The Long and the Short of it

The Long and the Short of it

The debate on long and belly putters rumbles on and on and on.

Some players are already threatening legal action if the USGA or R&A ban the infernal beasts.

Players, coaches, the media, the fans, in fact every Tom, Dick and Harry have an opinion on long putters.

Ignoring the various appendix’s there are only 34 rules in golf, of which not one makes mention of lengths of putters or anchoring. In fact there are no rules stating on how you should even hold a club.

In 1989 Sam Torrance used a broom handle putter in the 1989 Jersey open, Paul Azinger used a belly putter to win the Sony Open in 2000, so why now are we on the verge of banning them ?

When Keegan Bradley won the 2011 PGA he became the first player to win a major using a “long” putter, in 2012 the Open Championship and the US Open where won using “long” putters.

So was the breakthrough in the Majors the reason why authorities suddenly sat up and paid attention? Quite frankly yes.

I honestly don’t think the authorities took then seriously till that time, I think they thought they where no more than the last chance saloon for poor putters.

But all of a sudden “long” putters are no longer the last chance saloon but 1st choice of many.

Newcomers to the game, kids, juniors are all playing “long” putters.    

Are they illegal ? NO

Do they help everyone ? NO, lets be honest if they helped everyone we would ALL be using them.

Are they against the spirit of the game ? Yes, in my opinion they are.

So would I ban belly and broom handle putters ? No I would not. 22 years or 12 years ago was the time to ban them not now.

What’s next banning metal woods ?

While I would not ban the horrendous tools of Beelzebub I would ban anchoring!

All the USGA and R&A need to do is state the following:
“ At no point during any stroke, with any club, shall the club be in contact with any part of the body bar a players hands”

Too simple ??