A photograph from the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational showed a dent in Akshay Bhatia’s shirt near his trail hand on the broomstick putter. That image triggered a cheating debate that carried over from his Bay Hill win into The Players Championship week. And Jordan Spieth was asked point-blank whether Bhatia was anchoring or not, and if the long putter should be banned.

“In the rules, you can’t anchor. Anchoring is if that putter was touching his sternum up top. You can arm-bar now, but you can’t anchor it against your sternum.”

Spieth made these comments during The Players Championship media week, addressing the accusations directly on Kay Adams’ Up & Adams Show. But Adams wasn’t content with the answer, quizzing him further on the matter. Spieth, notably, is also a Player Advisory Council member, which lends more weight to his opinion.

Defending Bhatia against the criticism, Jordan Spieth spoke about the skill required for the technique, explaining, “There’s a skill to it. And if it were that easy to do and made everyone that much better, everybody would do it. It’s a skill to do. He’s been doing it for a long time.”

The victory at Bay Hill earned Bhatia a $4 million prize, but the conversation quickly shifted from his late charge on the back nine to a debate over his putting technique. The 24-year-old led the field in putting, gaining a whopping 10.605 strokes against the field. Comparably, he was 45th in Strokes Gained: Driving and 23rd in SG: Approach to Green. So, putting was a key driver of his victory, which is what brought his technique into sharp focus.

Jordan Spieth compared the situation to the NFL’s Tush Push, a legal play that is often criticized for giving an unfair advantage. His point was clear: there is a difference between appearance and reality. It might look like the butt end is touching Bhatia’s chest, but it’s just the T-shirt. Spieth also said he prefers the putter to be the shortest club in the bag because it requires more hand control, but made it clear that this is just his opinion, not a rule.

“I could easily go do that [use broomstick putter] if I thought it was going to make me better. It would be a hard skill to learn. He’s just always done it that way.”

These accusations against Bhatia are not new. At the 2026 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a social media post questioned if his broomstick grip pressed against his chest. The post spread quickly, and Bhatia responded on Instagram.

“Not anchoring. Literally 2 inches short of my chest haha.”

After Bhatia’s Bay Hill win, a second post brought the issue back. At that time, another golfer came out in support of the long putter.

The long putter debate on the PGA Tour

Michael Kim, the 2018 John Deere Classic winner, responded on X with a technical clarification that matched Spieth’s explanation.

“It’s funny to me that Akshay anchoring is a thing. In person, it’s not that close. This is not a concern amongst the players.”

Kim’s view, however, is only one part of the whole debate. Right after his tweet, Tron Carter of No Laying Up shared that he spoke to three players on Bhatia’s putting technique, and all of them were unhappy about the long putter.

The debate surrounding the broomstick putter isn’t something new. Bernhard Langer faced the same scrutiny for years, especially at the 2025 Charles Schwab Championship, when spectators wore T-shirts with the rule’s number. The pattern is established. Bhatia is just the latest to face it. Si Woo Kim won a PGA Tour event with a broomstick putter, then switched back to a standard-length putter to avoid further discussion about it.

The PGA Tour has not opened a formal inquiry. Bhatia’s scorecard was signed and verified. No rules official has given a penalty for this technique in several seasons.

This record raises a larger question: was the rule written to handle what it is now being asked to police?

Jordan Spieth, Akshay Bhatia, and the anchoring rule golf cannot seem to enforce

Rule 14-1b came into force in 2016, after years of debate. The USGA and R&A did not act because of stats or data. Their reasoning was simple: anchoring a putter takes away the free-swinging stroke that is at the heart of golf. The issue was never about long putters themselves, but about the method. The rule was about protecting what they saw as the game’s real challenge.

Supporters of the rule said it was about fairness. Before 2016, players using belly and broomstick putters would press the club against their body to steady the stroke. Phil Mickelson was once spotted using an Odyssey Sabertooth belly putter in 2011. Critics said this took away the nerves and pressure that make putting so tough at the top level. The governing bodies agreed, and the rule was passed with support from all the major tours.

Opponents of the rule pointed out a major problem from the beginning.

Enforcing the rule depends on a player’s intent, not just physical contact. The rule says there is no violation if the club or gripping hand only touches clothing and is not held against the body. This difference is almost impossible to judge on television, and critics said the governing bodies did not fully consider this issue.

During the 2026 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a viral post summed it up: banning anchoring without limiting putter length created a gray area that the rule cannot fix. Eddie Pepperell publicly called for putter length restrictions, saying the real problem is how hard it is to detect anchoring.

Since the rule came in, not a single PGA Tour player has been penalized for anchoring. The rule has not changed. The USGA and R&A have stayed silent.