There’s been a lot of theorizing lately that Western civilization 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 honor 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.