Major Winner Critical Of USGA Over 'Mistakes' - 'They Punish The Players'

Keegan Bradley says it's not fair that touring professionals have to pay for the USGA's "mistakes" over anchored putters and the proposed golf ball rollback.

Bradley was the first player to win a men's Major while anchoring the putter and he was one of many to take time to adjust to a new method of putting after anchoring was banned in 2016. 

He says he has a "really strange relationship with the USGA" and criticised the organizations' "mistakes". 

"Yeah, I have a really strange relationship with the USGA from the belly putter," he said when asked about the proposed golf ball rollback following a meeting between PGA Tour players and the governing bodies over the proposals prior to this week's Memorial Tournament.

"I just feel like the USGA admits to making mistakes and then they punish the players for it. 

"I don't feel like it's our fault that they think that the ball went too far or that they should have banned the belly putter. They retroactively, decades later, try to adjust and then they just throw it on us. Which is, we do this as a living. This is how we make our living.

"I don't think that's necessarily fair that we pay for their mistakes. And I don't -- I think it's fine. I mean, what are you going to do if you roll the ball back on this course? You got to build all new tees. It's 7,800 yards long.

"Yeah, the tee on 17 [at Muirfield Village GC] goes up against the fence. So if you have, you have to have it four or five up. So I just, I think the USGA makes a lot of mistakes and I don't feel as though us, the players, should have to pay for it. I mean, I don't think that that's right."

Bradley also said he felt like he had been playing a US Open for three months due to the difficulty of the courses and setups on the PGA Tour this year so far.

"Goodness gracious. I feel like I've been playing a US Open for three months, really, honestly," he said.

"I was talking to my wife, just talking about the stretch of -- I mean, every week now, just seems like the narrative in the golf world now is they don't like to see low scores. That seems to be the thing.

"We're just showing up every week and there's really deep rough, courses are super long. I mean, they have lengthened holes out here -- every year I come here they have lengthened a few."

The 36-year-old currently ranks 24th in the world. He has won five times on the PGA Tour, most recently in October 2022 at the Zozo Championship in Japan.