CowtownGrinder

Erik, Round and round you go apparently ! You must really dislike the "look" of long putting (the crux of your argument)-enough apparently to draw up proposed rules to outlaw them. When you never get summoned by the USGA or R&A; on this matter, will you tell the panel: "guys it just looks bad, and it's not how it's done, I know it doesn't help anyone"? I can't believe you're sticking with this-seriously dude ! ? Anyway, you're right, people are entitled to their opinions. To this end, can you please not censor me on this one? Thanks, have a great day.

Don't you mean an "illegal grip" Erik? Reference your rule changes.

Interesting point. If only Adam Scott, Freddy, and Bernhard could learn to read greens or scratch up enough dough to find a caddy who can. By this logic they'd never miss a putt! I better get a belly/long putter!

Hi Erik, My point is, essentially, that arguments against, are less arguments than they are expressions of taste-appropriate for music or art critique, perhaps. It doesn't suit your taste-cool don't use one and get on with it-as you say there's no advantage anyhow. Taking this dislike to the point of rule changes, for something that offers no advantage is, at best, a waste of time. I would have banned banned Cadillac logos in the 1980s, if it were up to me . When I could actually play this game, to some extent (as a kid) , I really used to resent people not playing blades, like I did. Then I just realized I was being a big snob-this to me being the biggest infringement on the "spirit of the game". Just because there's a precedent in the game for banning a technique (Snead's croquet) it doesn't make that precedent objectively right somehow. It was a mistake then, and it's a mistake now that should be revisited.

Yeah, that's why they've taken over the game at all levels and most amateurs are shaving 10-15 strokes off their games using them . Oh wait.... . The case against the long putter is less an argument, than a nostalgic musing, in the Butler Cabin, undertaken by old white men in smoking jackets. I'm secure in using my Wilson 8802 replica against a belly putter player because I know what you guys really know....he confers him no advantage!

Erik, Sorry, what is your argument? It's really not all that clear. Do you believe it's an unfair advantage, as you've said? If so, substantiate your claim with empirical evidence. If not this reason, then why? I hear guys revert to this "spirit of golf" thing all the time. Are you in personal communion with this spirit? Perhaps this entity can help me hit a few more GIRs ? Have you proposed a way to incorporate the spirit of golf into your proposed rule on banning the long wand? Sorry man, but I just don't think it has teeth. A limit on grip length? No problem, I'll just tape a maxi-pad to my belly to stop the end of shaft from wounding me and move the grip down to where I need it. BTW, I use a short blade putter.

Hi Erik, I understand the distinction. The more compelling question is why you'd want to make such an artificial intervention in the game, by banning belly/long putting. It's akin to banning a two-handed backhand in tennis-it's ridiculous and arbitrary. Before I ramble on, side straddle putting is , in fact, legal and is still employed by some. Perhaps you're referring to Sam Snead's banned croquet style, one of the great mistaken interventions in the game (Snead went side-saddle after this ban). Snead was an innovator (who pioneered the SW) who pushed the creative boundaries of the short-game. Golf would have benefited from the diversity of technique by embracing Snead's technique. Really, why would you make a stipulation on the how ? For the sake of difference and interest and growth of the game, one would want to, presumably, embrace different means (given golf's rather stuffy past however, the fate of Snead's croquet innovation is sad, but not surprising). More importantly though, make a rational argument against belly/long putting. "It's an unfair advantage to those who employ the technique". In at least 20 some years of long/belly putting, this advantageous technique has amassed...wait for it....0 (none, notta) major championships. This leaves me to conclude that people resist it for other reasons, namely they simply don't like how it looks . I have aesthetic preferences about the game too, but I'm not advocating for bans. It boils down to snobbery in my mind-hence my last posting. Will a long/belly putter eventually win a major? Almost, certainly yes. At that point stop, detractors need to employ the technique for themselves, or give the guy credit because he's an all around great player! What I've concluded is that, like Snead's croquet technique, people use the "unfair advantage" argument to disguise the fact that they simply don't like the way this technique looks. Your prerogative, but not reason to outlaw the style. Besides, employing a rule that actually addresses long putters (especially) is complicated (if not impossible)-other than banning split handed putting, which is employed by many "short putters" ala Sergio Garcia. To long putt, one doesn't have to actually touch their body to make the technique work, as others have pointed out here. This state of affairs likely has something to do with the fact that the governing bodies have not yet eradicated the technique. I wonder if long/belly detractors would have banned the slap shot in hockey when Bobby Hull took it to a new level. Perhaps they would have gone after the hook shot in basketball. They most certainly would have objected to the first two-handed backhands, in tennis, in the 1930s. Well, you get my point. Let's face it, the argument against long/belly putter is essentially: "Oh my goodness, that just looks so different and the guy is having some success with it-we batter ban it" . Long/belly putting is not a license to run a trench to the hole. It's just a different means of getting the job done, something all other sports have no problem embracing. If you think it's an advantage, use it, or just man-up and face the fact you got outplayed by a guy who happens to use a different method than you.

It's interesting how long/belly putters have become the proverbial 'bogeyman' for all that violates what is pure and fair in the game of golf. Despite the vast and varying forms of technological/game improvement advances in golf, the long putter is the 'line in the sand', across which no golfer with a shred of integrity would cross. For all objecting "purists", decrying the profanity of the long and wicked wand , might I suggest that, in addition to ditching your 34" 'White Ice' in favor of your old Wilson 8802-why don't you completely purify your soul? For the sake of righteousness, might I suggest you ditch your R-11 and your game-improvement shovels in favor of hickory-shafted persimmons and blades? Pro V1? Please, have some integrity ! You'll be choosing the.....let's see...how about Ben Hogan's ballata? I think that's arbitrarily classic enough. I seriously doubt any of the putter-priests have, at any point, used an illegal groove, either? Or, if they have, they ditched them far before the USGA or the R & A deemed them illegal. Okay, I won't belabor the point any further. These kinds of debates always remind of folks who lament the the downfall of the the English language, for example. Problem is, like language, golf technology is ever-changing and dynamic. Would you prefer Shakesperean or Elizabethan English, frozen in some idyllic utopia? Which favored era of technological nostalgia should we freeze golf in?: hickory shafts or circa 1967-1979? Let the governing bodies decide when and where technology has compromised the integrity of the game-until then have fun and use what works for you. Human nature, I think, tends to snobbery. "I may be a hack with a Flinstone Driver and irons, but at least I'm not a cheater, like the guy with putter that guarantees he'll putt better" . Really? That's all this putter debate is to me-arbitrary and nostalgic snobbery. Joe average: your game has benefited in countless ways from all sorts of technological change-why you feel superior about using a short stick, while hitting Taylor Made Burner irons (when you'd be all over the chrome with any kind of 'respectable' club) is beyond me. Tour Pro Snob: let's face it, if you thought the long wand would help, you'd be all over it-bottom line. I know, I know, Freddy's a cheater...!? There's a reason Mickleson, Woods, and countless others still use the short putter: they believe it gives them the best chance to win. If you really think it's an unfair advantage, go back to persimmons, blades and hickories brother-keep it real all the way. Or, heck, grab a long stick (it's perfectly legal, presumably, for a reason) and get over yourself! Ernie, maybe you just got out-putted against Immelman?