brings up another good point imo

Quote:

Now, there is an argument that a prohibition against anchoring the long putter against the body will make golf more difficult for the recreational golf and thus limit growth of the game. I pretty much reject all the golf-is-too-difficult arguments to explain away the fact that participation rates have been flat for nearly two decades.

The game was a lot harder to play when I first took it up, swinging at a wound ball with a tiny persimmon driver. And yet that period, the time when Arnold Palmer and television combined to bring the game to the masses, was perhaps the most robust growth period in the game's history.

The difficulty of the game is one of the allures of golf and as a factor limiting growth it is at best fourth behind cost, pace of play and the fact that established golfers tend not to welcome new golfers. Those are the key issues, not missing a few putts.

[iacas]

The PGA sent me a "survey" the other day. It consisted of one question, and a freeform "comments" box.

The question read "With regards to anchoring a golf club:"

The two choices were:

a. Yes, I would favor a ban on anchoring a golf club.

b. No, I would not favor a ban on anchoring a golf club.

I chose (a) and wrote two sentences.

[mvmac]

Originally Posted by iacas

The PGA sent me a "survey" the other day. It consisted of one question, and a freeform "comments" box.

The question read "With regards to anchoring a golf club:"

The two choices were:

a. Yes, I would favor a ban on anchoring a golf club.

b. No, I would not favor a ban on anchoring a golf club.

I chose (a) and wrote two sentences.

Be interesting to see the results of the poll, I would figure most guys would choose "a".

[mvmac]

On Wednesday the USGA is expected to announce the much anticipated decision on whether to ban anchoring putting.

Quote:

"Is this what we want? Is this good for the game?" Mike Davis, the USGA's executive director, asked me rhetorically last year when I interviewed him after Bradley's win at the PGA. At the time, he honestly wasn't sure. Neither was he certain that the USGA and the R&A;, which oversees golf everywhere but in the U.S. and Mexico, would ever need to adjudicate the issue.

For the most part, the long sticks failed to provoke much controversy, since the players who resorted to them were few in number and generally did so only when back problems or the yips forced them to. "We'd hate to pull these putters away from them because golf is a game. It's for fun and recreation," Davis said last year. Long putters have been around since at least the 1930s. Since the 1980s, they have been appearing sporadically on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. Orville Moody won the 1989 U.S. Senior Open with a broomstick. Johnny Miller, Paul Azinger, Vijay Singh and Adam Scott are among those who have long-putted their way to PGA Tour victories. Youngsters have taken up long putters big time.  At several elite junior tournaments this summer, more than half the field employed anchored putters, according to Golfweek. Earlier this month, 14-year-old Guan Tianlang of China used a belly putter to win the Asia-Pacific Amateur, thereby qualifying for the Masters. He has never putted any other way.

By late spring, long putters had reached such a critical mass, and stirred so much criticism among traditionalists, that the USGA and the R&A; knew they had to act. "We appreciate that there is much speculation about this and that we need to clarify the position as soon as possible," Peter Dawson, chief executive of the R&A;, said after the British Open. They promised a decision by the end of the year (Wednesday qualifies) and specified that any proposed change would not concern the length of putters per se—that is, it would not be an equipment regulation—but rather a rule of golf concerning the anchored stroke itself.

The prospect of a ban has prompted several longtime anchor putters on Tour, including Bradley, Carl Pettersson and Tim Clark, to say they will fight such a ruling any way they can. "I believe they [the ruling bodies] are going to have a couple of legal issues coming their way," Els said last month in China. "We are talking about people's livelihoods."

What is clear, however, is that anchoring a golf club against the body during a stroke constitutes a fundamentally different type of golf swing, and that gives the USGA and the R&A; a defensible place to draw the line. Golf's regulators have banned nontraditional methods of striking the ball before. Pushing, scraping and spooning the ball were disallowed in 1883. Using a putter like a pool cue was banned in 1895. Croquet-style putting, in which a player straddles the line of a putt, was nixed in 1968, much to Sam Snead's dismay.

If the USGA and R&A; do propose a ban on anchored putting Wednesday, the measure won't be officially approved until those organizations' annual meetings next spring and won't go into effect for three years. That gives golfers time to adapt. Players with bad backs will still be able to use long putters, they just can't press the end against their bodies. Juniors will have no problem learning to putt the old fashioned way.

[mchepp]

I should put my belly putters on eBay before they get banned and the price goes down!