To those who wouldn’t know the difference between an eagle and an albatross, as it pertains to golf, the debate over the proposed anchoring ban on long-putters, belly-putters and broom-handle putters must seem like a storm in a tea cup.

Yet, as the 90-day consultation period put in place by golf’s rule-making bodies – the Royal Ancient and the US Golf Association – which ended on Thursday has demonstrated, most pertinently by the reaction of professional players on the US PGA Tour, the proposal has the potential to strike to the very core of a sport that epitomises equity and fairness.

Golf is and always has been a self-policing sport where players, regardless of whether they be competing for huge sums of money on professional tours, as amateurs in club competitions or even in friendly social matches, are obliged to call shots on themselves for any rule infringement. The beauty is that professionals,amateurs and social hackers all play the same game by the same rules. The game has a rich history which underpins this.

The proposal to consider introducing a ban on the anchoring of longer putters into a player’s body when making a stroke has proven to be potentially divisive, certainly in terms of who will govern the sport heading into the future. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has been most vocal in leading objections to the proposed rule due to come into play in January 2016. He has even alluded to bifurcation, the new buzz word that would allow the US Tour to allow anchoring (considered by opponents to make putting easier) even if the RA and the USGA implement the new rule. Such bifurcation would lead to a different rule operating in different tournaments depending on where the event was taking place. It would run counter to the sport’s ethos.

The RA and USGA, who jointly deliberate on the rules, will consider submissions before coming to “a final resolution”. They must, however, take some comfort from support received from golf’s greatest players of the modern era, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.