Second Anchoring Poll: How To Implement The (Inevitable) Belly Putter Ban

Okay, now we know anchoring a long putter against your stomach or chest is about to be banned.

A lot of very bright people make the case that this is only an issue in the professional game and that anchoring has kept many average golfers with the yips or back issue playing the game. I'm in the camp that would hate to see someone give up the game over this and would make it reason #2,093 why bifurcation is worth considering.

So with the results from our first poll resoundingly in favor of doing away with anchoring (70% to 30%), how would you go about implementing this ban?

I offer three options and the last two would obviously protect the everyday golfer who wants to continue bracing the putter against their presumably not-flat belly. I'm pretty sure the rules wonks will lambast me about the Local Rule, but I've never heard a convincing case why the Local Rule can be used to waive some rules or enforce others to protect a field or course. It would also seem to be an easy way for a professional tour to have a few of its own rules while remaining loyal to the "Rules of Golf."

Anyway, as always thanks for voting. These unscientific polls of late have been quite fun!

How should anchoring ban be dealt with?
	Wording change in the Rules of Golf
	Local rule, a back door form of bifurcation
	Bifurcating PGA Tour and USGA/RandA Rules
pollcode.com free polls

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.

Rex Hoggard had this from board member Davis Love:

“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?

First Putter Anchoring Poll: Yes Or No?

Rex Hoggard gets another confirmation from the USGA's Mike Davis that a decision on anchoring putters is coming soon: "We do plan to make some kind of announcement, as promised, later this year.”

Most feel a decision has already been made and language has been developed by the governing bodies banning anchoring a putter against your torso, with a likely implementation date in January 2016.

So the initial poll question is not very deep, but there are so many elements to the notion of an anchoring ban that it'd be informative to start off with a simple, completely unscientific poll: Yes or No on anchoring. (I'd like to save the question of bifurcation or long putters or length of club for later on.)

So for now...

Should anchoring the putter against the torso be outlawed?
	Yes
	No
pollcode.com free polls

Spencer Levin Injured By His Belly Putter

Steve Pajak reports on season-ending surgery for Spencer Levin who "tweaked his thumb while handling his belly putter, which is longer and heavier than a conventional model."

Ban them now before anyone else gets hurt!

"Bottom line, the game has been needing a boss."

Jaime Diaz pens a Golf World column wondering aloud about the origins of the USGA/R&A's move toward a ban on anchoring putters, with the announcement likely this fall.

But the point here is the USGA is using its de facto authority, vested or not, to clean up a mess. It knows it will be reneging on a 23-year old decision, which alone doesn't seem fair. It admits that sympathy for players desperate for a "last resort" method is the main reason anchoring has continued to be allowed. But with more players without overt putting problems choosing to switch to the broomstick or belly, there's a threat that in 50 years everyone will be using them. Very simply, widespread use of long putters is not the way the USGA and the R&A want the game to look.

And as much as I support doing away with anchoring, I still have to go back to Webb Simpson's remarks about the modern, 460cc driver's impact on the game versus anchoring. It's not even close which development has changed the game for the worse.

“I’ve got a high school diploma. What else am I going to do?

Michael Whitmer talks to players about what a change in the rules would mean for those anchoring the putter to their body and gets this nice bit of self-deprecating humor from Carl Pettersson.

Pettersson estimates he’s spent “10,000 hours, 15,000 hours” practicing with a club he’s used for 15 years. If the club is banned, could he adapt?

“Would I adapt? Well, I’d have to,” Pettersson said. “I’ve got a high school diploma. What else am I going to do?

Clark Taking Wait-And-See Approach On Anchoring Ban

Interesting to see Tim Clark's anchoring ban rhetoric, which has hinted at litigation, toned down today at the Wyndham.

Q.  Can you speak on the belly putter controversy going on right now?

TIM CLARK:  It's been going on for so long so it's not just right now I guess but, you know, I guess they're going to try and make a decision here this year and who knows what that's going to be.  It's hard to say either way.

You know, be easier to comment once they do make a decision.  But, obviously, it's something that's been used a lot more on the Tour now than it had been in the years gone by and that's probably why it's become an issue now.

In my mind they left it way too long to come down and say we're going to ban it.  It should have been banned 20 years ago if they were going to ban it.

The fact that they haven't by now, I think they've left it too long and too many guys have made their career out of using a certain piece of equipment that they're suddenly going to take away from them.

Again, I don't know what decision they're going to make but I'm going -- I see it going to be a much tougher decision than it seems to be, I think.

Q.  Tim, some of the guys have practiced, some of the ones using belly putters have practiced with the lower.  Have you tried the traditional?

TIM CLARK:  It's not something I'll worry about now.  I'll wait, like I say, for a decision to be made and then take it from there.  But it's not something I've played around with.

Anchoring Ban Could Cause "Chaos" For Manufacturers, Says Manufacturer You've Probably Never Heard Of

Jim Achenbach and the likely mass hysteria and financial ruin that will come to makers of long putters who will not sell as many if the governing bodies eliminate anchoring. Stephen Boccieri of Boccieri Golf:

“Chaos,” Boccieri said. “I can see some golfers revolting against this. I can see them playing (in non-tournament rounds) by their own rules.”

Because that never happens now...

The folks at Odyssey see the ban as a chance to innovate.

Odyssey’s Koske was more optimistic.

“If they go and ban anchoring,” he said, “it opens up a whole new avenue of putting. There are so many different ways to do it. The opportunities are endless. There are a handful of things we are testing, and we expect to be ready for whatever happens down the road.”

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?

“Bobby Jones used concave-faced clubs for some of his major championships. They were outlawed later."

Martin Dempster had a super write-up of the Monday R&A press conference and included this from Peter Dawson, which would be an answer to my first Open question.

Dawson was adamant that the controversy surrounding long putters hadn’t detracted from Els winning a dramatic event – he came from six shots back with nine holes to play as Scott dropped shots at each of the last four holes – to claim the Claret Jug for a second time.

“No, absolutely not,” he said. “The championship is conducted under the rules of play at the time, and it doesn’t detract in any way from the winner as long as he obeys the rules of play at the time.

“Bobby Jones used concave-faced clubs for some of his major championships. They were outlawed later. Bobby Jones’ victories are in no way demeaned as a result of that and I see this in exactly the same way.”

At Lytham, in a field of 156, Els was among 16 players wielding a belly putter while Scott was one of 27 using a long one.

“At one tournament last year, the R&A reported 21 per cent of players had long putters in their bag.”

The First Nagging Question From the '12 Open: Will This Win Eventually Have An Asterisk Next To It?

I don't want to rain on Ernie's parade, but this was a question brought up by my colleague John Huggan when we thought Adam Scott would win and make it three of the last four majors claimed by a player anchoring a putter against their torso.

A major is a major, and I would contend Barry Bonds was facing fellow steroid users when there was no drug testing, so no asterisk. And Ernie has won the Open along with two U.S. Opens with a traditional stroke, so his credentials are hardly suspect.

Still, with all the talk of a rule change, a career resurrected admittedly by an act of "cheating" in Ernie's view and the increasing likelihood that we may see something happen by 2016, will this and other recent wins be viewed differently by history because the winners used a non-stroke stroke?