13 years have passed since golf’s rule-makers outlawed anchored putting, yet Rocco Mediate remains unconvinced that the ban was necessary.

The PGA Tour veteran used a long putter to win before sparking controversy in the anchored putting debate, and he believes the rule-makers introduced the change to address a problem that never truly existed. In a recent conversation with Johnny Wunder, Mediate made that case—and pointed to PGA Tour professionals as evidence that the ban may have been addressing the wrong issue.

On Fully Equipped’s Tour Validated, Wunder asked whether anchoring was ever a real advantage. “No, absolutely not an advantage at all,” Mediate said. “Because if it was an advantage, and we said it a million times, why were there only three of us using it? I will say this now: when you don’t anchor that long putter, it’s unruly. It’s a sledgehammer. There has to be an anchor to use it properly. Some guys putt great. I mean, they do. I tried it, hated it without it, and quit the long putter way before they made it illegal. It didn’t affect me a lick. But I didn’t think it was the right way to do it. I thought it was the stupidest rule change ever, because nobody used it, right?”

For context, the rule in question is Rule 14-1b. The USGA and R&A proposed the rule in November 2012 and adopted it in May 2013, with the change taking effect on January 1, 2016.

Importantly, the rule did not outlaw long, belly, or broomstick putters themselves. Those clubs remained legal. Instead, Rule 14-1b prohibited anchoring the putter against the body—a violation that now carries a two-stroke penalty in stroke play. The governing bodies explained their intent: to preserve the traditional principle of a free swing of the entire club by preventing players from using their body as an anchor point.

Notably, the rule change came amid a stretch in which anchored putters had become increasingly prominent at the highest level. Players using anchored putters won four of the six majors contested during that period: Keegan Bradley at the 2011 PGA Championship and Webb Simpson at the 2012 U.S. Open, Ernie Els at the 2012 Open Championship, and Adam Scott at the 2013 Masters.

At that Open Championship, over 27% of the field used an anchored putter, underscoring just how widespread the method had become. However, Mediate’s criticism focuses on another issue: whether anchoring ever gave a business an edge.

At least initially, USGA executive director Mike Davis shared that skepticism and stated after Keegan Bradley’s 2011 PGA Championship victory that the anchored method did not provide an undue advantage according to the evidence. Webb Simpson later made a similar point, noting that players using long and belly putters were not exactly dominating the putting statistics.

That said, Mediate’s view was far from universal. Tiger Woods, for example, supported the ban and argued that players should swing putters like every other club in the bag.

However, the debate now extends beyond putting. Wonder argued that the real advantage emerges when one player adopts a particular tool, wins with it, and then others follow suit after seeing the results. He applied that same logic to golf’s current fight over distance, another major equipment-related rules debate.

For context, the USGA and R&A announced a golf ball rollback in December 2023, with changes originally set to take effect in 2028. However, in June, ahead of the U.S. Open, the governing bodies pushed implementation back to at least 2030 due to concerns raised by the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.

The underlying argument, however, remains the same: if only a fraction of players use a potential advantage—and those players are not necessarily the ones dominating—the case for regulating it becomes less clear. Wonder made that point in terms of distance, arguing that players with ball speeds above 185 mph are not the ones dominating the PGA Tour.

Mediate then turned to Rory McIlroy, arguably the clearest example of why distance alone doesn’t determine success. Despite being one of the longest hitters, McIlroy has struggled sometimes with his wedge play.

“Why doesn’t Rory win more? He’s won a lot. His putting has gotten better, but you look at the wedges. That’s what stopped him every time. He’s not a bad wedge player, but just think if he was 15 to 20 percent better. Well, just think if he was Scottie’s wedge game.”

For Mediate, the point is simple: even an elite advantage off the tee can be offset by weaknesses elsewhere in the game.

For now, they have settled the anchoring debate since January 2016, but golf faces a new equipment battle: distance.

The USGA and R&A will not alter golf-ball testing until at least January 2030, giving the governing bodies more time to evaluate other ways of resolving continued gains in distance. The PGA Tour and DP World Tour are also involved in those discussions, meaning the players and tours that previously pushed back against the proposed rollback now have a seat at the table.

Ultimately, Mediate’s objection to the putter ban was never really about the putter itself. He argued that golf rewrote a rule to address a perceived advantage that, in his view, was never a meaningful problem for most of the field.

Whether the same debate will play out with distance remains to be seen. As golf continues to weigh its options on the ball rollback, the question now is whether the governing bodies can address distance without regulating an advantage that players may not see as a problem.