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The dust has settled on Dan Bradbury’s epic Open de France win, yet the debate rumbles on.
Do we need to change to change the rules around anchoring on the greens?
Bradbury, who won his second DP World Tour title at Le Paris National on Sunday, sparked some strong back-and-forth on social media over the weekend due to his technique with his broom handle-style putter.
The Yorkshireman was accused by some golf fans of anchoring on the 18th green.
Speaking on the Chipping Forecast, Eddie Pepperell refuted those allegations – but the Englishman can also see a worrying grey area with the current anchoring rules.
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“I know Dan he’s a lovely lad and I think he’s a very honest lad and I would believe him if he was to say he wasn’t anchoring at any point on Sunday,” Pepperell said.
“Unfortunately, however, to the naked eye it looks as though he kinda might’ve been.”
The Rules of Golf states that a player can rest their putter grip against their forearm, but cannot plant it into any part of their torso, including their stomach or their chest.
And Bradbury later clear up exactly why he doesn’t anchor his putter on a podcast with Sky Sports.
“The way I grip it, my thumb is at the top of the grip,” he explained. “You’re not allowed that to be touching your chest or any part of your body. That would be classed as anchoring. Obviously as a bigger lad, I have a lot of space up there, I wear baggy shirts. It’s allowed to touch your shirt.
“That’s absolutely fine. I have mine, put it this way I can sweep down my body and not touch my hand so there’s at least this much there (showing a gap). I know that, the rules officials know it. Everybody that I’ve played with, everyone knows it. If you’re there in person you can see it.”
• Tour winner responds to ‘anchored’ putting accusations
• Debate over controversial golf rule reignites at DP World Tour event
Pepperell, however, wants to see a big change that would outlaw the use of broom handle putters completely. “I would love to see them just make the putter the shortest club in the bag,” he said.
Pepperell also suggested that players are able to extend their shelf life on tour by taking advantage of longer putters.
“I have no issues with careers being saved, but I do think the longer putter is saving peoples’ careers,” he added. “I’ve had driver issues in the past. There are people on tour whose driver problems have become so acute that they have effectively lost their livelihoods. “There’s no way around that.
“Whereas I think on the putting green, players are finding ways around it. I think that the putter should just be the shortest club in the bag.
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“I don’t want to sound too hard-line on it, but I think golf is a very challenging game across the board. That’s the beauty of it, it’s why we love it – none more so than holding your nerve on the greens. And I think, in my opinion, it would be good for the game just to be played with shorter putters generally.
Pepperell, meanwhile, was full of praise for Bradbury in the podcast and was keen not to detract from his memorable one-shot victory.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Dan’s performance,” he added, “and I know we’re not because it was a fine win and well deserved.”
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