This past Sunday Adam Scott won the Australian Masters using his anchored putter. Of course that sparked an immediate dialogue regarding the anchored (long) putters and should the PGA Tour ban them from tournament use? Scott along with Phil Michelson and Keegan Bradley oppose any ban. Tiger Woods, Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer and recently Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter, and Brandt Snedeker have each publically supported a ban of the anchored putter.
At the risk of oversimplification, it seems that since the majority of PGA Tour players use a regular length putter a ban could very well be voted. Whatever the PGA Tour players do is fine with me, if they actually have a say. I don’t have a pony in that parade. However, I can share this point of view.
In the 30-years of playing golf in the Myrtle Beach Area, I’ve yet to be paired with a player using a long putter. Before sitting down to pen this article I made a visit to both Golf Dimensions and Martin’s Superstore in North Myrtle Beach. A tried a variety of anchored putters at each store and could not get comfortable with any of them. The long putter isn’t for me. Give one a try and see what you think.
I do have one final comment, not so much on the anchored putter, but how golf writers and editors can take any subject and make it bigger than life. I recently read an online conversation of 9(!) golf publication editors that dealt with the all-important question – “If PGA Tour players voted to ban long putters what would the result be?” They each guesstimated how the vote would go and added some self-serving logic to their opinion. Now that’s a job I’m sure we’d all love to have!
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