Inspired By Langer And McCarron, Scott Goes Long Again

Jimmy Emanuel reports that former Masters champion Adam Scott will be wielding the long putter, minus the now-banned practice of anchoring, as he tees it up in the Australian PGA (Golf Channel coverage starts Wednesday at 8 pm ET).

Scott says he was inspired to try after seeing the incredible results of seniors Bernhard Langer and Scott McCarron on the PGA Tour Champions. 

“… it was actually pointed out to me that this year they (Langer and McCarron) both recorded the best ever putting stats since stats have been kept. Both of them beat the old best. You know, I don't know if it's just a coincidence or if they had just a really good year, but maybe they've found the best way to putt,” Scott said.

Comments

[jimbo]

Am waiting for a fellow competitor to refuse to sign a scorecard of Langer, et al. Cheating should end quite shortly thereafter.

[Spoilt]

Oh Lord....please win the Masters this way!!!!

[jimbo]

Spoilt...nice...and give Chairman Ridley another chance to throw up all over rules shoes again.

[Thinking Out Loud]

jimbo- that’s already happening

So Adam Scott has decided to cheat. Cool.

[JJ]

This whole farce dates back to the first round of the Mitsubishi Championship in Hawaii last year. If they DQ or ping Langer the first time he came out with the long putter then none of this nonsense happens. And for those that think they aren't anchoring, sorry I followed Langer around on that day and I wouldn't have signed his card.

[Doctor]

Reflexive idiocy will transpire. All kinds of close-up pictures and predictable, soul-killing, low-intellect inquiries: “Is Adam anchoring?”
They will know it’s boring and redundant, but will inquire and “investigate” anyway. Hell of a way to spend one’s life.

[P Thomas]

So, those posting cheating...you believe the players are anchoring???
Or are you inventing a new rule against the long putter?

[Sam Goldwyn]

We've seen this movie before. In the 80's the senior tour players proved the long putter is a great way to putt and the regular tour players followed suit in the 90's with Rocco being the first to win at Doral in 1991. Once again senior tour players validate the technique and regular tour players are following. Adam is just the first, more to come.

[Hardy Greaves]

Good for Adam. The USGA screwed up way back in the 1980’s when they allowed the putter to be longer than a driver. There is a simple fix to that conundrum.

[jimbo]

PThomas: I believe they are anchoring.

[Lynn S.]

I doubt they anchor regularly, maybe on a stressful one. More importantly I don't think its golf. Golf should be a stroke, not a lever. I think the hands should be in contact.

[Bud]

If the USGA wanted to outlaw the long putter, why didn't they outlaw it? 'Anchoring" is impossible to enforce, like many USGA rules.

[munihack]

The rule is not self evident to enforce so a player makes his own choice based on his bank account and his rationalization that everyone could do it too. And the player has the right to approach it that way. And fans and his peers have the right to lose respect for the player as a result if they choose.

[Anchored]

Of course Langer anchors.

It's just done differently. He simply locks in his left arm against the body and fixes the forearm and wrist so it can't move. Do you see his left fingers running down the shaft or at worst in a claw fashion with any chance of horizontal rotation? Of course not.

It's equivalent to moving the anchoring point from the chest to the locked wrist. Period.

[Paul]

Be interesting to see if the results would be different for Langer if he used a regular putter.

USGA screwed up 2x now on the long putter - abolish it completely.

Wonder how Stevie Williams feels about Scott compared to Woods. Bet he'd say he's a softy, complainer and doesn't have the fortitude despite being one of the best in overall skill.

[Shivas]

It's not anchoring if you extend your left elbow out (this fixes what everybody thinks Langer is doing, even though even that is not anchoring) and then you forward press the butt end of the club off your sternum just a tad to start your stroke.

That's simply not anchoring by any definition - and it works just fine. This whole anchoring thing was a made up justification in search of a problem. I never heard a single word about anchoring until the USGA conned themselves into believing that that was the real issue (when in reality it was the club all along). I'm glad the USGA screwed the pooch on this and that guys are laughing at them by getting as close to anchoring as you can without touching the sternum. Make the USGA look like a bunch of fools. Of course, that's not too hard to do...

The smart thing to do would be to just let people make whatever damn stroke they want with whatever legal equipment they want to use. The USGA has no business regulating how YOU swing YOUR golf clubs. That's between you and your PGA pro.

The USGA's job job is not to tell you how to swing, but rather when to swing, where to swing, and what happens once you do!

[digsouth]

Shivas- ''when to swing, where to swing, and what happens once you do!''

key word: swing. A lever is not a swing. Maybe England swings like a pendulum do, but tht ain't golf. ~~dig~~

[jimbo]

Shivas, I agree, "The smart thing to do...". However, I disagree with your anchoring claim. The forearm is anchored to the chest even with the elbow extended and the wrist and the palm / folded fingers not touching the sternum. IMO, until the USGA ditches or changes the rule, they are in violation.

[Shivas]

digsouth, I disagree. A swing is whatever the player says it is, as long as it's not a push, scrape or spoon, which all has to do with ball/club contact, not body movement.

jimbo: try it. Stick your left elbow out toward the target the way Scott does it. The forearm isn't anchored to anything. When I do it, no part of either arm touches anything but the grip of the club. I don't know how that's anchoring. Nothing touches anything. If I'm anchoring, you're anchoring too because we have the same level of contact with the body - none.

[Jello]

Standard putting if the forearms touch the beer belly is that anchoring or a clammy situation?

[FC]

A continued blight on golf's landscape.

[Schlasser]

Looks like Jimbo and digsouth are a couple of conspiracy guys. Hope there's a little tongue-in-cheek with your comments. Find it hard to believe you really think a guy is out and out cheating on every hole he plays.

[Thinking Out Loud]

I’m with jimbo. Anchors aweigh

[jimbo]

Sorry to disappoint Schlasser. No tongue in cheek. I'll never presume or speculate as to what Langer et al "thinks". I've read the rule and watched (only on television) players putt.. I believe they are in violation.

[DC]

@jimbo you are wrong. No possible way for you to make that call while watching on TV. Bernhard and Scott M. are both on record on the topic in response to some uninformed commentary by Brandel, both are men of integrity. Adam is too.

[P Thomas]

Jimbo,
Thanks for the answer.

I am suspect of a few, but watched others that I am certain are doing it legally

[OWGR Fan]

In the 2016 Masters Bernhard Langer was tied for 3rd place after the third round using the same putting stoke then as he is now. His putting stroke was cleared by The Masters last year. As did the PGA Tour Champions. There was an article in early 2016 from Golf Digest IIRC that mentioned players were complaining about his putting stroke. He was absolved. The MOPS (easy acronym to figure out) that make up the Champions Tour bring it up every week. He keeps getting cleared.

Taking all of the over the top emotion out of it that many of you have do you really believe that the players on the Champions Tour are willingly letting Langer and Scotty (Lanny reference) cheat and take money out of their pockets? As excellent as those two are is it in the best interests of the rest of that tour not to question them? Those two aren't bringing more eyeballs to that tour by "cheating". For those that think that Langer and McCarron are cheating enjoy the back helicopters hovering outside of your house.

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/the-rosaforte-report-bernhard-langers-new-putting-stroke-has-people-talking

https://www.sbnation.com/golf/2017/7/10/15943674/bernhard-langer-anchoring-putter-brandel-chamblee

[D. maculata]

@ OWGR

A similar situation occurred at the 2017 US Senior Open at Salem C.C. I was told by a person involved in the event, a handful of his fellow competitors were grumbling. Loud enough for the USGA to hear it. Langer fired 67-65 to open, then went 72-74 on the weekend featuring a lot of missed putts. To infer it was anything more than a bad weekend or that words were exchanged between the USGA and Langer, would be pure speculation. What we do know is he owns two green jackets and never won a US Open before anchoring was banned.

[jimbo]

DC, completely agree with you that I may be wrong. I'm just stating my opinion and in no way promoted or disguised it as fact. FYI, I stopped listening to Chamblee and pretty much the entire GC crew several years ago.

[DC]

@jimbo thanks for reply. Hey everyone is entitled to an opinion but if your conclusion were accurate it would mean Bernhard and Scott M. and Adam are inherently dishonest and outright cheats. In addition the written statements Bernhard and Scott M. made in response to Brandel would have to be considered outright lies. All that seems very far fetched.