USGA's Davis Holds Closed Door Top Secret Presentation To Tell PGA Tour Policy Board How Anchoring Ban Will Work, Share Public Feedback And What To Expect When It Happens
Credit weight loss Tweeter Alex Miceli with the scoop that Mike Davis confidentially told the PGA Tour Policy Board how the governing body intends to act on anchoring putters this fall, only to have the player members blab away about the specifics of what sounds like an upcoming ban on the act of bracing a long putter against the torso.
Davis' appearance before the Policy Board indicates the USGA expects opposition when it makes an announcement, which the association has said would be by the end of the year.
According to Goydos, Davis’ presentation indicated that the USGA has received overwhelming support in letters and e-mails from the general public to ban anchoring. Davis Love III, a Sea Island resident and the recent Ryder Cup captain, expects a different sentiment from the Tour's rank and file.
“I don’t know what (the Tour) would do,” Love said. “I told Mike Davis, ‘We are going to have 10 guys who are vehemently against, and then 10 guys who are vehemently for you, and then the rest of them are just going to go play.’ That’s the way it is on any issue.”
Love’s only concern was whatever the USGA and Royal & Ancient do, they should move quickly and avoid dragging a potential rule change out.
“If they said today, ‘We met with the Tour we’re going to change putters,’” Love said. “Keegan Bradley is going to get himself a different (conforming) putter and he’s still going to be a really good putter. He’s just going to have to make a change, but you’d rather not talk about it for three years and have it be a distraction.”
It's amazing Tim Finchem doesn't have any grey hair when you know he gets reactions all the time like this one from Paul Goydos. Back to Miceli's story:
If the verdict is to ban anchoring in 2016, then Goydos thinks other issues – foremost, integrity – will emerge.
“If a player who has played with a belly putter decides to switch to a regular putter in 2014 and plays poorly, they will be looked at as a player that has cheated before,” Goydos said.
Davis counters by noting that Bobby Jones and Sam Snead used equipment and strokes eventually banned, but Goydos dismisses that point.
“That was a different world, 1930 to 2013,” Goydos said. “The USGA has a responsibility to make sure they are not labeled cheaters.”
And what exactly would you propose they do? A special non-cheaters wing to the Anchoring Hall Of Fame?
Wednesday, October 17, 2012 at 10:51 PM
Reader Comments (38)
This rule change will really impact Bradley, doubt we'll see him on another Ryder cup team (let alone contending for a major).. he must be utterly reliant on the anchoring.
Goydos's comment/remark was great, I never thought of the "cheater" label from that angle, another reason he should be deputy commissioner for life when he retires.
Keep at this Geoff, it's a topic worth dissecting.
I do not think guys who do not putt as well w/o anchoring will be called cheaters. The legitimacy of their previous wins will be questioned (and rightfully so), but that does not mean they cheated to get those wins.
I putted with a split grip on a conventional length putter (anser style head) well gefore LAnger did the arm hold move-- I just let my upper hand pivot while the lower hand moved the head. I built a (legal) one piece grip that was simply extra long. It worked pivoting in this manner. The belly putter guys could easily adapt.
If you can pivot off your stomach, you can pivot off you upper hand..... and if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.
Think about it. Unless he's psychic, the only rational explanation for his fear is that people already are saying it's cheating. Is he really suggesting that we shouldn't change the rules because if we do Webb Simpson and Keegan Bradley might get UPSET? They're better than that. A lot better. And I don't see someone like Bradley ducking a chance to prove it. Goydos's argument does them and other players who are currently anchoring their putters a disservice.
Personally I think the aesthetic argument is enough. Watching The Open, I became desperate for Adam Scott to lose simply because of how ugly his putting stroke is. Which is deeply unfair of me, I know. But who wants to see a fantastic natural athlete with one of the beautiful swings in the game putting as if he's trying to work out how to use a new prosthetic limb? If everyone had to putt like that, I'd give up golf.
But you want them to be able to putt with the end of the putter anchored and not moving at all while striking the slowest swing in golf.
Makes very little sense. Part of the challenge, skill, fun and greatness about golf is going from one type of swing / shot to another and adjusting accordingly to score.
Anchoring the putter and making a stroke is still a swing of the putter head. That being said my main beef with anchoring the
putter is that it is an alignment aid. By anchoring the grip end, the putter head travels on a fixed arc. If this isn't a constant aid to alignment
what is? And as far as I know intentional alignment aids like your caddy standing behind you on your intended line is against the rules during the play of a stroke. Yes they still have to read the putt and hit the ball but with it going back and through on a fixed line it clearly is not in the spirit of the rules of playing a stroke.
@Vaughn...... The driver Palmer said for people to play was the Callaway ERC II not the Big Bertha. It had a slightly higher COR (.86 vs .83) that on perfectly struck shots (sweet spot) would have given a player an extra 5-7 yards off the tee.
>>The USGA is driving more average golfers out of the game with their idiotic rules.
These "golfers" are taking-up a game that has rules (most of which have existed for hundreds of years). Blaming those rules, which existed
before these "golfers" took up the game for driving these "golfers" away from the game is just silly.
These "golfers" are free to continue playing their game i.e., by ignoring the rules but no one should take them seriously when they try to blame the Rules of Golf (or its authors) for anything.
BTW, if it is not clear, my use of quotation-marks is meant to show my contempt.
Which leads me to the believe when it comes down to it its not how the ball goes in the hole its how many it takes to get there. Will the R&A and USGA ban Jim Furykes circle 8 swing or the draw next. Puting the ball in the hole is the name of the game no matter how its being done.