Brandel Chamblee
I’ve never been a big fan of Brandel Chamblee but I think I’ve changed my mind after reading his “Commissioner for a Day” piece on golfchannel.com regarding golf equipment technology. Chamblee, it seems, has no love for the USGA and PGA Tour’s belief that one size fits all when it comes to golf equipment. He even used to “B” word – as in bifurcation.
“Sounds to me like a word used to make palatable that which tends to smell. Perhaps, that’s appropriate, because when bringing up the idea of two sets of rules, most look like they have smelled something offensive,” Chamblee wrote. “Ironically the very ones who are offended the most are the ones who talk about growing the game most fervently.”
You gotta like that shot at the hands that feed him and the Golf Channel. But beyond that, Chamblee, who spent 15 years on the PGA Tour, is spot on. The belief by the governing bodies that golf should be played by one set of rules as archaic.
“Football, basketball and baseball all have different rules that separate professional and amateur competitions, and while arguments as to why may be circular, the sports have not suffered from this separation,” Chamblee wrote. “Golf would benefit in many ways from a similar partition between the professional and amateur ranks.”
Chamblee takes particular issue with long putters, which he wrote is great for amateurs but “has no place in professional sports.”
“Its use, understandable in club golf, is corruptive at the professional level as it allows one to predetermine the path of the putter.”
Chamblee himself is on the right path. Now I’m a fan.
