Report: Bradley says he'll challenge anchoring ban

• By Ryan Lavner
• Oct 31, 2012 9:14 AM ET

If forced to fork over his long putter, Keegan Bradley said Wednesday that he intends to challenge the anchoring ban.

The U.S. Golf Association and R&A are expected to make an announcement by the end of the year whether they will outlaw the anchored stroke. Already, the game’s governing bodies reportedly have held presentations – earlier this month at The McGladrey Classic and at this week’s WGC-HSBC Champions – to discuss how a potential ban would be implemented.

Player opposition was expected, of course, and the dispute may eventually land in the courts.

“I’m going to do whatever I have to do to protect myself and the other players on Tour,” Bradley told Golfweek’s Alex Miceli at the WGC-HSBC Champions in Dongguan, China.

“I look at it as a whole, as us all together. I don’t look at it as much about myself. I think that for them to ban this after we’ve done what we’ve done is unbelievable.”

Bradley was the first player to win a major while anchoring a putter, and three of the past five major winners have used a flatstick that is longer than standard length.

One of those major champions is Ernie Els, who captured the 2012 British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Once opposed to anchoring the putter against a part of the body – infamously saying, “As long as it’s legal, I’ll keep cheating like the rest of them” – apparently the Big Easy has since changed his tune.

“They’re going to have a couple of legal matters coming their way,” he said, according to the report. “It’s going to be a bit of an issue now. I’ve been against it, but since I’ve been using it, it still takes a lot of practice, and you have to perfect your own way of putting with this belly.”