Dan Rapaport has called on The R&A and USGA to introduce a new rule, as broomstick putters continue to divide opinion among golf fans.
There are a number of current PGA Tour players who use long putters, including Adam Scott and Will Zalatoris.
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But, much like AimPoint, broomstick putters tend to come in for plenty of criticism. Golfers are not allowed to have their putter anchored to any part of their torso when they are taking a stroke.
Several fans suggested Akshay Bhatia appeared to be anchoring during the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Bhatia, of course, led going into the final round in California before going on to finish in a tie for sixth.
Dan Rapaport calls for a new putting rule to be introduced
Speaking on Dan on Golf, Dan Rapaport insisted that he believes Bhatia when he says that the putter was not anchored to his body.
However, he does think that the lawmakers within the game now need to act to ensure that certain players do not need to worry about defending themselves.
“I’m calling for a new rule with the long putters, with the broomsticks, I’ve said that I don’t think they should be allowed. You should have a maximum length for the longest club and it shouldn’t be as long as a broomstick putter, but I’m not even calling for that. I think that would be very disruptive. I’m calling for common sense,” he said.
“You should have to be able to see daylight between a top hand of a player and their chest. Not all broomstick grips are created equal. So here’s Will Zalatoris when he’s putting with a broomstick, I see daylight. It is clearly not on his chest. Now, here’s Akshay Bhatia, there’s no daylight there. And I’m not saying that Akshay is anchoring. I don’t think he is. He said he’s not anchoring and I believe him, but it’s just too close for comfort and it’s leading to some nasty accusations.”
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In fairness to Bhatia, every single PGA Tour player is trusted to call a penalty on themselves if they make a mistake during a round.
Sahith Theegala hurt his chances of winning the 2024 Tour Championship by calling a penalty on himself after touching the sand in one of East Lake’s bunkers with his club. There has never been any conclusive evidence that Theegala did make contact.
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Bhatia will know that he is under the microscope because of the putting action he has. So Rapaport is surely right that he is almost certainly doing nothing wrong.
If players are not trusted to stay within the rules, then surely the officials need to be monitoring so much more than just whether someone is anchoring their putter.