Alex Miceli - November 7, 2012

• By Morning Drive Team
• Nov 7, 2012 7:57 AM ET

In his opinion, the most powerful person in the game of golf is Tiger Woods. Woods has done and continues to do so much to grow the game not only in the United States but also around the world. When you are talking about professional golf, Tiger Woods is at the center of the conversation and he should be because he not only moves the needle, he is the needle.

Tim Finchem is another very powerful figure in golf because in his role as PGA TOUR Commissioner, he controls where PGA TOUR players can go play outside of the PGA TOUR and as the world’s biggest and richest tour, he leads the way in terms of the expansion of professional golf around the world. With the exception of Augusta National Golf Club Chairman Billy Payne, Finchem controls about 99% of the big actions in the world of golf but no one – not even Finchem or Woods – controls Chairman Payne or Augusta National Golf Club.

Miceli has travelled 160,000 miles this year around the world covering golf tournaments. During his time on the road, he has heard every angle of the anchoring debate. He began his career as an attorney and he brought up the term of double jeopardy. In his opinion, the USGA and R&A had an opportunity to ban the long putter and chose not to do so. Carl Pettersson is a good example of someone who followed the rules as established and would essentially be told that his 16 years of work would be wasted if the organizations were to ban the long putter.