Tiger Wants to Ban the Long Putter

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by Bayou Boogie

Some of these guys like Tim Clark are hinting around that they might go litigious on the PGA if they ban the stroke,

I have just done a pretty extensive search. Where is a source for this, please?

[Tuflehundon]

I played with a guy a month ago that just had a really big belly. He used a regular length putter (35") as a belly putter. I don't see an issue with this since you still have to make the put.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Shorty

I have just done a pretty extensive search. Where is a source for this, please?

At least one or two players mentioned lawsuits during last night's "Live From" on Golf Channel.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by Tuflehundon

I played with a guy a month ago that just had a really big belly. He used a regular length putter (35") as a belly putter. I don't see an issue with this since you still have to make the put.

Ha!  That would be an interesting workaround (if the rule was against length, not anchoring).  "Hey, if I can't get the club to reach my body, let's get my body down to the club!"

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Ha!  That would be an interesting workaround (if the rule was against length, not anchoring).  "Hey, if I can't get the club to reach my body, let's get my body down to the club!"

The problem is they seem to be banning the anchoring not the length of the putter. So it won't work.

[newtogolf]

They asked Keegan Bradley how he'd react if they banned long / belly putters and he responded that he can putt with regular putters and plays around with them quite often.  He said he'd need some time to adjust but that he would be comfortable doing it.  He seemed more concerned about the impact such a rule change would have on non-pro's and how it would be seen as a step backward in the efforts to get more people to play by making golf simpler and more enjoyable.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by newtogolf

They asked Keegan Bradley how he'd react if they banned long / belly putters and he responded that he can putt with regular putters and plays around with them quite often.  He said he'd need some time to adjust but that he would be comfortable doing it.  He seemed more concerned about the impact such a rule change would have on non-pro's and how it would be seen as a step backward in the efforts to get more people to play by making golf simpler and more enjoyable.

How does it make golf "simpler and more enjoyable?" If that's true, does that speak to it being an "advantage?" (J/K - I don't really care if it's an "advantage" or not.)

Or to think of it another way, I think if you asked golfers who just took up the sport which was the most likely reason they'd quit, and you gave them two choices - the full swing or putting - I doubt many are going to list putting. I think putting is about a billion times less frustrating to a new golfer than whiffing, for example.

[newtogolf]

I've never tried a long putter since I'm a lefty they aren't very easy in local stores.  I'm fine using a regular putter and putting stroke.  I don't know how people that have been using long / belly putters for a while or those that just bought one will react if they are banned.

Originally Posted by iacas

How does it make golf "simpler and more enjoyable?" If that's true, does that speak to it being an "advantage?"  (J/K - I don't really care if it's an "advantage" or not.)

Or to think of it another way, I think if you asked golfers who just took up the sport which was the most likely reason they'd quit, and you gave them two choices - the full swing or putting - I doubt many are going to list putting. I think putting is about a billion times less frustrating to a new golfer than whiffing, for example.

[turtleback]

Originally Posted by newtogolf

They asked Keegan Bradley how he'd react if they banned long / belly putters and he responded that he can putt with regular putters and plays around with them quite often.  He said he'd need some time to adjust but that he would be comfortable doing it.  He seemed more concerned about the impact such a rule change would have on non-pro's and how it would be seen as a step backward in the efforts to get more people to play by making golf simpler and more enjoyable.

Maybe it is just where I live and play, but I can count on the fingers of my left ear the number of belly or long putters I have seen out on the course being used by non-pros.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by turtleback

Maybe it is just where I live and play, but I can count on the fingers of my left ear the number of belly or long putters I have seen out on the course being used by non-pros.

Same here ... and I play a lot with my father-in-law in Laguna Woods (private retirement community ... nothing but old people) and have never noticed one being used.  Granted, belly putters are inconspicuous so I'm sure I've seen them without knowing it, but I haven't noticed any of the broom types.

[Bayou Boogie]

Originally Posted by iacas

How does it make golf "simpler and more enjoyable?" If that's true, does that speak to it being an "advantage?"  (J/K - I don't really care if it's an "advantage" or not.)

Or to think of it another way, I think if you asked golfers who just took up the sport which was the most likely reason they'd quit, and you gave them two choices - the full swing or putting - I doubt many are going to list putting. I think putting is about a billion times less frustrating to a new golfer than whiffing, for example.

Maybe not new players, but being one of the player in later life switching to belly, missing a 2-3 footer with a spastic jab is way more frustrating than knocking one ob. Whiffing at this

stage of my career is hopefully behind me. I know that typically I won't be giving up a full stroke with non-putting shots; when you yip unpredictably like you have tourettes syndrome, you

wait--- dreading the next short putt. It literally had me ready to quit the game. Every round I figured how much lower my score would have been without counting the ones I yipped. If you play

with a regular group of guys, you felt like you were cheating if you took a gimmee like everyone else since you would probably miss 1/2 of them.

[teamroper60]

Originally Posted by iacas

Or to think of it another way, I think if you asked golfers who just took up the sport which was the most likely reason they'd quit, and you gave them two choices - the full swing or putting - I doubt many are going to list putting. I think putting is about a billion times less frustrating to a new golfer than whiffing, for example.

As a guy with less than a full year of golf experience, I am going to disagree with you..    While slicing one OOB is certainly frustrating, I accept that it is going to happen at my skill level.   But putting drives me nuts.

[Texian]

If the USGA and R&A; really want to improve the game, they should be looking at stupid rules like the one that cost Carl Petterson two strokes today in the PGA, and forget about long putters.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Texian

If the USGA and R&A; really want to improve the game, they should be looking at stupid rules like the one that cost Carl Petterson two strokes today in the PGA, and forget about long putters.

Not a stupid rule. He was in a hazard, and there are some logical reasons why you're not allowed to do certain things (like move loose impediments) in hazards.

Now, back to the topic at hand. :)

[Texian]

Banning long putters or the ways they are being used now would be another stupid rule.

[Jimmy3putts]

R&A;, USGA, leave the long putter alone! In the last few years I have had to throw away my driver, 3 wedges and now it looks like my 42" putter will follow. It doesn't make any difference to the pros. they just pop along to the tour van and pick up another freebe. To me, not only do I have to find the money but to justify the new purchase to the wife is near impossible. Only 3 of the last 16 majors have been won by a "long" putter so it is hardly this "massive" advantage people speak about. Didn't help poor old Adam on the 16th green at Royal Lytham this year. Over the course of a couple of hundred years we have pretty much sorted the rules of golf so the stuffy men in blazers need something to justify their jobs.

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by Jimmy3putts

Only 3 of the last 16 majors have been won by a "long" putter so it is hardly this "massive" advantage people speak about. Didn't help poor old Adam on the 16th green at Royal Lytham this year. Over the course of a couple of hundred years we have pretty much sorted the rules of golf so the stuffy men in blazers need something to justify their jobs.

It's actually 3 of the last 5.

3 of the last 4 until today.

You need to work on your scientific method if you think that Adam Scott missing a putt is proof they are no advantage, or more correctly, help some players.

Did you notice how much his putting improved when he started using a long putter?

Also, you are lying. You don't have to throw away wedges yet.

And if a rule is changed you can be sure that amateurs will be able to use theirs for a good while yet.

And no wonder you have trouble justifying cash outlay to your wife when you are telling fibs, pretending that certain clubs have been outlawed when they haven't.

Give me  a stuffy old man in a blazer against an ignorant and ill-informed fool any day of the week.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Jimmy3putts

R&A;, USGA, leave the long putter alone! In the last few years I have had to throw away my driver, 3 wedges and now it looks like my 42" putter will follow. It doesn't make any difference to the pros. they just pop along to the tour van and pick up another freebe. To me, not only do I have to find the money but to justify the new purchase to the wife is near impossible. Only 3 of the last 16 majors have been won by a "long" putter so it is hardly this "massive" advantage people speak about. Didn't help poor old Adam on the 16th green at Royal Lytham this year. Over the course of a couple of hundred years we have pretty much sorted the rules of golf so the stuffy men in blazers need something to justify their jobs.

Your handicap is listed as a 12.2. You're playing high-level amateur events that require that you get conforming wedges before 2024? Why did you throw away your driver? And if the USGA/R&A; change the belly putter rule, the pros will probably have three three more years to find a new putter, and YOU will probably have 7+ years.

And people, c'mon: very few people are arguing that it is an "advantage." Stop saying "it's not an advantage so I win the argument."