US golf bodies to ban `broom handle` putter from 2016

Sydney: Golf governing bodies are ready to approve a ban on `anchoring` to outlaw long putters from 2016, with an announcement expected next week, even after Australia`s Adam Scott won the recent US Masters at Augusta by employing the broom-handle version of the putter.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, although the PGA Tour reiterated its opposition to the rule change, however, the R and A and United States Golf Association are determined to hold firm to their decision of banning long putters from 2016 with the backing of all the other major professional circuits, including the European Tour. The report further said that the decision had been carefully considered over almost two years of research. Dismissing Scott`s US Masters triumph with long putters, a source said that the two golf bodies have said from the beginning that the ban on `anchoring` will have had nothing to do with the players who had been winning majors using long putters. Scott`s green jacket was the first major won by a player employing the broom-handle version of the putter as Keegan Bradley won the US PGA in 2011 and Webb Simpson and Ernie Els won the US Open and the Open respectively in 2012 with belly putters, the report added. ANI