Should the anchor ban be brought forward?
Picture the scene. It's Sunday April 14, 2013, and Keegan Bradley is walking down the 18th with a two-shot lead at Augusta National, waving aloft his belly putter to the patrons, shortly before slipping on a Green Jacket and praising his new Srixon ball in the Butler Cabin. How would his second major championship victory at the age of 26 be perceived? Of course, there'd be deserved congratulations. I'd be the first to pat him on the back. You can't just belly-putt your way around 7,000-plus yards. But I also fear many would rather attribute his win with an asterix next to his surname - particularly after a fan's comment during yesterday's first round of the World Challenge. "I've been catching such flak on Twitter and these other places," confided Bradley, who currently sits in a tie for second at the Tiger Woods-hosted tournament. "I had a guy yesterday telling me to send my application in to Burger King for 2016." The new Rule 14-1b defines such strokes as improper, a determination that casts a shadow over every stroke made that way - regardless if it's technically still legal or not. If the stroke is deemed to be 'improper' ahead of 2016, it will certainly feel 'improper' to a player who gets beat by a guy who wins with an anchored putter. Sure, this week's proposed anchored ban on putters cannot be implemented until Big Ben chimes on January 1 2016 as the Rules of Golf is published every four years, but surely the R&A and USGA can commence proceedings earlier? It's already ten years overdue as it is.