Has the Pga Allowed the Belly Putter Again
Aug 13, 2015; Sheboygan, WI, United states; Adam Scott putts on the 16th green during the first round of the 2015 PGA Championship golf tournament at Whistling Straits. Mandatory Credit: Thomas J. Russo-U.s. TODAY Sports
Over a twelvemonth has passed since the implementation of golf'south anchored putter ban – how has the ban impacted the players who anchored?
The anchored putter ban "prohibits anchoring a social club when making a stroke". Implemented on January 1, 2016, the rule sent shockwaves through the game, peculiarly among the professional ranks.
Many were sympathetic to the protests. The slightest advantage a golfer tin find, like using a broomstick doodle, tin brand the difference in one'due south career.
"Nosotros're not going to accept away your long doodle," Mike Davis told Golf Digest. All you need to do . . . [is] command the whole club with your hands. And so long and abdomen putters are still legal – as long every bit you don't anchor them."
The argument against anchored putters is based on the supposition that affixing the club to one'southward body is an illegitimate way of gaining control of the putting stroke. The swinging motion consistent in all facets of golf is diminished.
Use of anchored putters increased afterwards a streak of four of six major winners were anchoring their putters.
Anchored Putting – Arguments Pro & Con
The argument for anchoring is rooted in the belief that going to the anchored putter is a matter of comfort and preference. Sure players might improve from their traditional stroke, but that it is not necessarily a catholicon. Whatsoever success from the anchored putter comes from a identify of skill or is psychological, merely not from any sort of inherent advantage.
No concrete evidence documented a noticeable reward gained from anchoring when the USGA and the R&A implemented the anchored putter ban..
Some affirm that the anchored putter ban resulted from an outcry amongst a generation of golfers who preceded the popularization of alternative putters and equipment. As there was for the implementation of a three-point line in basketball or instant replay, there will always be bristles about changes in a sport. Long putters accept been around since the 1960s, but were ofttimes seen as a gimmicky novelty until they sprouted up more frequently in the 2000s.
The run of major champions with an anchored putting way was another likely factor in the decision. Keegan Bradley's win at the 2011 PGA Title ushered in a span of four of half dozen major champions to use the culling way. Webb Simpson, Ernie Els, and Adam Scott followed Bradley into the title circle.
Let's take a look at how the four major champs and a fifth wild card stack up since the rule change.
Keegan Bradley
May 10, 2013; Ponte Vedra Embankment, FL, USA; Keegan Bradley putts for baboon on the 16th dark-green in the second circular at TPC Sawgrass – Stadium Form. Mandatory Credit: Brad Barr-USA TODAY Sports
Keegan Bradley was the showtime to win a major championship with an anchored putter.
Rule 14-1b never earned the nickname the "Keegan Bradley dominion," just perchance it should have. The PGA Bout rookie outlasted Jason Dufner's collapse at Atlanta Athletic Club to win the 2011 PGA Championship. At his side, rather, his stomach, was his trusty long putter. A smattering of players had Tour wins using similar methods, but never a win on golf's highest phase. Unintentionally, Bradley began a trend of major champions using a similar fashion.
It'south non like Bradley was setting the world on burn down with his doodle, though. He finished 105th on the PGA Tour in 2011 in strokes-gained (SG) putting. His two-win Rookie of the Yr season was more a product of his altitude off the tee (300.vii yards, 20th) and accuracy (.683 strokes-gained off the tee, 6th).
Bradley did accept an improved putting week in Atlanta, only who doesn't heat up at least a little bit on the greens in a major win?
His game hasn't been the same since that fateful day. He's won once since at the 2012 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and none since switching to a conventional putter.
Bradley's Game After the Anchored Putter Ban
Bradley was among those who bit the bullet to make the switch before the calendar flipped to 2016. He tried to go out in front of the issue, but instead found himself looking back.
"It frustrated me," Bradley told Golf Digest in the summer of 2016. "In the dorsum of your mind you're ever thinking, 'Man if I still had it.'"
Bradley tinkered with different grips and putters. He occasionally reverted dorsum to his original anchored belly putter while he all the same could. Bradley was a modest 47th in SG putting and 26th in total putting in 2014. While in transition, Bradley was heckled and deemed a cheater by some fans while hanging on to the belly putter. Confidence issues from the equipment alter were inevitable. Perhaps issues from his weakened public perception played a factor, too.
His ball-hit remained fairly intact starting in 2015, but his plummet outside of the world top 100 (from as high as tenth in his career) was a product of a averse doodle. He finished 128th in SG putting in 2015 and 183rd in 2016 with a traditional flatstick.
Bradley continues to struggle in this department in 2017. Despite a T4 at the Farmers Insurance Open in Jan, he checks in at No. 110 in SG putting through 12 rounds.
Webb Simpson
June 17, 2012; San Francisco, CA, U.s.; Webb Simpson lines up a putt on the 17th hole during the final circular of the 112th U.Due south. Open golf tournament at The Olympic Club. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Us TODAY Sports
Webb Simpson has been outspoken of his disdain for the anchored doodle ban.
Webb Simpson was among those unafraid to speak out in opposition to the proposed anchored putter ban.
"If you look at the facts, last year there was no one in the top 20 of strokes gained category that anchored a putter," Simpson said in an Associated Press report in 2012.
Simpson used his trusty belly putter dating back to 2004 starting out at Wake Forest. He ranked within the top 60 in SG in his starting time vi years on Tour. He began to transition to a conventional doodle in 2015 and his stats on the greens took a tumble.
Simpson's Game After the Anchored Doodle Ban
Simpson dropped from 34th in SG in 2014 to 165th the following year. A driblet to 177 in 2016 appeared to spell doom for the 4-time PGA Tour winner.
He'southward still had a few chances to win, including a four-hole playoff loss to Hideki Matsuyama at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February 2017. However, he'due south slipped farther to 189th in SG early on in 2017. The one time uber-consistent world No. v dipped as low as 90th.
His fall might have been worse had he not been solid elsewhere. Simpson was fourth in 2016 in strokes gained approaching the green and 11th in strokes gained around the green. Those numbers have held steady the past few years.
Simpson appears to take the chops to keep his PGA Tour carte for years to come. Until he corrals the putter, though, his career might not bring much more.
Ernie Els
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – FEBRUARY 05: Ernie Els of Due south Africa looks on from the ninth greenish during the second round of the Omega Dubai Desert Archetype at the Emirates Golf Gild on February 5, 2016 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo past Warren Little/Getty Images)
Ernie Els has tried information technology all to cure his putting woes, including the belly putter.
Golf is a game of tinkering. Few embody that more than than Ernie Els. The "Big Easy" has one of the sweetest swings in golf, only has struggled to replicate that rhythm on the green at times in his career.
His woes have peculiarly manifested equally of late. Els' 2015 flavour with the flatstick evoked the infamous y-give-and-take in golf (yips) from critics who saw him frequently three- and four-putt greens. The former world No. 1 finished an bottomless 173rd in SG putting.
He switched to a cross-handed grip and reaped dramatic results. Els finished 23rd in SG putting the next yr. His newfound success notwithstanding seemed a niggling tenuous, especially after his meltdown at Augusta. In his first hole at the Masters, Els lagged a 50-footer to six feet. Nifty. He needed 6 more putts to ultimately go out the green.
"I couldn't get the putter dorsum," Els told the media subsequently his round. "I was standing there, I've got a three-footer, I've made thousands of 3-footers, and I merely couldn't take it dorsum."
Els Can't Putt Consistently, With or Without Anchoring
His struggles predate the 7-putt. The former critic of anchored putters went to the night side in search of success. Els had spells with the abdomen putter in the early 2010s. Like any other putting fashion he used, ups and downs followed. He didn't experience a drastic improvement from anchored putting, finishing outside the top 100 in SG putting in 2011 and 2012.
Els' win at the 2012 Open Championship using a belly putter fueled the growing burn down amid those with ruling power to institute a ban. Perhaps forgotten is Adam Scott's bogey-bogey-bogey-bogey finish (while besides using an anchored putter) that paved the manner for Els. Els' was no flamethrower on the greens, either.
He admitted he couldn't have won the Open that year without his belly putter, simply he still finished in the bottom fifteen in strokes gained putting that week at Royal Lytham.
Els' success with the anchored putter netted a big win, just it might have come at the right place and fourth dimension in a career mixed with putting highs and lows. The anchored putter appeared to be just one of xiii clubs in the bag that calendar week.
Adam Scott
Sep 22, 2016; Atlanta, GA, Usa; Adam Scott reacts later putting the eighth green during the 2016 Tour Title at East Lake Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-U.s.a. TODAY Sports
Adam Scott has remained at an elite level since the ballast ban was implemented.
Nosotros didn't run across whatsoever anchored putter alums win a major in 2016, but Adam Scott had himself a dainty year with a pair of wins and v more top-fives worldwide with a traditional putter. Scott held on to the broomstick putter that won him the 2013 Masters just about as long every bit he could through 2015.
Scott didn't shut out 2013 anywhere near the top of the PGA Tour in SG putting (108th), but it was a slight comeback from his days of finishing outside the peak 150. That'southward all it took for the elite brawl-striker to break through.
He jumped all the way to 54th in SG putting in 2014, only dipped back down to 157th in 2015. Perhaps 2016 was a needed alibi to suspension from the broomstick.
Scott'south Game After the Anchored Doodle Ban
It didn't accept long in 2016 to find the winner'southward circumvolve with the new society in the bag. He won the Honda Classic and WGC-Cadillac Championship in consecutive weeks in March.
Scott wasn't ready to attribute his first win in two years to the putter alone. He is known more for his elite ball-hit, later on all.
"I call up everyone is guilty at some indicate of being pretty reactive to whatever happens, and time does pass apace," Scott said at the Honda Classic winner'southward printing conference. "If I came out at the back end of last year with the short doodle and just had very mediocre results and no confidence and started actually poorly this year, no confidence, I'd feel like I'yard a long fashion behind that standard that was set."
At present with a total year's worth of data, he was correct to pump the brakes in assessing his putting woes existence over. He made a meager spring to 129th in SG putting, but as has been the example throughout his career, his length and accuracy proceed to lay the foundation for his success.
Tim Clark
Apr eleven, 2014; Augusta, GA, USA; Tim Clark hits his tee shot on the 4th pigsty during the second round of the 2014 The Masters golf game tournament at Augusta National Golf Social club. Mandatory Credit: Jack Gruber-USA TODAY Sports
For most, anchored putters are a selection. For Tim Clark, it was his only selection.
Just about whatever golfer who has sought out an unconventional putter or style has done and then as a product of curiosity or need for change. They could requite an anchored putter a try as they pleased, but never had to commit to it.
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Tim Clark has no such luxury. Clark was built-in with a disability that disallows him from supinating his wrists. He can swing a golf game lodge fine, merely unproblematic tasks like property a bowl of soup are hard for Clark.
And then is putting conventionally. In fact, it's incommunicable.
"I can't grip the club properly if it'due south close to my body because I don't take the means to tuck my elbows in," Clark was quoted in a 2013 Sports Illustrated article.
Clark used a long putter for decades dating back to his junior days. The ban impacted his livelihood well-nigh more anyone, and he made that articulate in his unsuccessful rally against it.
Few in his circles had a problem with his long putter helping to a win at the Players Championship in 2010. Niggling did he know that showing you could win with an anchored putter may have kept him from having the risk to win more. Just a few years later, the anchored doodle ban contend was stoked.
Clark Needed the Anchoring Option
He spoke at a player's coming together in San Diego, galvanizing many in attendance to come to his side. Clark's influence might have been a gene when then-PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem expressed his opposition earlier the USGA and R&A followed through with the ban.
The 2-time PGA Bout winner finished tertiary on the PGA Tour in SG putting in an anomalous 2007, but never finished inside the height twoscore whatsoever other yr. He was known more for his accuracy off the tee and a proficiency around the greens when his ball-hit failed him.
Yet, the anchored doodle ban served as a probable death sentence for a career already hampered past injuries.
Clark gave information technology a go in 2016 with a newfangled AccuLock Ace Putter that looked like it was from a 2 a.m. Golf Channel infomercial. It actually worked at the Sony Open that January en road to a T13 finish.
He couldn't follow information technology upward the adjacent week. In his last worldwide outset, Clark missed the cut the side by side calendar week at the Career Builder Challenge belatedly in January 2016. No timetable is known for a potential return for the 41-year-one-time.
How do you feel nearly the anchored putting ban? Have the USGA and the R&A stepped into an area of the game where they don't belong? Share your thoughts in the comment department.
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Source: https://www.foxsports.com/stories/golf/anchored-putter-ban-one-year-later-how-five-players-affected
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