Weekend Roundup: Anchoring Controversy Continues; Tiger Pays; Nelson Endangered; Baboon Eats

The Anchoring Ban story isn’t going away. Berhard Langer—no radical—suggested there will be challenges to the USGA and R&A’s ruling. Carl Petterson, Tim Clark and Keegan Bradley also have said as much.

Langer’s quote reflect my own thoughts about this: that the horse is already out of the barn and closing the door makes no sense.

“It has been out for that long,” Langer said Thursday at the Nedbank Challenge. “If there is anything illegal about it, why did they not stop it right away? If it is that easy with a long putter, why aren’t 90 percent of the pros and 100 percent of the amateurs using it?”

Langer suggested there might be a challenge to the rule proposal.

“I do not think it is the end of it,” he said. “There are pros that are on tour that grew up with that putter. They have invested 15-20 years in practicing, maybe 30 years practicing with a long putter, and now they have to switch and they make a living doing that.”

Meanwhile, Gary Player says that the ruling bodies shouldn’t wait until 2016, and that the ban should start January 1 of this year.

That surely would bring a passel of lawsuits.

Is it just me, or is Player becoming ever more curmudgeonly?

The proposed (its still “proposed” at this point) anchoring ban got ugly this past weekend at Tiger’s World Challenge, when Keegan Bradley was the victim of heckling that accused him of cheating. He is, of course, not guilty at all, since the rules change doesn’t take place until 2016. It is sad to see that sort of behavior in a gentleman’s game.

Tiger didn’t win his World Challenge event this past weekend, but I still consider him a winner. Unlike so many celebrities who merely contribute their names to an event, Tiger opened his wallet. News reports say that he wrote a check for $4 million to cover the tournament’s operating costs. The World Challenge benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation and the Tiger Woods Learning Centers. Tiger put his money where his mouth is and I admire that.

Another tournament made news this weekend as multiple news sources reported that the Byron Nelson likely will leave its current location in Irving for a new PGA Tour course in Dallas. The current course is not particularly well thought of, but their contract runs through 2018. Sadly, I’ll predict that Byron Nelson’s name also is dropped at that point in favor of a corporate title.

Finally, on a humorous note, here’s a video of a baboon stealing a cameraman’s lunch at the Nedbank Challenge at Gary Player Country Club in Sun City, South Africa,

There aren’t any baboons on my local track (thank heavens), but the squirrels have been known to raid golf bags for snacks: