Golf’s rule makers have a slightly conflicting relationship with innovation.
It’s not all that unusual from other sports, to be fair, but in golf there’s always a strong element of maintaining the spirit of the game. It was the motivation behind the USGA and R&A’s clampdown on anchored putters, and if Bryson DeChambeau’s latest experiment proves short-lived, it’ll surely be a factor in that clamp down, too.
Just to rewind a bit: Since arriving on the scene last year, DeChambeau has quickly become one of the most unique characters on the PGA Tour. The former No. 1 Amateur in the World has a unique swing influenced by his background as a physics major at SMU, and after some troubles on the greens (He ranked 166th on tour in Strokes Gained/Putting in 2016), he applied that same outlook to his putting technique.
The technique you see above is very similar to the one used by Sam Snead in the latter parts of his career. Snead remedied his late-career putting yips with a croquet-style putting stance.
When that was outlawed, he switched to side-saddle, which he used for the remainder of his career.
And then, along came DeChambeau.
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Things seemed to be going well for him and his new technique until this week when, at the 2017 PGA Merchandise show, he told reporter Adam Schupak one of the putters he was using to help with the new style was “nonconforming.”
“I was very disappointed with the way they handled it,” DeChambeau said Tuesday at PGA Demo Day at Orange County National. “They’ve said to me, too, that they don’t like the way I’m doing it. But it’s within the rules, and I don’t know why they don’t like it. They say I’m potentially taking skill out of the game.”
DeChambeau’s coach also chimed-in.
“Every week, they’ve been inspecting it. It’s bad. It’s really bad. I’m telling you, they do not want him putting this way. For some reason, they think it is an enormous advantage, and it is not.”
It’s a preexisting rule that manufacturers had already agreed to, according to the report. A USGA spokesperson later spoke with Golf Channel:
“Bryson submitted several versions to us, several were deemed conforming, but one was not.”
The issue, it appears, has more to do with one of the specific putters rather than the style itself, which is an important distinction. He’s still allowed to continue putting this way, just not with the putter he once intended on using. Though, in many ways, it’s all one-in-the-same. If DeChambeau can’t use the type of equipment designed to help him putt as he wants, it doesn’t matter that the style remains legal. He’ll find himself starting back at square one, anyway.
