Source: Golf WRX

In his official statement, USGA President Glen Nager said:

Having considered all of the input that we received, both before and after the proposed Rule was announced, our best judgment is that Rule 14-1b is necessary to preserve one of the important traditions and challenges of the game – that the player freely swing the entire club.

A skilled Washington, D.C. attorney, Nager shows his skills when he states that the ban “eliminates the possible advantage that anchoring provides, ensuring that players of all skill levels face the same challenge inherent in the game of golf.”

While there may not have been any long-term scientific research done to support a ban, the governing bodies were willing to take action on the empirical evidence: Three out of the last four major winners have used the anchor putter, and Adam Scott’s win completed the “anchor slam.” The previous school of thought was that the same reason that a guy went to the anchor putter, being shaky under pressure, would be the same reason that the anchor putter would not win major tournaments in bunches, if at all. That turned out to be a myth that has been utterly destroyed.

The ruling is not a surprise; in fact it, had been anticipated for a long time because the governing bodies were know to have been leaning against allowing continued use of the anchor method. Sources close to the USGA said that the penny dropped for it when one of its senior officials observed a junior tournament in which the majority of the best young players was using the anchor putter and sinking putts from everywhere. The official realized that a generation was coming that would establish the advantage that was only hypothetical before.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the controversy about the ruling is who is for it and who is against it. Standing in favor of the ban are all-time greats like Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer, arguably the two most influential players in history. Both have stated that an integral part of the game is to have every club swung freely, and the anchor method does not meet that standard. This is especially interesting from Palmer, a player who stopped winning majors when he stopped being able to hit clutch putts. The use of an anchored putter might have enabled to him to add to his eight career major victories.

On the other side of the debate are current players who have benefited from the anchored putter. Keegan Bradley, who won the 2011 PGA Championship with an anchored putter, has been vehement in his defense of the method and the other players that use it. Then there is the resistance of the PGA Tour and the PGA of America. Already on record as a defender of the long putter and the high-profile players that use them on Tour, Finchem has also suggested what was once considered heresy; that there could be a world with two sets of rules, one for pros and one for everyone else.

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