Keegan Bradley is fearing the worst and the banning later today of the controversial belly putter.

Bradley created history last year in becoming the first player to win a Major Championship anchoring the putter into his stomach to defeat fellow American Jason Dufner and capture the 2011 PGA Championship in Atlanta.

However when Bradley attended the Media Centre for this week’s Tiger Woods hosted World Challenge he found himself quickly dealing with the expected issue of today’s tele-conference.

KEEGAN BRADLEY:  “I’m not‑‑ obviously not happy with the ruling, but I respect the USGA, and especially Mike Davis.  They make the rules, and I’ll adjust appropriately.  But I’m going to accept the challenge and hopefully do well when they do ban it.

Q.  Following up on that, do you feel that now with a lot of young players, and I would include you in that, but even younger than you, they never really used the short putter because they realized maybe that anchoring is better, do you think that this ban is more about that than it is about a guy at the end of his career who’s not a good putter and just needs to somehow get it in the hole?

Keegan Bradley will now longer be using the belly putter from 2016 and that’s the view of observers ahead of today’s R & A and USGA tele-conference. (Photo – Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)

KEEGAN BRADLEY:  You know, you’d have to ask the USGA that.  They have their reasons.  I think that is maybe a reason, that they see a lot of younger guys using it.  I personally don’t see why that’s a huge negative. But I would imagine that they’re more worried about the younger guys than the guys kind of in the twilight of their career.  But you know, they have reasons for what they do, and I respect that.

Q.  Webb (Simpson) just said that he’s already using a short putter about half the time when he practices so that he can be ready if this goes forward.  Are you?

KEEGAN BRADLEY:  No, I haven’t tried.  I mean, I’ve grabbed my buddies’ just for fun, but I’m not doing any sort of practice with the short putter. The announcement from what I understand will be the next rules change, which is not for another three years.  I don’t know that for sure, but I’ll use my style of putting until then.  And you know, when that time does come closer, I’ll start to mess around.  But as of the time right now I’m still focused on the belly putter. 

Q.  Did you grow up using the conventional putter? 

KEEGAN BRADLEY:  Yeah, I grew up using a short putter.  I’m still going to have to wait and hear what the rules are before I can make a full decision.  But yeah, I’m going to embrace the challenge and try‑‑ I’ve had success with a short putter, too.  It’ll be an adjustment but one that I think that I can handle. 

Q.  When you were playing overseas you hinted that you may seek legal action towards the USGA and R&A.  Can you elaborate on that?

KEEGAN BRADLEY:  Yeah, you know, I never said that.  I never said the word sue, I never said the word legal action.  Somehow it got twisted around into that. Like I said, I have total respect for Mike Davis and the USGA, and they are doing what they think is best for the game, and I respect that.  That doesn’t mean that I’m happy with the decision, but I respect that they’re trying to do.  They’re definitely not trying to make the game worse, I know that.  I’ll still have to wait to see what is announced tomorrow. I heard a rumor that they might be banning short putters, which is a shock to me.  I’m surprised that they’d even think about doing that. 

Q.  Are you thinking about it at least?

KEEGAN BRADLEY:  I haven’t even thought that far.  I don’t even know if that’s even possible. 

Q.  You talked about Mike Davis.  Have you had a dialogue with him at all about this or has he shared any of the evidence that they purport to have to make their case?

KEEGAN BRADLEY:  I recently have spoken to him.  He just reached out to me, and I appreciate that.  It kind of seemed like he reached out to me‑‑ I don’t know if he was looking to see my side of it, but he was just kind of reaching out to me and letting me know kind of what’s coming I guess you could say.  I don’t know exactly, but it was nice of him to reach out.

Q.  Webb talked a little bit about two sets of rules for the game.  Do you see any benefit in having the professionals play a different set of rules than the amateurs?

KEEGAN BRADLEY:  No, I think that that would be a bad decision.  And I don’t see that happening.  I think that what makes golf a really cool sport is they can go play the exact clubs we can, the exact courses we can as amateurs.  I mean, I can’t go play in the Boston Garden and shoot around and play basketball, but these guys can come out here and play Sherwood, play all the same clubs that we do, and I think that that’s important in the game.

Q.  How recently did you have that conversation with Mike, and is there in your opinion any value to using a long putter if you cannot anchor it?

KEEGAN BRADLEY:  I think like a putter that you grip like this, not a belly putter, I don’t see how you would ever do it.  I’ve never seen anybody do that.  I have seen players, like Angel Cabrera won the Masters or something like that, but I’ve never seen anybody putt with the real long putter without having it up against your body. This is going to be a whole new chapter of putting, and people are going to come up with new ways, and we’re going to have to wait and see.