BAN ON LONG PUTTERS TO BE INTRODUCED SOONER RATHER THAN LATER

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE 
By JAMES CORRIGAN
Europe’s top golfers will be briefed over the next two weeks on the banning of long putters as the governing bodies of the game prepare to make an announcement next month. 

The R and A and USGA are understandably declining to reveal any details of the review into the prospective rule change outlawing the anchoring of clubs, but it is understood an official will make presentations to the professionals at this week’s HSBC WGC Champions event in Shenzhen and then at next week’s Barclays Singapore Open.

Mike Davis, the chief executive of the USGA, has already held such a seminar with US PGA Tour players as the executive decide how quickly to implement a ban. 
Three of the last five major winners used belly-putters. 
They might even decide to bring in a ban in professional competition from the start of 2013, although it is probable they will take a formal vote in March.

The decision then would be whether to wait until the end of the current rules cycle which runs through December 2015, or work with golf’s professional tours to eradicate this method of putting immediately, before introducing a general ban throughout the amateur game as well.

Davis Love, the US Ryder Cup captain, attended the meeting with the USGA representative in Georgia and expressed the view that whatever path the powers-that-be choose to take, they should seek to do so with haste.

“If they said today: ‘We met with the Tour [and] we’re going to change putters’, Keegan Bradley is going to get himself a confirming putter and he’s still going to be a really good putter,” said Love. 
“He’s just going to have to make a change, but you’d rather not talk about it for three years and have it be a distraction.”

Webb Simpson, the US Open champion, revealed he has already started practising with a short putter in readiness of a rule change. That is not to say he agrees with it, however. Simpson first switched to a belly putter in 2004 and in this time has heard the likes of Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus calling for a ban. Now the officials are ready to act.
“I’m friends with a lot of the R and A and the USGA guys and I know they are trying to do it for the betterment of the game,” Simpson said. 
“But I don’t think it’s a good decision. If you look look at the stats, last year there was no one in the top 20 of the ‘strokes gained’ category who anchored a putter. 
"So you have to throw out the argument of ‘it’s an advantage’ right there. There’s a bunch of arguments going around but I haven’t heard a good one yet.”
Sources say the ban will focus on the stroke rather than the club, meaning those players who use long-putters but don’t “anchor” them against a part of the body – such as Matt Kuchar – will be free to continue.
Rory McIlroy will miss the WGC event at Mission Hills as he travels to Bulgaria to watch his girlfriend, Caroline Wozniacki, compete in the WTA’s season-ending championships. He will fly to Sofia after an 18-hole exhibition match with Tiger Woods at Lake Jinsha in Beijing. Woods is also skipping Mission Hills.