28 Comments

1. 

   Tim Schoch

   Mar 6, 2013 at 12:53 pm

   Bernhard Langer. He turned his putting around with the long stick. So have many others. Whether is it psychological or a cure for the yips or a very real advantage, I think it is individual to each player’s needs. A golf swing is a swing, not a shove. It is irrelevant if we’re waking up to this after so many years. Better late than never. Unless we want to see players strapping drivers to their forearms or employing elevator spikes that lift you up above hazards and hills. The PR damage is already done.

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2. 

   Jim M

   Nov 8, 2012 at 11:19 am

   There is zero statistical evidence to suggest that the long putters provide any advantage. When the USGA spoke to the policy board, they admitted that the proposed ban was more about perception than reality. The announcers keep insisting that it gives someone an advantage, so the public believes it gives someone an advantage. I fail to see how golf is a better place if we drive Langer, Couples, Els, Scott and Bradley from the game

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3. 

   ElVerde

   Nov 6, 2012 at 10:08 am

   Golf is inherently a game that allows tinkering with equipment…I think of NASCAR as pretty similar. We all have to work within the same framework, but there is room to play.

   This is why golfers can use different shafts, different drivers, different putters, even different length clubs, etc. It’s like using a different gear ratio in a NASCAR…as long as it’s in the same transmission as everyone else!

   The anchored stroke is a fundamentally different stroke, and that is why it should be banned. It would be like running a rear-engined NASCAR…not necessarily better or worse, but DIFFERENT.

   Someone else up here mentioned straddling the putting line, and I think it’s a pretty apt comparison. Where do we draw the line?

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4. 

   adam

   Nov 4, 2012 at 10:13 am

   14 year-old Guan Tianglang of China just qualified for the 2013 Masters. He uses a belly putter. If you don’t ban them now, we’ll see more and more kids go in that direction. It’s now or never, babay.

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5. 

   Courtney Zimmerman

   Nov 1, 2012 at 2:23 pm

   On a website like this where people are gaining distance through perfecting launch etc through high end shafts and tinkering, if you are going to ban anchoring because of the advantage it provides, then all competition should go back to steel shafts and persimon heads and blades only. Lets take away distance gained by weaker smaller players and you will go back to guys like Tiger dominating through strength. Leaves most of the new competitors out of the winners circle. I dont use an anchored putter currently, I have used one and don’t make any more putts with or without but am a much better lag putter without. Doing what I mentioned is no different than what they are doing with guys like Keegan who have had the option their entire lives to play with the long putter and now that success comes to them they are calling it an unfair advantage. USGA and R&A are being too quick to judgment on this one. Senior competitors in USGA events who need it for their back and are successful are hosed. Does this mean they are a bad putter with a short putter, no, it simply allows them to practice and play more, isnt that the point?

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   • 

     JG

     Nov 1, 2012 at 5:54 pm

     no, all arguments wrong. Senior players with bad backs??? haha wow. The can have a putter as long as they want. It is anchoring that is the issue not length. Its against the rules already!! why it was ever approved for tournament play is beside me.

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6. 

   kevin smith

   Nov 1, 2012 at 10:58 am

   Keegan uses his shirt to anchor the butt end of his putter. Watch how he lifts his shirt and then positions the butt.
   What is next , a shirt with a stomach holster built in soo he can anchor his putter and also carry the american flag at the olympics?????

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7. 

   kevin smith

   Nov 1, 2012 at 10:20 am

   Anchoring of the putter is the question , not the Belly or long putter….This anchoring of the putter is bad for the game of golf!!!

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8. 

   Zooch

   Nov 1, 2012 at 9:51 am

   People who dislike belly putters only dislike them for asthetic reasons. If you’re honest. It’s going to be an arguement that nobody will win until someone can produce some empirical evidence to show that these really are the bain of golf. and PS they’ve been around for a while.

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9. 

   Prut

   Nov 1, 2012 at 9:50 am

   If you had a $100, you wouldn’t be able to buy an anchored putter.

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10. 

    obvioustroll

    Nov 1, 2012 at 8:56 am

    i bet 100 dollars that if you had an absolutely flat surface and a 5 meter putt, anchored putters will have higher consistency of making it… they should ban it.

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11. 

    Tim

    Nov 1, 2012 at 8:34 am

    All I know is that at 64 yo I was ready to give the game up due to my putting. Since going to the belly I find myself enjoying the game again.

    I am an not a professional and there will never be a time now that I will be one. However, I am sure that I represent a much higher number than the professional ranks when it comes to enjoyment of the game. Banning the body-anchored putter will set back our games to the point of reducing the number of players that the USGA wants to see playing each year. I am sure the equipment mfg feel the same.

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12. 

    Jeffrey

    Nov 1, 2012 at 7:48 am

    There is no advantage to a belly or anchored putter. It’s just a different method. I have extensively tested belly vs short putter using on course data and software stroke data and I was slightly better with a short putter. Anchoring a putter removes freedom and feel from a stroke. If an anchored putter was truly an advantage everyone on tour would use it because their putting stats would dramatically improve. Belly putter banners seem to look at it like the ones who use it get an advantage like using a titanium 460 cc driver vs a persimmon wood.

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13. 

    James

    Nov 1, 2012 at 5:59 am

    You can’t be serious that belly putters keep hundreds or thousands of people interested or willing to take up the game of golf, because its easier to score? Surely factors such as affordability and time (especially for people with young families) a far more influential factors.

    Belly and broomstick putters and their allowed use have been a blight on the game for too long,. It’s not golf it’s croquet – and any argument that says differently comes from a place of self interest.

    The problem is not a ban, it’s that they’ve been allowed in competition in the first instance.

    As for allowing pros to have different rules to amateurs(?) That is a terrible and flawed argument. If anything pros should uphold the rules and if anything play to stricter standards and set an example to the rest of us – not be given a break because it is their chosen profession.

    Good luck in court Keegan. I am sure your very expensive lawyer is talking up your chances.

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    • 

      Lenny

      Nov 8, 2012 at 3:26 pm

      +1

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14. 

    chris

    Nov 1, 2012 at 1:54 am

    Let’s not worry that Keegan hit driver 9 iron to a 497 yard hole…surely the belly putter is what is ruining the game!

    This discussion is a laughable joke.

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    • 

      March

      Nov 1, 2012 at 11:00 pm

      Very true. Carbon fiber, graphite, titanium clubs, 3,4 and 5 compound laser straight balls. Putter heads of every shape and size. But the belly putter is the only thing that is in focus. Oh yea, changing the grooves was another huge jump in curbing the pros.

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15. 

    Christian

    Oct 31, 2012 at 11:43 pm

    Keegan Bradley is one of my favorite players, and I use to be against the belly putter completely and I thought it was a crutch as well. I still think the belly putter gives the player an advantage, however, banning it would be bad for the game if you ask me. Yes nerves is a part of the game, but is your driving and iron play nerve proof? Is bunker play and flop shots not affected under pressure? All of them are. A belly putter is a great training aid if you ask me. And I think it won’t affect putting statistics in the long run. I think if you take it away it does more harm than good. I use a conventional putter and I will continue to because it’s comfortable and it’s what I know. I think they should be legal, period.

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16. 

    joe

    Oct 31, 2012 at 10:37 pm

    The usga should have addressed the belly putter years ago. Doing so now just because young guys are winning with it seems like it was a response directly to those guys. I think Keegan has a point given the amount of work he has put in to master the belly putter. I never liked him before but his style of play and grit, and now standing up for what he thinks is right (even if I disagree with him) shows character.

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17. 

    Gm

    Oct 31, 2012 at 9:03 pm

    NOT banning the anchored putter is bad for golf, just as square grooves was bad for golf.

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18. 

    Randall

    Oct 31, 2012 at 7:58 pm

    They are not making the game harder for the hackers. Most weekend golfwrx don’t follow the rules, so it will not affect. The fact is the rule book has said no part of the club can be anchored to anything other than the hands. The pros have been cheating for years; hence Ernie’s statement. They need to be held to a higher standard. I love watching Keegan and Web play, but they are breaking the rules

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19. 

    Kkoz17

    Oct 31, 2012 at 7:29 pm

    I disagree. When a golfer is a notoriously bad putter and then switches to an anchored putter and becomes an above average putter, that is a clear problem. Ban them and don’t look back!!!!!

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    • 

      Gm

      Oct 31, 2012 at 9:06 pm

      Precisely! And by Keegan saying that he will take the Rules to court, he’s ADMITTING to the whole world that the anchored IS HELPING him make putts. Duh.

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20. 

    jay hall

    Oct 31, 2012 at 7:18 pm

    The fact is the USGA and R&A should NOT set the rules for the professionals. The pros should have different rules from the amateurs, the game they play is night and day from 99.9% of amateurs out there so why make rules that make it harder for the guys who sux!!!

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    • 

      Gm

      Oct 31, 2012 at 9:05 pm

      @jay hall

      That still doesn’t help Keegan, does it? You’re saying that the Amateurs should be allowed to anchor but not the Pros, if the USGA and R&A are to set different rules? What???

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      • 

        sean_miller

        Nov 2, 2012 at 2:17 pm

        Isn’t the point of the article that it’s beginners and ultimately the entire game of golf that will suffer because of this ban? The Keegan Bradley bit is in there to justify using that awesome photo from The Ryder Cup. On that point though, I’ve been in Golf Town a couple dozen times since Keegan won the PGA Championship and not once have I seen anyone checking out a belly putter. If they’re selling them people must be sneaking in and buying them when nobody is looking . . . and using them on courses I never play. I did not see one pleyer using a belly putter this summer. Not sure what part of North America depends on these abominations for golf to survive but it sure isn’t Western Canada.

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21. 

    Bill Miller

    Oct 31, 2012 at 6:44 pm

    They allow these crutches, and I’ll start putting astraddle my target line. What’s the difference? None IMO.

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    • 

      Steve Loomis

      Nov 8, 2012 at 12:16 pm

      Professional golf is played by the elite few, who play the game at the highest level, have access to the most advanced equipment and instruction, and play under the penultimate conditions on the world’s best golf courses. When one considers all of the things that are “banned” or “outside the rules” like kneeling on a towel, or stradling the line. Is it really that absurd to suggest anchoring the club or gripping it in any other way but with your hands should not be banned? Grow up boys you are the best, if not then move over and get out of the way.

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