Anchoring Ban Could Cause "Chaos" For Manufacturers, Says Manufacturer You've Probably Never Heard Of

Jim Achenbach and the likely mass hysteria and financial ruin that will come to makers of long putters who will not sell as many if the governing bodies eliminate anchoring. Stephen Boccieri of Boccieri Golf:

“Chaos,” Boccieri said. “I can see some golfers revolting against this. I can see them playing (in non-tournament rounds) by their own rules.”

Because that never happens now...

The folks at Odyssey see the ban as a chance to innovate.

Odyssey’s Koske was more optimistic.

“If they go and ban anchoring,” he said, “it opens up a whole new avenue of putting. There are so many different ways to do it. The opportunities are endless. There are a handful of things we are testing, and we expect to be ready for whatever happens down the road.”

Video: Best Round One Action At Kiawah, Aligator V. Snake

Spotted on Scott Murray's Guardian As It Happened blog which, like other Guardian live blogs, is a good page to keep open if you are following the PGA.

From round one, which I must have missed during one of my naps or while watching the Olympics. Nice to see the gators serve a purpose!

2012 Glory's Last Shot First Round Clippings

Well all of that worrying about how tough Kiawah's Ocean Course would play during round one of The Glory's Last Stand Championship turned out to be unnecessary, as a soft, relatively wind-free layout greeted the world's best. 

Doug Ferguson leads with a reference to Golf Digest calling Kiawah the toughest in America and the "walk on the beach" that it was Thursday.

Ewan Murray's Guardian game story focuses on Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods and John Daly's solid first round play.

Pete Iacobelli's AP notes includes an item about Rickie Fowler calling a penalty on himself when he saw his ball move during a short tap-in on the 18th hole, moving him to a tie for 88th instead T66.  

Jason Sobel on the breeze, or lack thereof, during round one. The forecast looks more promising for actual winds on Friday. Maybe even decent ones. Of course it might also bring a thunderstorm along for the ride.

However, as Bob Harig noted after talking to players, the breeze was sneaky in the afternoon, especially after a surprising direction switch.

Gary Van Sickle with many details on Tiger's opening round. PGA.com breaks down Tiger's round in a video highlight reel.

Bill Fields on Adam Scott's bounce back play, a mightily impressive 68 in the afternoon breeze.

Scott Michaux on Phil Mickelson's scrambling round and plans to attack the course Friday. And David Dusek tells us the backstory of Phil's new specially made putter.

Dave Kindred on John Daly resurfacing for a day, and maybe more if he can keep conquering the par-5s as Kindred explains.

Adam Schupak writes about Keegan Bradley's 68, and an explanation for how his trusted putter fell apart in practice and how he did just fine with the replacement.

Jay Coffin notes John Daly's "rock star" status with the fans in attendance. All forty of them. Rich Lerner posts Hooks and Cuts, pondering a Daly run noting this about first round leader Pettersson: "The anchored putter’s probably on its last few breaths, but Pettersson could beat it into submission with a win this week."

Rich Skyzinski updates us on the club pro play on day one, with only two breaking 75.

Sean Martin breaks down the play of the American Ryder Cup bubble boys who didn't do anything to exciting Thursday.  Randall Mell tells us Davis Love was going to have Ryder hopefuls over for dinner after Thursday's round.

The first day video highlights on PGA.com.

A video of Bill Kratzert explaining the sandy waste areas and the rules, in case you were inclined to call in a violation.

The leaderboard.

The first day course stats inexplicably leave out the 18-hole scoring average.

Martin Kaufman called the telecast "disjointed and lethargic, ultimately making the event seem smaller than it is."

And finally, John Strege posts a roundup of media coverage, with notes about the ill-timed interview with the PGA president as Gary McCord was stating how fun the Mickelson viewing was getting. Oh, and Jim Nantz's unbelievable statement that Kiawah is a short drive from Charleston.

He may hear it from today's low gross and low net winners in best Tweeting bitching divisions: here, here and here. And the final word from the Ancient Twitterer:

"Never leave the golf course, Michael Phelps. Never ever leave the golf course."

DJ Gallo posts a short but sweet plea to Michael Phelps begging the swimmer not to become an Olympian has-been by sticking to his desire to play a lot of golf. A sampling of his take on other past Olympic greats:

Bruce Jenner: After taking gold in the decathlon in 1976, Jenner was just as famous as Phelps is today. Since then, his interests have been diverse. He is active in the sport of plastic surgery and has taken to wearing women’s earrings. He also married the ex-wife of one of O.J. Simpson’s attorneys and is now the patriarch of the family many see as the prime example of everything that is wrong with American culture.

CBS Execs Do Not Mind Slow Play

During this week's conference call, Ed Sherman asked CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus and producer Lance Barrow about slow play and not surprisingly it's not on their radar, with McManus noting that it might even add to the drama.

I’m not terribly concerned about it. Having watched a lot of golf this year, I know (slow play) has been a topic of discussion. But I haven’t seen it affect too many of the broadcasts. If they play slow because of the course conditions being tough at Kiawah, it adds to the drama.

Sherman isn't convinced and I'm actually of the mindset that CBS usually likes it when tournaments run long.  Four hour rounds for twosomes do not bother them because they simply have the tour, or in this week's case the PGA of America, adjust the tee times according. And let us never forget the importance of running long to give 60 Minutes a strong lead-in on the east coast. The real reason we're playing so late on Sundays.

Ryder Cup Captains Continue To Disappoint After Another Honest, Earnest Press Conference

Sigh...Jeff Rude on another stellar press conference performance by Davis Love and Jose Maria Olazabal, the 2012 Captains, doing nothing to kindle the buffoonery of their predecessors.

How am I, as a blogger, to work with this kind of no-nonsense talk, starting with Davis Love:

As for Mahan, he is a two-time winner this year and has played on the last five U.S. international cup teams – two Ryder, three Presidents. One person close to Love said Mahan would be on the team if he doesn’t qualify on points.

For his part, Love on Tuesday was incredulous that someone who has two 2012 victories would be outside the automatic-qualifier line.

“How can that even happen?” Love said. “You’d think he’d be in.”

Meanwhile, Olazabal provided this tip on where he's leaning with one of his picks, not that I would agree based on Colsaerts' play this year.

European captain Jose Maria Olazabal will make his two picks Aug. 27, a day after the automatic 10 qualifiers are decided at the Johnnie Walker Championship. If the standings remained the same, his most likely choice would seem to be Ian Poulter. The Englishman is 12th on the European Team World Points list, right behind Nicolas Colsaerts.

Poulter has a 9-2 record in three Ryder Cups. He went 4-1 in 2008 and 3-1 last time.

Webb: Long Putters Not Nearly As Skill-Changing As Modern Driver Heads

Just when I was feeling so good about the trajectory of banning anchoring, Webb Simpson had to go and inject these thoughts into the skill/rulemaking debate.

First though, Hank Gola shares Graeme McDowell's discussions with the USGA's Mike Davis and his counter position on anchoring a long putter.

"They feel like their research has shown that putting under pressure down the stretch on the back nine on Sunday, when you can anchor the putter to a part of your body . . . that just takes one extraneous movement out of the putting stroke," he said. "It's just kind of a physical fact that if you can just take one element of movement and motion out of the stroke that holing putts will become easier.

And here's Simpson's comment that certainly makes sense.

"Do I think they should be banned? No, and here's why," he said. "You take a wooden driver compared to a 460 cc's titanium, and to me that's a lot bigger difference than a 35 inch putter to a 45 inch putter. Also last year, the strokes game putting, nobody in the top 20 used a belly putter or a long putter. If anybody says it's an advantage, I think you've got to look at the stats and the facts."

There goes any potential run as a USGA poster child!

The story also includes comments from Keegan Bradley, who is concerned that taking away long putters could cost the manufacturers "millions" of dollars.

 "To me, to change something that big and to cost manufacturers millions of dollars, you've got to have some pretty good facts," he said. "I think just because some of us are winning majors or winning tournaments with the belly putter, I don't think that's a good reason to say, 'hey, we're going to take them away. That's my real take."

Depressed Media Turns To Its Creativity To Survive Glory's Last Visit To Kiawah Island For At Least A Century

Wow, the PGA at Kiawah is finally here and looking at that weather forecast, may be here for a while!

I'd preview who might win, how the course is playing and what to look for but after six inches of rain turned the place into a slog and making the superintendent's life miserable, it's time to just sit back and wait for the first thunderstorm delay.

But I will say that as dark as the dispatches were Tuesday, the scribes turned to humor and their inner creativity to get through Wednesday, with Gary Van Sickle (@GaryVanSickle) earning some sort of GWAA award (in a just world) for his tweets (here, here, here) and Scott Michaux (@scottmichaux) for his video documenting the lengthy ride from the media hotel to Kiawah.

Rory: "The technology lets maybe some of the lesser players catch up with the better players."

Ewan Murray reports Rory McIlroy's comments on the eve of Glory's Visit To Kiawah:

McIlroy, whose honesty in public is one of his most endearing qualities, said: "I'm just happy to be part of that group of 16. I think the reason it is like this, fields are much deeper. Partly because the guys have just got better and have worked hard; they are putting more into the game physically, mentally, practice, technical, everything.

"But I think one of the big things is the technology. I think 25 years ago you had the really good players that could play with basically anything and nowadays the technology lets maybe some of the lesser players catch up with the better players. And I think that's why you see so many more guys winning these days."

The comments pick up where Ernie Els left off a few weeks ago.  It might also be a nice time to read the Joint Statement of Principles, where the skill component is key to action by the governing bodies. At least, according to the Statement:

While generally welcoming this progress, the R&A and the USGA will remain vigilant when considering equipment Rules. The purpose of the Rules is to protect golf's best traditions, to prevent an over-reliance on technological advances rather than skill, and to ensure that skill is the dominant element of success throughout the game.

Brandel: Originality Is Dead

Interesting take from the always provocative Brandel Chamblee on parity in today's game.