Unless you live under the sea, you have undoubtedly heard the recent announcement from the USGA and R&A about the proposed ban on the anchoring of belly and long putters starting in 2016. This has been a major topic of discussion this year and I was asked about it many times. Those I talked to had a wide range of opinions. Well, now we know the answer– and it will affect every golfer who respects the game and wants to play it as defined by the Rules of Golf.
The USGA and R&A have been looking at this topic for about a year, and they have put a lot of thought and research into it before coming to a decision. One point that both organizations have wanted to make clear is that this is not an equipment change. Players will still be able to use long and mid-length putters, but they will just not be able to anchor them to their body. They feel that golf is and should always be a challenging game and that gripping the club and swinging it around your body is part of that challenge. By allowing a player to anchor the club or a gripping hand, this diminishes the use of a player’s hands in making a stroke, thus taking away from the intention of the game.
Both organizations also noted that this is not a performance based decision. The driving factor for a change has been the number of golfers that have taken to the anchoring method over the last few years. When they looked at this issue a couple of decades ago, not many players were using this method. It was mainly players past their prime that had a mental putting issue or physical ailment. But with players like Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson winning major championships and, even more importantly, with young players going directly to an anchored stroke for its efficiency benefits (not because they tried and failed with a conventional putter), the governing organizations felt they needed to revisit the subject.
The USGA and R&A are going to use the next few months to listen to feedback from around the golfing world until a final decision is made, but barring no change the proposed Rule will take effect on January 1, 2016, the next quadrennial Rules change year. The announcement comes at a time to give players currently using the anchoring method of making a stroke time to convert to an acceptable form.
The proposed Rule is written as follows;
“In making a stroke, the player must not anchor the club, either “directly” or by use of an “anchor point”. “
Note 1: The club is anchored “directly” when the player intentionally holds the club or a gripping hand in contact with any part of his body, except that the player may hold the club or a gripping hand against a hand or forearm.
Note 2: An “anchor point” exists when the player intentionally holds a forearm in contact with any part of his body to establish a gripping hand as a stable point around which the other hand may swing the club.
For a complete listing of examples of permitted and prohibited methods of making a stroke, click HERE .
The USGA and R&A could have taken the path of least resistance and made no change, but they felt strongly that as the popularity of anchoring continued to grow the proper playing of the game diminish. So in 2016, it’s anchors away! If you have any questions regarding this, feel free to email the CGA Rules department.
