[Dean Stokes]

Without the belly putter, how many of these 'belly putter' users would be on tour? Would Kuchar be there? Would Adam Scott even be on tour?  I am sat here with my brother who just said what a joke it is.......it is a crutch for anyone who cannot putt the 'corrrect' way. What crutch do you have when you can't drive the ball well? Come on DS....I can't wait.

[Dean Stokes]

Ps. A lot worse than watching Na have his issuese is watching a young man not fight his issues by using a wand......so sad.

[Dean Stokes]

Ps. Na is painful.

[Carl Johnson]

I'm not real sure, but I think I remember prior discussions of the BP issue on this site.  I've got no problem with an anchored putter at all.  Anyone can use it.  The game evolves.  Na . . . Na.

[Dean Stokes]

Ps. To get back to gca....if there isn't a more interesting, thought/shot inducing course..."tell me where it is.

[Dean Stokes]

Laird as well , they all look like they are cheating with the long putter. I think it is a disgrace that the game has gone this way.
.

[Tim Gavrich]

Kuchar doesn't anchor his putter, so you can remove him from the list of mortal offenders against the game.  He runs the shaft up his left forearm and does not anchor it.

The top 11 players in the Strokes Gained - Putting stat on Tour this year (I'm almost positive; I don't think Duval or Marin Flores use non-conventional length putters) all use conventional-length putters.  Carl Petersson, at #12, uses the long putter.  By my count, three winners this year use anchor putters.  Once the top putters on Tour are all using them, maybe there'll be a case against them.  At the moment, I don't see it.

[Brent Hutto]

Yep, hard to argue for banning something that offers no particular advantage. The so-called belly putter basically fails the old man "Keep Off My Lawn!!!" test but otherwise seems so far to be just another game-fixing fad with no real, lasting benefit.

[Ronald Montesano]

I wonder if the mothers of this thread's posters hear their children cry "waaahh, waaaahhh, waaaahhhh" across time and space?

Boys, give it up! The reason they putt well for a time is that they have made a switch and have re-energized their thought/kinesthetic connection. Ernie Els even got better for a time.

It doesn't help the nerves, trust me. What helps the nerves is repeated success, which breeds confidence.

You want disgraceful? There are closeted skeletons on the pro golf tour, just as in any other sport. They haven't hit the news yet, if ever. When they do, you may recur to the term "disgrace."

Does a long putter help you to read green speed and slope better? Nope. As one wag said, the game evolves.

[Mike_Clayton]

Would John Senden - who has been on the tour for 10 years and been in the top 10 in GIR for 8 of those years (many of those top 5) - be better if he used a long putter?
And, of course Adam Scott would be on the tour with a short putter.

[Dean Stokes]

Would Adam Scott be on tour without the ugly long putter? Doubtful. He was gone without it. How many others would not be there without one? It is a crutch for those who cannot putt. Worse to me than any other aid in the game. Just my opinion.

[Matthew Essig]

I agree that belly putters should be banned. Anything that is anchored should be banned. I am ok if it is anchored on the arm, though. I remember seeing someone that had a super tall putter, almost up to the neck, but it wasnt anchored; I'm ok with that.

[Brent Hutto]

Adam Scott was, in fact, somewhat successful on Tour with a conventional putter. And overall, I'm not sure his accomplishments since switching are a heck of a lot greater than before.

[Wade Whitehead]

Tim is right that Mr. Kuchar doesn't anchor his.

The others, however, do.  Such use is simply against the rules.

WW

[Sam Morrow]

So if Adam Scott didn't have a long putter he wouldn't be on Tour? Well that's the dumbest thing maybe on this site.

[Jim Hoak]

Tim and Wade--The USGA is reportedly getting draft language as to how anchoring would be defined, but most likely what Kuchar does with the putter running up his forearm is anchoring.  Having the putter touch any part of your body other than your hands would probably be anchoring.  We'll see.

[Ronald Montesano]

I think the sticking point is that the correlation between putter and puttee is inapplicable. Guys who want to stick on tour (Langer is the prime example) will find a way. What's interesting is that we don't see the same amount of belly putters on the LPGA nor Ladies European tours; there must be no crappy putters among the women.

I think that the subtext of this thread is that some fellows (I'll leave them as "some fellows") have an issue with what they perceive as the aesthetic of professional golf. If this aesthetic is violated in some fashion, the easiest way out is to cry out, rules violation.

Thinking along these lines, we would have few of the advances in other sports, industry, literature that we have today. Remember when "ain't" was proper English? Of course you do not, but it once was. Contractions are, but not as they always were, nor as they once were not.

Go to your grave decrying the use of the belly putter, of anchoring this against your that; the elite will rise to the top.

Why does anyone care what the average tour player does, anyhow?

I'll bet that Kuchar doesn't finish in the top five of the remaining three majors and that he doesn't finish in the top four of the Player of the Year vote. Belly putter doesn't salve all wounds.

[JR Potts]

Ron:

I agree with everything you've written...except the last paragraph.  I'll take that bet.

[Garland Bayley]

For all I care, they can anchor their putters to their belly or chest, or they can run them up their arm. All I ask is that they make the same basic stroke with all their clubs. So if they can hit driver with it tucked firmly in their belly button, more power to them. Sam's putting method was outlawed for not being a golf stroke. If they can't stroke their long balls with the same style they stroke their putt, then they have to drop their non-golf stroke putting style.

[Ronald Montesano]

Garland...does that extend to the same basic grip? Would you outlaw reverse overlap, saw, claw, left hand low?

What about actual rubber grip on club? Would you have all grips be identical on all clubs?

I don't see how we can compare the rolling-on-the-ground aspect of the game to the soaring-through-the-sky one. They are two entirely different games brought together by mad Scotsmen.

[William_G]

hahaha,
what would a long putter look like in a Mackenzie Bag?

[Garland Bayley]

Garland...does that extend to the same basic grip? Would you outlaw reverse overlap, saw, claw, left hand low?

What about actual rubber grip on club? Would you have all grips be identical on all clubs?

I don't see how we can compare the rolling-on-the-ground aspect of the game to the soaring-through-the-sky one. They are two entirely different games brought together by mad Scotsmen.

Did they legislate to Sam what kind of grip he had to take? I don't think so. There were concerned with the stroke. I'm looking for consistency here from the USGA. What they can do to a hillbilly, they should be able to do the the pampered country club types at the top of the game today.

Also, I think you are wrong about the game brought together by mad Scotsmen. If Kegan Bradley had to putt on old Scottish greens, he would throw away that abomination he uses in an instant. The old Scotsmen were not familiar with your soaring-through-the-sky and putting on glass games that you are referencing.

[David Ober]

I admire the ingenuity of the long putter and the belly putter. Someone woke up one day and thought: "There has to be a better way to putt," and he figured out something that WORKED. One of the best amateur players in the country putts side-saddle with a mid-length putter (at least I think it's mid-length). His name is Randy Haag, and he's from Northern California. And he doesn't care how it looks, he just goes out and KICKS YOUR ASS.

I say: Good on him for figuring out this devilishly difficult game such that he can compete with the best amateur players in the country, even as he approaches 50 years old.

By the way, I know several guys who use the belly putter who do NOT anchor the putter. In fact, Kuchar does not "anchor" his belly putter at all. How could you ever write a rule that eliminates the belly putter for those not anchoring it. I just don't get the crusade, I guess....

BTW, I have used a long putter in the past, but had better success with the "Heavy Putter" to cure my yips. I'm now back to a standard length, standard weight putter, but I encourage golfers to use whatever works best for them.

[Duncan Cheslett]

Quite a few of the guys I play with have difficulty using a standard length putter without it being forceably anchored against their belly!

Should we ban big bellies?

[Mark Pearce]

Thinking along these lines, we would have few of the advances in other sports, industry, literature that we have today. Remember when "ain't" was proper English? Of course you do not, but it once was. Contractions are, but not as they always were, nor as they once were not.

I hate to break it to you but "ain't" still isn't proper English.  It might be acceptable American, though.

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