Anchors Away

Article from the Compleat Golfer Magazine December  2015.

Next month, the new rule prohibiting the anchoring of putters comes into effect. Here’s what you need to know about it.

As of the first of January, you won’t be able to use your long putter any more. Correction – you will be able to use it, but you won’t be able to anchor it to your body, which kind of defeats the purpose It’s the anchoring of the long putters – both the belly and the broomstick – into the players’ bodies that makes them effective by providing extra support and stability.

Rule 14-1b, which comes into effect on 1 January 2016, prohibits strokes made with the club, or a hand gripping the club, held directly against the player’s body, or with a forearm held against the body to establish an anchor point that indirectly anchors the club.

It doesn’t help to get into the nitty-gritty of why the rule change has come about; suffice it to say that the ruling bodies got a fright when they noticed how many top players were starting to use – and win with – long putters.

According to the R&A, a stroke is a fundamental element that defines the game of golf and is meant to involve the player freely swinging the entire club at the ball. Anchoring the club relieves the player from making a free swing by restricting the movement of the club as if It were physically attached to the player’s body.

The rule change is particularly bad news for those players who suffer from the yips, as having a fixed point – pressed into your body – has proven to be an effective way to alleviate the dreaded condition. The powers-that-be now risk those poor souls with twitchy hands being lost to the game.

“More players are using it, and instructors are saying this is a more efficient way to putt because you don’t have to control the whole stroke,” explained USGA executive director Mike Davis. “Throughout the 600-year history of golf, the essence of playing the game has been to grip the club with the hands and swing it freely at the ball. The player’s challenge is to control the movement of the entire club in striking the ball, and anchoring the club alters the nature of that challenge.”

Alternatives to the long putter

Like every equipment ban in the past, the anchoring rule has inspired designers to pursue new alternatives, with a recent trend in counterweighted putters seeming to provide the best chance of smoothing out the yips.

By adding a weight to the butt end of the club, together with heavier head weight, and a longer and heavier shaft, designers have been able to produce more stable putters that have a similar feel to that of an anchored putter. They also help to take the hands and wrists out of the stroke.

Adam Scott is one of the few players who plan to continue to putt with a broomstick putter, but the Australian will have to do so without fixing the end under his chin, as he has done for the last few years.

“I like the long one with the same action I’ve been using,” he explained. “I just have to shorten the putter a few inches and everything else stays the same. The putter is so good, if there was any concern of it not being stable when it’s un-anchored, it’s gone.”

Other players have experimented with the putting style of Matt Kuchar, who uses a longer shaft than a traditional putter and places his leading left hand low so he can brace the top portion of the shaft against the inside of his left forearm. This is allowed because the arm is a moving part in the putting stroke.

“I think when the rule first came out, I had a number of people interested and of late, more and more,” Kuchar said. “I think seeing the deadline come up, there’s more and more guys interested in trying to figure out what it is I do and how I do it.”

What they said

Bernard Langer

“I don’t understand the decision I think it affects a few people I think they have bigger issues in golf to deal with than the long putter If it was really an advantage, everybody would use it. and there’s only 10-15 percent using it I don’t understand it No matter what they say. it makes no sense”

Tim clark

“As time has gone on I’ve come to terms that I’ll have to figure something out and figure something out that might make me a better putter I’m looking at it as they may have done me a favour and are forcing me to change and maybe become a better putter I’ll try to become a better putter and prove to them that it was a waste of time”

Keegan Bradley

“I don’t think it’s the right decision, but for whatever reason, the USGA is in charge of making the rules so that’s the way it Is It’s going kind of okay I need to make more putts but I’m getting better ”

Adam Scott

“I still don’t think it was the right decision in my opinion but I’m not losing sleep over it I know there are lots of ways to putt, still”

Long Putter timeline

1965— The first patent for a belly putter was approved Phil Rodgers won twice on the US Tour in 1966 with a 39 5-inch belly putter that he anchored against his stomach.

1991— Rocco Mediate became the first player to win on the US Tour using a long putter that was anchored against his sternum, which he used because of back issues.

2000— Paul Azinger reintroduced the belly putter to the US Tour in 2000 and won his first tour event with it – the Sony Open in Hawaii -by seven shots.

2011— Keegan Bradley became the first player to ever win a Major while anchoring a putter in the 2011 PGA Championship He was followed by Webb Simpson in the 2012 US Open, Ernie Els in the 2012 British Open and Adam Scott in the 2013 Masters

2012— The USGA acknowledged that an increase in usage of the technique among both pros and amateurs contributed to its consideration of a banning of the anchored putting stroke.

2013- January: US Tour players convened a special meeting at Torrey Pines to discuss the proposed rule change They voted unanimously against it

February: US Tour commissioner Tim Finchem announced the tour’s opposition to the         proposed ban.

— The R&A and the USGA formally announced that the banning of an anchored putting stroke will come into effect in January 2016.

2016— January: From now on, any directly anchored putting stroke will be considered illegal.