Despite this debatable company, though, golf is the only sport that takes competition among older players seriously. The PGA Tour Champions, founded in 1980 as the Senior PGA Tour, features golfers 50 and older playing a full January-through-November schedule with major championships (five of them!), a money list and playoffs. The European Senior Tour was founded in 1992 and features 21 events (some of them co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour Champions) and a two-tournament championship. Besides the fact that the non-major tournaments are 54 holes rather than 72, and players are mostly allowed to use carts, the format is essentially the same as the “real” tours.

These senior tours don’t enjoy the same status as other professional tours, but the impressive thing is that they enjoy status at all—and that the status is significant. It can be measured, in part, by money: The winners of PGA Tour Champions events make up to $720,000 (that was Steve Stricker’s take at this year’s U.S. Senior Open), and never less than $240,000. Already in 2019, nine players have made more than $1 million. For the entire season, the total purses almost reach $60 million. Those numbers don’t exist in a vacuum—it means that people want to come watch older golfers in person, and, more important, they will watch them on TV, too.

It’s tough to calculate the exact value of the PGA Tour Champions, because it comes as a TV package with the PGA Tour (and the Korn Ferry Tour), and to some extent, it might be subsidized by its more popular partner. But it’s also fair to say that it wouldn’t offer more prize money than the Asian or Japanese tours if it didn’t have a fair amount of popular clout.

Anecdotally, you can also measure the status of golf’s senior tours by coverage. It would be impossible to imagine reading pieces like John Feinstein’s essay on Tom Watson’s farewell to the Senior Open Championship, or John Strege’s coverage of Bernhard Langer winning the same tournament at age 62, in any other sport—just as it would be laughable to think of another sport that could round up $60 million for a league of old men.

This status, it’s fair to say, is extremely strange. So why does it exist? How is it financially feasible? What’s different about golf?

Stacy Revere
Steve Stricker’s second act as a senior golfer belies the unique opportunity the sport provides tour pros.

Partly, it’s because golf is more a sport of coordination than pure athleticism, which means there isn’t an enormous gap between younger and older players. Yes, no golfer older than 50 has ever won a major (though Tom Watson came agonizingly close on the threshold of 60 at the 2009 Open Championship), and only three have ever won a PGA Tour event, but the fact is that the brand of golf that the seniors are playing is still extremely good, especially when you consider it in relation to how a 50-year-old football or baseball player might perform. To win the Senior Open this past weekend, Bernard Langer shot a 66, which is far lower than any average schlub could dream of shooting. So when you watch the seniors play, you’re still watching a very high level of golf. In contrast, by the time most former professional basketball players hit age 60, your reasonably skilled high school player could beat them in a game of one-on-one. In most other sports, there’s an enormous athletic drop-off that doesn’t exist to the same degree in golf.

That’s clearly the most prominent factor. But, risking a digression into hokum, I’d argue that the spiritual side of golf also plays a key role. In the United States, particularly, golf thrives on nostalgia more than any other sport, including baseball. Sometimes this takes the form of a retrograde conservatism that damages golf’s reputation and leaves it woefully behind the societal curve, but other times it’s a more wholesome celebration of the past. Or maybe “celebration” isn’t quite the right word—maybe “yearning” is more accurate. Embedded within golf are subconscious desires to return to a simpler mode in terms of culture and nature.

Kris Kristofferson once wrote, “I’d trade all my tomorrows for one single yesterday,” and senior tours give golf fans a chance to experience yesterday today. They’re a portal to the past, where viewers can watch the golf stars of their youth still competing, and still competing with professional excellence. Watching them shields us, temporarily, from the impermanence of life and allows us to believe that the old ways aren’t dying. It lets us escape our fundamental dread of the future, and although this has potential appeal for everyone, you can imagine it appealing especially to an older audience—a demographic, you’d have to guess, which makes up the vast majority of television viewers.

Of course, we know this is an illusion: Life is not permanent, things are constantly changing, and nothing we do can stop time. But, I’d argue, golf’s senior tours, anomalous as they are in the world of professional sports, have a kind of beautiful nobility for the attempt.

Let me throw one final quote at you. This one comes from Satchel Paige and was borrowed, in part, by D.A. Pennebaker for his seminal documentary on Bob Dylan:

“Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”

Well, something is gaining on us, but the senior tours look back anyway. That takes a special kind of nerve, and it’s only possible in golf.

The post The beautiful weirdness of golf’s senior tours appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Even for professionals, qualifying for your first major championship is a genuine dream come true. For Dubai-based amateur Steven Kelbrick, teeing it up in last week’s Senior Open produced an even sweeter sense of satisfaction.

The 52-year-old Trump International Golf Club, Dubai member is still buzzing after sensationally making the cut at Royal Lytham & St Annes where the seemingly ageless Bernhard Langer won for a record fourth time.

Kelbrick dug deep after a weather-interrupted opening 76 that spilt over into  Friday to reach the weekend on the number with a superb second round 69, one under on the famed Lancashire links. Scores of 78-74 over a wet weekend eventually saw him finished T-76 of the 79 players to make the cut.

It was the performance of a lifetime for Kelbrick but not simply because it was his senior major debut. More importantly for the two-time Emirates Golf Federation champion, he ticked off a bucket-list dream of playing in the same event as his hero Tom Watson – and just in time too, it seems.

Kelbrick in action during the third round of the Senior Open. Photo: Jan Kruger/Getty Images

“I’m so happy to have played in same tourney, especially as he announced his retirement from British links golf on the Saturday night,” Kelbrick told Golf Digest Middle East. “All I ever wanted was to peg it up in any tournament that my hero was playing in. I’ve managed that.”

RELATED: Tom Watson’s farewell to major-championship golf comes, fittingly, in a place that helped define his career

Indeed. He also has photographic evidence of one of two brief meetings with U.S. legend who won five Open Championship titles among his eight major title wins and finished T-64 in his Senior Open swansong on +9, just eight shots clear of his greatest Dubai admirer.

Kelbrick, not one prone to hyperbole, kept Golf Digest Middle East abreast of his week via message updates and was most animated when relaying details of his dream meetings with Watson, a three-time Senior Open champion.

“Meet TSW [Thomas Sturges Watson]. So Cool,” Kelbrick said ahead of the opening round. “He told me to go out and play hard, so I will.”

There was another encounter on the range before the rain-delayed final round. “Today he stopped by the range to tell me to play well. Meeting Mr Watson was so inspirational.”

Kelbrick needed the high powered pep talks as Royal Lytham & St Annes, playing just shy of 700 yards in the wild weather, was “brutal”.

The Englishman picks up the story of his week, which started when he advanced via final qualifying with a two-over 74 at Hillside Golf Club in Southport.

“The aim was to play in the same tourney as Mr. Watson once in my life.  The quali was the most nervous as there was an expectation and it was very windy.  Once Monday at 1850 came and I knew that I was in, I was ecstatic,” Kelbrick said

“Tuesday registration and seeing the stands and getting the players badge brought it all home.  Practicing alongside my old friend Peter Mitchell was great [to settle some of the nerves].”

Kelbrick settled on just seven holes in Wednesday practice as he’d played seven days straight by that stage.

Getty Images

“Thursday was building up to [his tee time at} 2.57pm but  two rain delays meant 1800 tee off and unsettling.  Closed in dark at 2135 with three holes to play. We restarted Friday at 7.10am for the three holes and I finished in an ambulance for 76. Before I knew it it was 10.13am and we were back on the on 1st tee again shooting 69 and digging deep.

“Saturday didn’t feel a swing at all and alongside poor conditions played badly but again dug deep to break 80. On Sunday I arrived at course 6.30am and weather again meant we teed off 10th at 3.30pm.  It was difficult to manage [the delay] but happy to grind in poor weather.”

So after achieving a lifetime dream, what’s next?

“To have made the cut gives me the confidence to go ahead and perhaps try for the U.S. Senior Open.”

With Watson’s ‘play hard’ advice stored in his memory bank forever, you wouldn’t bet against Kelbrick achieving that dream either.

The post Inspired by ‘cool’ meeting with Tom Watson, Kelbrick survives weekend in dream Senior Open debut appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

But that didn’t really matter. As he walked up the 18th at Royal Lytham and St. Anne’s, his face was filled with the emotion he clearly was feeling. His playing companions both understood what was happening, and they fell back to allow Watson to walk onto the green alone. Watson paused, cap off, turned and bowed to the cheering fans on both sides of the green. Then he blew kisses and clapped for them all, saying a final thank you for 44 years of extraordinary memories, even as they said thank you to him.

He finished the windy, rainy day—a classic Tom Watson weather round—with a three-over-par 73 that left him tied for 60th. But that didn’t really matter either. Just the fact that he made the cut in one more senior major championship a little more than five weeks before turning 70, was enough to allow him the kind of farewell he wanted—on a Sunday, not a Friday.

It was a bittersweet moment. The end comes later for golfers, but it comes nevertheless. Watson will play in an occasional PGA Tour Champions event in the future, but he’s done playing majors.

The numbers are remarkable—eight majors, including five Open championships; six senior majors, three more in Great Britain. But he may have won more hearts with a loss: the 2009 Open when he came within inches of winning at 59 before losing in a playoff to Stewart Cink.

He was already an adopted son in Scotland, dating to his first Open victory at Carnoustie in 1975—the first time he played in the championship—and that spread to all of Great Britain as he aged with amazing grace. That’s why Watson’s decision to play his last major championship in Great Britain made so much sense. Even though Watson is almost 70, he still has enough game to compete with the 50-and-older set. He finished T-17 at the U.S. Senior Open last month and made the cut at Lytham with room to spare.

Jan Kruger/Getty Images
Watson in action during the final round of the Senior British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.

But Watson has always believed it’s better to leave too soon than too late. He made the cut at the Open Championship three times in four years between 2011 and 2014, including a T-22 in 2011 at age 61. That came two years after he almost pulled off what would have been golf’s most stunning feat when he came so achingly close at Turnberry.

That second-place finish allowed him to keep playing the Open until he was 65 and to finish at St. Andrews—just as Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus did. Nicklaus’ last Open was in 2005 and one of the players in his Thursday-Friday group was Watson.

As they crossed the Swilcan Bridge and walked up 18, Watson was weeping so much that Nicklaus had to calm him down. “Tom, you have to stop,” he said. “You can still make the cut.”

Watson did make the cut and finished T-41. Given that he had made the cut the previous year, Watson had hoped to make it in his final appearance at St. Andrews in 2010. Before that championship I asked him if he qualified to play in 2015 would he come back. “Nope,” he said. “This is it. It’s time.”

With son Michael caddying for him, he missed the cut in horrific weather and walked off 18 dry-eyed. “It all felt right,” he said back then. “No tears, just a wonderful feeling and feeling grateful to more people than I could possibly count.”

Watson won the Open five times in nine years, beginning with his playoff victory over Jack Newton at Carnoustie in 1975 to become a major champion at 25. Two years later, he beat Nicklaus at Turnberry in their famous “Duel in the Sun,” shooting 65-65 the last two days to beat Nicklaus’s 65-66. Then came wins at Muirfield in 1980, Troon in 1982 and Royal Birkdale in 1983—his only non-Scottish victory.

The only Scottish course in the rota where Watson didn’t win was St. Andrews—one of his greatest regrets. He finished second there to Seve Ballesteros in 1984, when he bogeyed the Road Hole and ended up losing by two shots.

He won the Senior Open three times—2003, 2005 and 2007. The first of those wins came at Turnberry. He shot 64 on the last day to catch Carl Mason and win in a playoff. That may have been Watson’s most emotional win. His long-time caddie and best friend Bruce Edwards was dying of ALS and too sick to make the trip. Neil Oxman—who was also on the bag in 2009—caddied for him that week and the two men brought the flag from the 18th hole back home to Edwards after the victory.

To say that Watson is beloved in all of the British Isles is an understatement. He loves playing links golf and would often go to Ireland with his pal Lee Trevino the week before the Open championship to play the great golf courses there.

When Watson was Ryder Cup captain in 1993, I hitched a ride with him on his cart near the end of Friday’s play after a match had ended on the 18th hole at the Belfry. He wanted to get back to 16 to watch Paul Azinger and Fred Couples duel with Nick Faldo and Colin Montgomerie in the only match left on the course. Watson parked the cart behind the 16th tee and walked across the tee to get to the back of the 15th green. At that moment, the tee was teeming with marshals and security people in anticipation of the arrival of the four players.

They parted like the Red Sea for Watson, all of them calling his name and wishing him luck. Watson smiled his thanks as he walked through them. I followed, staying as close to Watson as I could, lest the sea close and swallow me.

“Hey,” yelled a marshal. “How dare you walk across the tee like that!”

Before I could point out that my sneakers were unlikely to damage the tee or anything else, Watson stopped and turned around. He had a huge smile on his face. “Media,” he said, sounding disgusted. “They just never give you any space do they?”

As the security people closed on me and thoughts of a night in an English jail crossed my mind, Watson waved a hand. “Just kidding everyone,” he said. “He’s alright … for a reporter.”

They all laughed hysterically, and I was released.

“You tell ‘em Toom,” several shouted.

“Probably one of those Americans,” someone else said.

I didn’t waste my time pointing out that Watson was an American because I knew they wouldn’t believe me. Even when he was trying to take the Ryder Cup back to the U.S. he was one of them.

One might think that—being an American—Watson might want to exit at the U.S. Senior Open—especially given how well he played there this year. This though, makes more sense, going out in a place where he is loved by all, in a championship he won eight times in all, on a links course, in links weather in front of the fans who adored him and who he adored right back.

It has been a difficult 21 months for Watson. His wife Hilary has been battling pancreatic cancer and, while she is cancer-free at the moment, the fear that the cancer might return—it has already done so once after she was declared cancer-free — is omnipresent.

But Sunday was a day for tears of joy, for reminders of days gone by, days filled with more memories than one can reasonably expect in one lifetime.

That last walk up 18 was one more to add to the collection.

The post Tom Watson’s farewell to major-championship golf comes, fittingly, in a place that helped define his career appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The glorious answer to this random pub quiz-style question is that all three have squeezed into the 144-man field for this week’s 33rd Senior Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes via final qualifying.

It’s a dream come true for Trump International Golf Club Dubai club member Kelbrick who like Gary Nicklaus advanced at Hillside Golf Club in Southport, also host venue of the recent British Masters, on Monday. Kelbrick, who has won the Emirates Golf Federation’s season-long Order-of-Merit title two times in the last three years, qualified with a two-over-par round of 74, a shot worse than the Golden Bear’s oldest son who is giving professional golf one last shot.

Chamblee, who worked behind the cameras as Shane Lowry captured last week’s 148th Open Championship at Royal Portrush, was one of 14 successful qualifiers from Fairhaven as he carded a one-under-par round of 72.

More than 500 starters chased the 49 remaining spots for Royal Lytham & St Annes at Monday qualifiers held at Hillside, Fairhaven, Southport & Ainsdale and St Annes Old Links.

Spaniard Miguel Ángel Jiménez will defend the senior claret jug from Thursday in a field overflowing with former major (main and senior circuit) champions.

Kelbrick will be especially excited about the opportunity to join the same fabled fairways as his boyhood hero Tom Watson who has three Senior Opens to go with his five Open Championship wins in 1975, 1977, 1980, 1982 and 1983.

After going within a stroke of qualifying for the 2017 Senior Open at Royal Porthcawl, Kelbrick set his heart on qualifying last year after being promised a practice round with the eight-time major champion if he could qualify for last year’s Senior Open at St. Andrews. He couldn’t quite achieve that – missing by two – but may yet achieve that dream on Wednesday.

“I set out to do this not knowing if it was possible but to say to my children that I have played in the same tournament as Mr Watson,” Kelbrick told Golf Digest Middle East. “It’s a dream realised. I could possibly even play a practice round with him [Watson] on Wednesday but we shall see.”

Kelbrick’s outlined his dream of playing alongside Watson in an interview with Golf Digest Middle East last year.

“I first saw him play at Royal Troon in ’82 when he beat Nick Price [to hoist the Claret Jug for the fourth times] and from that day on…it’s just the way he’s lived his life, conducted himself,” Kelbrick said of Watson. “I’ve had the chance to meet him twice but I’ve never played with him. He’s a hero as man and as for his golf, his record speaks for itself.”

Interestingly, Watson has never won on the famous Lancashire links of Royal Lytham & St Annes.

“My record at Lytham could use some polishing but I would love nothing more than to play well with a chance to win at this iconic and historic venue. I am looking forward to this Major Championship with great anticipation,” Watson told the Staysure Tour.

“Royal Lytham is one of the premier links courses in the world and it always presents the players with a tough but fair challenge,” said the two-time Ryder Cup Captain who has collected wins at Carnoustie, Turnberry, Muirfield, Royal Troon, Royal Birkdale and Royal Aberdeen.

It will be interesting to see if Kelbrick gets his dream practice round and who the Dubai Trophy mainstay is grouped with for the opening two rounds on Thursday and Friday.

Bernhard Langer (1985 and 1993 Masters), who like Watson has won the Senior Open three times, and Fred Couples (1992 Masters) have seven Senior Open titles between them.

Other major champions confirmed for Royal Lytham & St Annes include Michael Campbell (2005 U.S. Open), Retief Goosen (2001 and 2004 U.S. Open), Paul Lawrie (1999 Open), Sandy Lyle (1985 Open, 1988 Masters), Larry Mize (1987 Masters), José María Olazabal (1994 and 1999 Masters), Ian Woosnam (1991 Masters) and Darren Clarke (2011 Open) who hit the opening tee shot at last week’s Open at Royal Portrush.

Perhaps the most dangerous major champion competing this week will be Tom Lehman. The American won the 1996 Open at Royal Lytham and St Annes by two strokes from Ernie Els and Mark McCumber.

Other names to watch this week are Ryder Cup-winning player and captain Paul McGinley, 2016 Senior Open champion Paul Broadhurst and eight-time European Tour Order of Merit winner Colin Montgomerie, who is chasing his fourth senior major title but first on British soil. 

The post Dubai amateur sensationally qualifies for the Senior Open; eyes warm-up round with boyhood hero Tom Watson appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Bobby Clampett
I got up at 5 a.m. last Sunday, tuning into Golf Channel’s live internet feed from Wales, eager to watch Bernhard Langer win the Senior British Open for the third time. He didn’t disappoint. I’m blessed to call Bernhard one of my best friends.  Over the years, we’ve spent a lot of time together, both on and off the course.  We share a love for the mountains and we are both avid skiers. Our families have had many winter ski trips together. We’ve also played a lot of practice rounds together, even though both of us otherwise prefer to play practice rounds alone.

We first met in 1980 when John Cook and I traveled to France to play in the Cacherel World Under-25 Championship, a tournament in which Bernhard had a breakthrough win the year before. Winning by 15 strokes was noteworthy enough, but more important was that it meant Bernhard had overcome his first case of the putting yips.

When we were paired together in the first two rounds in the 1982 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, his yips were returning. Bernhard missed the cut, I finished third (behind Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus). It was there that people noticed we looked alike. We both had long, curly, dirty blond hair and a similar build. Bernhard still laughs how often people would approach him and ask, “Hey Bobby, can I have your autograph!” It didn’t take long before the reverse became much more common.

Courtesy of Bobby Clampett

That summer of ’82, Bernhard failed to qualify for the British Open at Troon, and loaned me his caddie, Peter Coleman. We proved to be a good combination, as I went on to set the then 36-hole Open scoring record with a 67 and 66 that gave me a five-stroke lead. Unfortunately, I struggled on the weekend and finished four strokes behind Tom Watson.

In April 1985, Bernhard and I had made a date to play a practice round together on Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Hilton Head, which is the week after the Masters. I had not qualified for the Masters that year, and when Bernhard won, I wasn’t sure he would remember. But true to Bernhard, he showed up at 9:55 a.m., a big entourage following the first No. 1 player on the Sony Rankings, which would become the Official World Golf Rankings. Several tour players asked to play with us, but we politely told them our group was full. We both liked it that way because then we could get some good work done. There would be more time to hit extra shots, especially around the green.

Not only have discipline and perseverance played a very important role in Bernhard’s success as a golfer, his faith has given Bernhard a grounding and steadiness that explains the deepest “why” for what he does for a living and who he is as a person.  I’ve never seen Bernhard upset or angry. I’ve never seen him throw a club. I’ve never seen him treat a human being unkindly. I’ve never even seen him raise his voice at his children. He lives his life in a very consistent fashion, full of routine, discipline and a focus on healthy things. He gets his eight hours of sleep every night, he works out everyday, he drinks his vitamin smoothie every morning and reads his daily devotional.  No wonder his golf game is so consistent. It is a mirror of his life.

When I think of Bernhard, the word “humility” always comes to mind. He fully appreciates everything good that ever happens to him. I believe that the fear of being poor again has served Bernhard well and explains partially why he works so hard at his golf.  He’s always thinking about ways to get better. It also explains why he never quits. I’ve never seen Bernhard not give a shot 100 percent, no matter what. He could be missing the cut, in the middle of a bad slump, and he’s still giving every shot his all.

Looking at Bernhard’s success, my opinion is that his character has been the leading contributor. How this carries over to his golf game gives us five key principles that we can all benefit from to improve our own games:

1. Analyse your game
Bernhard isolates the variables of his game and studies each one. He knows well his strengths and weaknesses, and practices his weaknesses the most. Over the last two years, he had to figure out how to adapt to the “no anchoring” policy set by the USGA and R&A. He made an inordinate effort trying at least a dozen different styles of putting before settling on the one he uses now, the closest to his putting form before the anchor ban. No one makes a higher percentage of six-foot putts in the game currently than Bernhard. Perhaps that missed six-footer at the 1991 Ryder Cup has motivated him to never let that happen again!

RELATED: Why is Bernhard Langer guilty until proven innocent on anchoring?

2. Analyze the course
Bernhard, along with his caddie, Terry Holt, out-prepare other players when it comes to charting the course and detailing the greens. They both work separately with their notes, then come together when playing the course. In 2013, I encouraged Bernhard to play the First Tee Open at Pebble Beach, a tournament he hadn’t played since his rookie year on the PGA Tour Champions. Bernhard knew I was knowledgeable about the course, so we played a practice round together. After the round, we headed back to my house where Bernhard sat at the dining room table with his yardage book and mine. My wife and I had to leave for a dinner, so we left Bernhard by himself, working at the dining table. When we returned four hours later, Bernhard was still at the table. “Where do you think the grain is on the back left of the 17th green?” he asked. That was a classic Bernhard moment!

3. Match your clubs with your swing
Bernhard spends a lot of time working on his equipment, especially when it comes to the driver. Over the years, driving was a weak point in his game and explained his lack of success on the narrow fairways of the U.S. Open, PGA Championships and British Open. In addition to refining his swing after turning 50, he has found a driver configuration that allows him to work the ball both ways, and launch at just the right trajectory (12.5 degrees) and produce just the right spin rate (2300 rpm).

4. Perfect your short game
Bernhard spends a lot of time chipping around the greens and hitting bunker shots in practice rounds. He is continually working on how to best use the bounce of the wedge, creating the ideal angle of attack to increase consistency around the greens.

5. Focus on impact
Bernhard knows his swing style is a bit unusual and he doesn’t care. His focus is on his impact. He is always aware of his angle of attack, his path, his clubface and where he is hitting the ball on the face. His swing adjustments are always related to creating better impact. He exemplifies what it means to be an impact-oriented player.

Of course, the brilliance of Bernhard Langer goes beyond his greatness as a golfer. He is also one of the best humans I’ve ever known.

The post The Bernhard Langer I know appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Jaime Diaz
There’s been a lot of theorising lately that Western civilisation is going through the “post-truth” era. The supporting evidence from the world of golf could be the current controversy over whether Bernhard Langer is anchoring.

It’s not that a game that so values honour and integrity is being plagued by public lies and blatant spinning to the same extent as the general culture. But there has been a noticeable eroding of the once almost unquestioned presumption that players are telling the truth. It seems as if—from charges of PED use, to taking drops in the right place, to correctly marking balls, to anchoring—golfers don’t quite believe each other like they used to.

Ensnared in this evolving perception are Langer and Scott McCarron, who have continued to use a long putter despite the USGA and R&A’s 2016 ban on using an anchored stroke. Each golfer vehemently maintains that by holding their top hand away their body and keeping it away during the stroke, they have legally adjusted to the new rule.

However, it’s easy to find fellow PGA Tour Champions players who will contend, off the record, that in the cases of Langer and McCarron, there is no perceptible daylight between their top hand and their chests when they putt. Some of these players believe that top hand brushing against clothing constitutes anchoring. It amounts to a substantial group of peers who feel there is enough visual evidence to warrant a strong suspicion that the two players are illegally anchoring.

Other objections to the methods of Langer and McCarron are founded in the language of Rule 14-1b, which in prohibiting anchoring states, in “Note 1”, the following: “The club is anchored ‘directly’ when the player intentionally holds the club or a gripping hand in contact with any part of his body, except that the player may hold the club or a gripping hand against a hand or forearm.”

It is the word “intentionally” that led Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee, who considers Langer’s and McCarron’s putting methods “questionable.” to deduce that anchorers have a built in “get out of jail free” card.

“And intent, I think there is apprehension on the governing body’s part not to ruffle feathers further,” Chamblee told Golf World’s Tim Rosaforte, cutting seven letters off the key word. “When it’s time to dig in, they’re reluctant to do so. Their acquiescence is to pass this rule, but the only violation is the intent to break this rule. … Basically what the USGA is saying is, ‘If you can live with cheating, then fine. If you can sleep with yourself, then fine.’

However, PGA Tour Champions rules official Brian Claar told Golf Channel that the word “intentionally” was put in the rule to protect a player from being penalized in the rare case of an accidental slip or strong wind during the putting stroke pushing the hand against the body.

Accusations, or suggestions of cheating in golf are always startling, especially when they involve prominent players. Langer has been dominating the senior circuit for years, as much at age 59 as ever. This year he is ranked second in putting average, as he was last year. McCarron, who has won four times on the 50 and over tour, is currently second to Langer on in the Charles Schwab Cup and ranks third in putting. At the Constellation Senior Players Championship two weeks ago, with unrest over the inssue among some their peers, they finished 1-2, with Langer giving up a lead late to McCarron.

It’s worth noting that there is a third player who made the same adjustment with the long putter as Langer and McCarron—Billy Mayfair. But the 50-year-old journeyman, whose T-9 in Wales marked his best finish on the PGA Tour Champions, has not been publicly questioned.

Phil Inglis/Getty Images
Despite the whispers, Langer has won five of his last 10 senior major starts, and enjoyed the latest with his wife Vikki (left) and daughters Christina and Jackie

Will Langer’s win Sunday at Senior British Open in Wales douse or intensify the controversy? It marked his third senior major victory of this season and his record 10th total. Langer is also the only player to have won all five senior majors, and with his 33rd official career senior victory, he would seem to have a shot at Hale Irwin’s once considered unapproachable record of 45.

RELATED: Langer cruises to Senior British Open title

His additional bona fides would appear impeccable. Langer is a Hall of Famer, a former World No. 1 with two majors and 42 victories on the European Tour, a Ryder Cup stalwart as a player and winning captain. His doggedness has enabled him to overcome the putting yips four times, and his legendary attention to detail gained him a reputation as one of the game’s slowest players. He applied those traits to his adjustment after the anchoring ban, saying it took him four to six months to get comfortable with keeping his knuckle away from his body. He is also known for being deeply religious. His integrity as a golfer has always been above reproach.

Langer, who says the accusations have been “hurtful,” insists he is following the new rule to the letter. He and McCarron have both checked with rules officials to make sure they are not anchoring and have been told repeatedly they are not in violation of the rule.

In a joint statement earlier this month with the USGA and McCarron, Langer said: “I believe in honesty and integrity, and I could not live with myself if I broke the rule and did not incur the penalty. I’m certain that I’m not anchoring the putter and that my putting stroke is not violating the Rules of Golf.” For his part, McCarron said: “I’d like to emphatically say that I do not anchor my hand, arm or club against my body during my putting stroke.”

Most importantly, the USGA issued this clearance, which made a point of addressing the subject of loose clothing: “We are confident that Rule has been applied fairly and consistently and have seen no evidence of a player breaking the Rule, which does not prohibit a hand or club to touch a player’s clothing in making a stroke.”

Langer, predictably, has mostly remained stoic. Recently, perhaps to reduce confusion among his peers, he has stopped “anchoring” in his preparatory practice strokes. But when pressed in Wales, he told The Telegraph: “It’s human to be jealous, let’s put it that way. If I was 180th on the money list, I don’t think anybody would be talking about it. But I’ve been No. 1 the last few years.” Fair point, given that Mayfair has escaped public scrutiny.

Bottom line, this controversy should stop. Perhaps the ruling bodies should be more precise with how “intentionally” is meant to apply to Rule 14-1b. Perhaps distributing some high-definition close-ups of the movement Langer’s and McCarron’s top hands as they putt could be helpful and even definitive. But until then, there’s nothing more to discuss. Langer and McCarron—whose version of events as individual players (in the absence of definitive evidence) are to be believed over the accusations of another player according to The Rules of Golf—both firmly contend they don’t anchor. And the rules officials—the final arbiters of the rules—say they don’t anchor. End of story.

There are those who believe that Langer and McCarron are being unfair to the other players by coming so close to a violation. As one PGA Tour Champions competitor told me, “Why are they putting us in this position?”

But the real question is, “Why are fellow players putting Langer and McCarron in this position?” As a society, we might be the “post-truth” era, but as golfers, we should never relinquish the game’s fundamental trust in the player.

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