Matt Kuchar, Bryson DeChambeau and Webb Simpson are three high-profile PGA Tour professionals who since the ban on anchored putting strokes have adopted a unique way of putting, one that Johnny Miller used in the 1980s - running a long putter shaft up their left forearm to steady the stroke. Like Harry Truman used to say, the only thing new under the sun is the history you don't know. I found an article from the February 26, 1904 Golf Illustrated (U.K.) titled "A New Method of Putting" that looks a lot like 2020.
The author, F. Perceval, put it this way: "The claims I put forward for this method are that it is far less easy to pull or slice, also that the action being coarser than the ordinary style, it requires less delicate muscular coordination. This is a great advantage to anyone whose 'nerves' play a large part in their putting." With the club shaft up the forearm and employing a "claw" grip, "the arms are kept stiff [like Bryson], and the club is moved from the shoulders...There must not be the slightest give in the wrist or elbow joints." Although this technique was recommended for short putts of six feet or less, we know it has been used for all distances. Necessity is the mother of invention, but that invention may have come from a great-great-grandmother.
