Two of his fellow Australian major winners believe Adam Scott will rise above the anchoring ban and continue to be a world force provided he stays positive about the issue.

Ian Baker Finch and Geoff Ogilvy were quick to suggest the newly crowned Masters champion could continue his surge in world golf, despite the fact the governing bodies on Monday confirmed a ban to outlaw the putting method he used to get Australia’s first green jacket.

Almost six months on from first proposing the rule change, The USGA and R & A confirmed a new rule 14-1b, effective on January 1, 2016, will be adopted.

It will prohibit players from anchoring a club directly, or by use of an anchor point, against any part of the body, effectively banning belly and chest putting, which has helped four of the past six major champions.

After several lean years with the short putter, Scott moved to a broomstick-style flat stick and anchored it to his chest in early 2011 and went on to finish inside the top 15 of seven of the next nine majors, including two runner-up finishes and his 2013 Masters triumph.

He has been a vocal critic of the proposed ban but has also stressed if forced to change he’d be able to adjust.

Given he won 18 of 21 worldwide career victories with a short putter, Ogilvy and Baker-Finch both agree Scott can.

“I don’t think he’ll have any issues changing back or finding a way to putt,” 2006 US Open champion Ogilvy said.

“I know he’s quite strongly against doing it but I have complete faith in him to work something out.

“He won a lot of tournaments with a traditional putter. He might not go back but he’ll find a way that might be just as good as he is now.”

Baker-Finch, the 1991 British Open champion, hopes Scott will continue to do what he has been doing until the rule takes affect and focuses on doing what he does best – winning tournaments.

“It is all about the attitude because that part of this is 100 per cent his decision,” Baker-Finch said.

“Your attitude towards it falls on yourself. I fully believe it’s not necessarily the putting that’s got him to where he is in golf. It’s his overall ability. He’s a great ball-striker and he’s one of the best drivers in the game.

“The putting was just another piece in the puzzle to help him with confidence to take it to the next level but I know he’ll figure it out.”

Scott made small statistical gains in his putting from the change but certainly hasn’t become a world-beater on the greens.

After leading the US tour in putting with a short putter in 2004, Scott hasn’t been inside the top 70 at the end of a year since.

He was 178th, 180th and 186th in the three years prior to the switch but his gains were modest, to 143rd in 2011 and 148th last year.

He is however currently ranked 67th this season.

“To me, it hasn’t made him a better putter but it has made him feel better about his game,” Ogilvy says.

“He can walk up the fairway knowing he doesn’t have to worry about it if he chips up inside six feet, or his first putt lags to four feet instead of right next to the hole, he plays a lot lighter now then he did before, he has less stress.

“But as I said, he can find that from another way.”

Ogilvy, who sits on the US Tour player advisory panel, will now be part of the discussions as to whether the tour adopts the change, and how soon they do so, or creates bifurcation of the rules and opens a hornet’s nest of issues, namely different rules at majors and in Europe compared to regular events.

“It’s obviously been a fairly divisive issue amongst the players,” Ogilvy said.

“But I’d imagine it’s going to be difficult for the PGA Tour to go against this rule while almost all or all of the other organisations and tours go with it.

“I imagine everyone will adopt the rule. Everyone has to do the same thing otherwise it doesn’t work.

“Hopefully common sense prevails and every tour plays under the same rules.”

AAP be/djw/gc