"Nobody in his or her right mind will want to use a long putter if it can’t be anchored."

If you read Frank Hannigan's excellent letter earlier this week, you know the USGA/R&A anchoring ban hinges on the PGA Tour's support. But golf.com has posted a letter from a Philadelphia lawyer and three-time Merion club champ named Carl Everett, who says that "to the more serious golf community, proposal of the anchoring rule has already reinforced the notion that the ruling bodies are preoccupied with trivialities when compared to the havoc being caused by the ball."

While I'd like to dwell on his wonderful comments about dealing with distance as a priority, he brings up some fine points and maybe overdramatizes some others, but in not just banning putters over 40 inches, Everett brings up what continues to stand out to me as a potential problem down the road.

While the Rule 14 approach is intended to avoid legal pitfalls with banning particular clubs, it places the enforcement task on opponents/fellow competitors, which is a good way for players to make enemies rather than friends. If the anchoring rule goes into effect and I see a long or belly putter in someone’s bag, I fear I will have to be a policeman on every green to make sure anchoring is not taking place. Doing so will generally necessitate positioning myself so that I am facing the player rather than preparing for my own upcoming shot and may require me to inquire about the player’s intent on a particular stroke. That’s crazy!

Earlier this week, frequent anchorer and two-time U.S. Open Champion Retief Goosen said the club should have been banned, not the method.