PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Tiger Woods has never hidden his feelings on anchored putting. On Wednesday, he reiterated them.
“My position hasn’t changed,” he said after the Honda Classic pro-am. “I still think that it should be swung, it shouldn’t be anchored and that hasn’t changed at all.”
The issue is a hot-button topic in the game today, with the U.S. Golf Association and Royal & Ancient Golf Club jointly proposing a ban, followed by a recent recommendation from the PGA Tour that it remain legal.
“I understand that; I get it,” Woods explained. “I mean, the guys that play our Tour, all three of them play our Tour full-time [Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson and Ernie Els], have won major championships with an anchored putter. I understand [commissioner Tim Finchem’s] position, but I still feel that all 14 clubs should be swung. That hasn’t changed at all whatsoever.”
Woods echoed a common refrain from his peers in contesting that bifurcation – two sets of rules – isn’t in the best interests of the game.
“The USGA and R&A are the governing bodies of our rules, and we’ll see what happens,” he said. “Hopefully we don’t have to bifurcate or adapt a local rule like we do sometimes out here on Tour with the stones and bunkers and things of that nature. Hopefully we won’t have to do that with our putter.”