{"id":264091,"date":"2025-11-15T10:16:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T10:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/264091\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T10:16:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T10:16:14","slug":"two-golf-fans-cause-controversy-by-wearing-bernhard-langer-cheating-t-shirts-in-front-of-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/264091\/","title":{"rendered":"Two golf fans cause controversy by wearing Bernhard Langer ‘cheating’ T-shirts in front of him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two golf fans caused a stir during the opening round of the Charles Schwab Championship at Phoenix Country Club after trailing Bernhard Langer in matching T-shirts, while accusing the German legend of \u201ccheating\u201d by anchoring his putter.<\/p>\n

Swedish pro Fredrik Lindblom spotted the pair shadowing Langer<\/a>, 68, throughout the PGA Tour<\/a> Champions season finale and quickly shared the moment on X \/ Twitter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDeveloping story!\u201d posted Lindblom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSpotted two guys following Bernhard Langer at the Tour Championship with shirts on that claim he\u2019s cheating by anchoring his putter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The front of the shirts read \u201cUSGA Rule 10.1B\u201d alongside an image of the two-time Masters<\/a> champion using his trademark broomstick.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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A follow-up video from Lindblom, which you can watch below, showed the duo positioning themselves close to Langer on the tee.<\/p>\n

The back printed an even more provocative line: \u201cAnchoring is not a crime\u2026 it\u2019s just against the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the men was identified as TrotGolfer on X \u2014 a user well known for criticising Langer\u2019s putting technique.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The popular Monday Q Info account chimed in: \u201cThat\u2019s Trot. His only goal in life is to stop him from anchoring.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Photo: <\/p>\n

Photo: X \/ Twitter – Fredrik Lindblom<\/p>\n

Another user also identified him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Langer has used a long putter for more than two decades, first adopting the broomhandle model in the early 2000s to combat the yips.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He dominated the PGA Tour Champions after 2007 with an Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball Long that remained in his bag until its shaft snapped in 2021.<\/p>\n

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Langer won three times during his PGA Tour career, highlighted by two Masters wins in 1985 and 1993, and a whopping 42 times on the European Tour, which second behind late great Seve Ballesteros (50) in the all-time victory count.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Langer tops the charts on the over 50s PGA Tour Champions, a circuit Tiger Woods might be joining next season, with a leading 47 titles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although the R&A and USGA outlawed anchoring in 2016, Langer has continued to putt with a legal non-anchored \u201cpiston\u201d method \u2014 keeping the grip away from his chest while pivoting the club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite recurring social-media suspicion, golf\u2019s governing bodies have never found him in breach of the rules.<\/p>\n

Even Tiger Woods’ former long-time coach Hank Haney questioned if Langer was still anchoring<\/a> his putter in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Still, the criticism has only intensified in recent years, with TrotGolfer among the most vocal detractors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, if the two shirt-wearing hecklers hoped to rattle the German, they failed.<\/p>\n

Langer calmly carded a 2-under 69, finishing the day four shots off the early lead at the Charles Schwab Championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two golf fans caused a stir during the opening round of the Charles Schwab Championship at Phoenix Country…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-264091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}