Are Average Golfers Anchoring To Great Advantage?
I'm catching up on the week's chatter, so forgive me if you saw some of the pre-Canadian Open talk about a possible ban on anchoring long putters. Rick Young at Score Golf featured some intriguing comments from players in Canada and one stood out:
"The USGA and R&A will have a tough time changing a rule that hurts the average player," Pernice said. "Belly putters and long putters are helping average golfers. They don't want to take them away. I think it has to be a rule for competition at the highest level. If they do away with it, it does some injustice to the average player. We want average players to get as many advantages as possible. I don't want it taken from amateurs who may not play anymore because putting has them so frustrated they don't want to play anymore."
We are well aware that a lot of pros are getting an advantage from anchoring, but are average players really gaining much from anchoring?
Monday, July 30, 2012 at 09:50 AM
Reader Comments (44)
It's time to bifurcate the rules, especially on equipment. Being concerned about the numbers of rounds being played and asking the same population to spend a $100 on a new club because his or hers old club gave Phil or Tiger a perceived advantage is nuts.
Grooves and anchors will do for now, but some new irritant will surface every time you folks begin to focus on the problem they do not want to tackle.
I wouldn't call it soon for the groove issue:
Your average golfer has to at least 2024 under the USGA groove rule before they are nonconforming. It's 2014 for major amateur tourneys.
Totally unsupported, but I'd guess a vast majority of casual players would say the half dozen or so well executed full shots per round is what brings them back week after week. Not many would say, 'The challenge of 'putting'. Putting for most is a sort of penance, lol.
*Like c and c and others on the site, things got a lot better going with what is a conventional right handed grip but putting from the left side. If you're struggling, try it!
I don't agree with this statement. I think people don't want to play because they can't hit a driver or an iron much more than the fact they can't putt. My wife can't play the game all that well, but she can still 3 putt or less almost every green. She is far more frustrated by her inability to hit the ball straight or long than by her putting issues.
It is up to the governing bodies need to step up.
The current Open Champion considers it "cheating"
oh, by the way, did anyone catch Inbee Park's stunning putting round at the Evian Sunday? The only thing I think we won't get, ever, with long putters is the ART that flows from the stroke of a putting genius.
achor, schmanchor, brooms and the like are for golfers who can't putt, simple as that. If it lets them play the game and enjoy it, or at least hate it less, why should we find a way to kill their joy or, much more likely, increase their pain?
At the pro level, It actually seems a little bit designated hitterish, imho, (and I'm pretty sure we'll never see pitchers batting in the American League).
Do I care - nope.
Do I care that the pros care or don't care - nope.
If you watched Adam Scott fritter away the Open Championship with the cheater putter he uses you know that anyone can miss any putt with any stick at any time.
That's what golf is all about.
And that won't change a whole lot either way.
What I'm truly waiting for is some Pelz-bot to come along and have 2, or even better, 3 putters in their bag - the Broom for 1" - 5ft, the Belly for 5ft to 20 ft, and a "Regular Putter" for lengthy things that couldn't possibly inspire yips, but might just require a little touch, or, heaven forbid, maybe even some good old fashioned artistry...
My problem with the people who say it should be banned because it makes the game too easy is that they all use 460 cc drivers and have no problem with the advantage that provides. The modern big headed driver has had a far greater impact on the game than long putters ever could. If any player, professional or recreational was given the choice between having a long putter or keeping their modern driver instead of a 180cc driver, every one of them would choose the big driver over the long putter. Why? Because they know what a huge advantage it provides compared to an anchored putter. Does anyone really think that the founding fathers of the game would be more offended by a long putter than they would the rediculously huge headed drivers we all play? If the idea is to make skill a bigger factor in the game then why should it be limited to just putting is my point? And let's not even talk about the modern golf ball.
My now wife almost didn't go out with me a second time because I had 'a ridiculous number of wedges.'
Not that it matters but 6 years ago I was a 32 handicap that couldn't break 100, and I have worked my way to currently be a 9 handicap. So not elite in any way, but the game is more fun now than then.
And since I've already typed too much. At my club I know at least 10 people that use a longer than 'standard' putter.
would if told they must use a "normal length" putter.
The best players in the game, play by the rules of the governing bodies (for the most part), who make
the rules for the general golfing public.
Golf continues to (over)react to the 1-2% of the world's golfers, risking chasing away more from an already
dwindling number.
Have any of you ever read/heard the word 'inorganic' used in the discussion re: long or belly putters?
The only place I see amateurs consistently using longer putters is at the high level amateur events I often caddie in for a buddy.
I used a belly putter for close to a year and had a few very successful streaks, but have since gone back to the short putter. The reality of the long putter is that you need to practice quite a bit with it to really make it work for you...especially when it comes to distance control. In the end, the amateurs who actually practice and try to compete for a score (and some proshop credit) are few and far between. And even there, I'd argue that there are very few who have enough time to really practice enough to take full advantage of the belly.
If it's banned, nothing changes on the amateur side. Period.
I have always presumed -- and still presume -- that the market is driven by recreational golfers who are emulating tour pros they see on tv. My belief is that this phenomenon is what drives much of golf sales. For most recreational players, it doesn't matter which style of putter they use; more than anything what they would benefit from is practicing putting for half an hour a day.
Let the USGA make rules for the .01 % of golfers who play in USGA events, if that makes them happy. Are long putters worse than hot golf balls, large spring-faced drivers, or GPS rangefinders?
As for golfers at the club level, there are very few belly putters around but quite a few broom-sticks. I think the reasons for this are two-fold. Firstly, a belly putter does very little to fix the yip's because your using the same fundamental grip and the right wrist tension still exists. So, people that are 'forced' to try change will go straight to the broom-stick. Secondly, unless you're quite fit it's difficult to actually anchor a belly putter! Further to this, most broom-stick users I see do not anchor the club (like myself).
Bottom line for me; no equipment changes, just a rule change to ban anchoring - which I think is straight out cheating. Little, if any, tangible impact to the game but ensures that the game is kept as simple as possible.
There are a lot of problems with golf that the governing (or lack thereof!) bodies should be dealing with, but long/belly putters are not one of them.
I have seen a handful of long putters in these parts, but only one in the bag of a "good" golfer, who played in a Championship B flight with me in June. He putted well enough when he got to the green, but that took a while on a couple of holes. One single tree on the 6th hole has died of urethane poising because of him. I admit to laughing about that at the time, but not so he could see or hear me from 80 yards away, when he took out his frustration on the cart windshield. To his considerable credit, he didn't laugh out loud when I made a "9" on the 16th in the final round while tied with him for the lead, this after I dropped another "2" on his prospective skin (worth about $200) at the 15th. God was watching. You will all appreciate Mrs. Ghost's reaction to that: "A 9? That's not even a snowman, more like a blizzard."
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The reaction to the long putter is basically due to its dissonance. The "Rite of Spring" caused a riot at its premier. Now it's considered mainstream, sort of. But the long putter will always dwell in the "not golf" category with me, sort of where Berg and Webern and Schoenberg stay in the "not music" category. Atonal music, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, is not music. Watching Adam Scott putt causes the same reaction. Watching him hit a golf ball with every other club in the bag causes envy.
But, really, it's the ball and the 460cc driver that are f*cking up the Greatest Game.
Now, for those of you who think bifurcation is the answer, I have tell you that I don't want to compete against anyone in, say, the club championship who doesn't have a genuine reason - eg the yips - for using it. I want the non yipper to have the same test as I do when standing over putts of yon length so please ... no more talk about bifurcation on this issue please.