Phil: "I don’t think you can take away what you’ve allowed players to use, practise and play with for 30 years."

An AFP report quotes Phil Mickelson saying a ban on anchoring would be "grossly unfair.”

“It’s not an issue that I’m involved with, I understand both sides. It’s just that I don’t think you can take away what you’ve allowed players to use, practise and play with for 30 years. I think it is grossly unfair,” he said.

You may recall that Mickelson briefly toyed with the belly putter at the 2011 Deutsche Bank Championship.

Comments

[Matt]

Of course he is involved. He is in love with Keegan

[DTF]

WoooHoo.....Katie bar the door!

RLL, all ready for your summarization of Phil!!!

[No Longer Used to be Former S & T Convert]

This could get interesting, I may have to pull up a chair.

[Matt H.]

What about accidental anchoring? Good thing no tournament golfers are fat. I can see it now

"I think his grip grazed his side on the backstroke. Thats a 1-stroke penalty for illegal stroke."

We should make the golfer's body a hazard, wait the club can touch a hazard on the downswing.

[PGT]

If you don't act early on because too few people using it and you don't act late because too many people of using it - when the $#^% do you act?

[Garry Smits]

That's very interesting Phil. But your pal Keegan isn't even 30 years old. Nor is there anyone currently active on any professional tour who has been using a belly or broom putter for 30 years.

[PING EYE 2 WEDGES]

Yes Phil I completely agree with where your at with all this talk of building a stroke, a stance, or for gods sake imparting more SPIN.!

[Amen Coroner]

Why does it have to be debated and drawn out. Either ban anchoring or don't. Enough pussyfooting around the subject. Does anyone have a pair to do anything anymore?

[digsouth]

Sorry Phil. Shack Detectives calls BS.

You can't sell what Keegan is shoveling.

[DTF]

From Golf Digest:

"In 1982 Owens developed an even longer club to anchor in his sternum in a very upright stance to facilitate a true pendulum stroke."

golfdigest (dot) com/golf-tours-news/2007-09/gw20070914fields#ixzz2BZTS9DTH

That's 30 years. Whether or not Charlie is still active is not relevant.

[johnnnycz]

Darn it Phil...there you go again...sticking your nose where it doesn't belong AFTER using a fulcrum anchor ball rolling machine for a few weeks last year, and then going back to a regular putter and proceeding to roll it like a champ.

Folks...this pretty much defines/describes a TEACHING aide to me. Sorry, but no one ever said golf was supposed to be easy and/or fair, that's what PGA teaching pros are for.

[DTF]

I'm loath to mention this.....but my old friend Dicky Pride actually raised a couple of extremely interesting points on Golf Central that are truly meaningful regarding real benefits of anchoring vs. traditional putting. Anyone else pick up on those points?

[benseattle]

<< Dicky Pride actually raised a couple of extremely interesting points on Golf Central that are truly meaningful regarding real benefits of anchoring vs. traditional putting. Anyone else pick up on those points? >>

Uh....no. (And why the hell anybody watches Golf Central is beyond me.) Care to fill us in on the Wisdom of Dicky?

Oh, and for the record, Paul Runyan, as I've stated before, first created a belly putter back in the 1930's.

Say, while we're on the subject, can anyone explain to me that since there is NO evidence whatsoever that an anchored putter makes a bit of difference (check the PGA Tour stat sheet) and that there's been no lemming-like rush to convert, just WHY are we considering a ban? Is it because your 77-year-old Grandpa "looks funny" when he rolls in the occasional 4-footer with a belly putter? Yeah... good point. Let's make sure that geezers with the yips play a LOT less golf from here on in.

[DTF]

ben, I'm gonna let the Against Camp dig it up on their own!

"WHY?" Because they don't like the way it looks...

[benseattle]

<< "WHY?" Because they don't like the way it looks... >>

I have to admit, I actually knew this. Harkens back to the days of Sam Snead's "croquet" style that raised the ire of Bob Jones and USGA head Joe Dey who saw that method banned back in 1968. No "straddling" the line. Took Sammy about five minutes to simply place both feet on the same side of the line and putt almost the exact same way.

Are you like me... just itching to see how clever golfers will devise methods to circumvent the language of the new "outlaw" rule?

[DTF]

ben, I think you may have been away for a little while...did you see this: http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2012/10/20/for-your-consideration-belly-putterers-sidesaddle.html#comment19143263

[RLL]

Hey, Del,
Phil's a little more complicated than a guy attached to his crutch. Especially in light of the aha moment Geoff pointed out recently in which playing from the fairway (via Keegan at the RC) suddenly lit up a bulb over his head. So much so that he nearly ran the table last week in China with an RBZ 3-wood instead of any of his six drivers...

And though the belly putter talk is starting to feel a little hung over even to me, I would note an interesting "outlier" curiosity about putters that the fiercely loyal to their crutch might consider: the one thing that actually does show a slight statistical significance for equipment improving putting from pro's to am's -- at least until the novelty wears off -- is just putting a new putter in the bag.

;=]

[benseattle]

Yes, DTF, I caught that. I'm only guessing it's the first salvo in 2016's Golfing Contortionist's Conundrum, or.... "how to putt the way I want without breaking the (new) rule."

If you Google "face on putting" there are PLENTY of advocates.... many of which say "don't bother looking at the hole." Don't know if the method works but at least banning anchored putters will finally rid the game of "funny looking" strokes..... ;-)

[BrianS]

The question I guess I would like to hear discussed is the gist of Phil's point: If you assume that you want to end anchoring for whatever reason, is there an inherent unfairness to making it illegal to those that have already taken it up ? If so, can an extended phase in period mitigate that? What about some sort of "grandfather clause" ? Certainly lots of problems with those two options, especially the latter, but if it is truly unfair, can that be addressed in the implementation ?

[Pinnacle]

Wish the USGA would grow some balls and quit cross dressing, their mini skirts should be illegal.

[Simon]

Dickie Pride, Dick Mast and Wiilie Wood, what more can I say

[carnaptious and camsteerie]

"Say, while we're on the subject, can anyone explain to me that since there is NO evidence whatsoever that an anchored putter makes a bit of difference (check the PGA Tour stat sheet) and that there's been no lemming-like rush to convert, just WHY are we considering a ban? Is it because your 77-year-old Grandpa "looks funny" when he rolls in the occasional 4-footer with a belly putter? Yeah... good point. Let's make sure that geezers with the yips play a LOT less golf from here on in."

benseattle ... that's precisely they reason they weren't banned before now. If able-bodied golfers, not to mention 14 year old boys, hadn't decided to use them then, in all likelihood, you wouldn't have been given the opportunity to whinge about them now.

Incidentally, the stats argument has become a very tired refrain as they don't always tell the whole story.

[carnaptious and camsteerie]

... and, with the benefit of hindsight, they should have been banned at the outset on the basis that the game was never meant to be played with the club/putter being anchored to the body so stats don't come into it anyway.

Tell me benseattle, how do you feel about anchoring a chipping club?

[DTF]

c&c, why are "able bodied" and "14 year old" in any way relevant?

[ol Harv]

Did Phil really spell practice with an S????

[benseattle]

If I find myself setting up a game with some chop that anchors when he's chipping, I'll double the bet and give him three shots a side. Again, while anchoring looks Goofy As Hell (to some so-called "purists," I suppose) it matters as much to me exactly the same as all that "Adam and Steve" stuff.

<< Incidentally, the stats argument has become a very tired refrain as they don't always tell the whole story. >> Excellent point, sort of. Perfect if we ignore statistics and empirical data. Arithmetic sometimes makes just too much sense, don't it?