In the last three weeks on the PGA Tour, long putters have bagged three wins, one major championship, and $3.78 million in winnings for finishing in first place. That’s enough to turn any pretty girl’s head. The results are striking enough to cause the conversation to begin anew as to whether long putters should be banned by the USGA. Most observers think this issue turns on one specific issue, but in my opinion there are actually two factors that bear on the argument.
Not all long putters are created equal. It is important to understand the differences between standard and long putters before we engage the argument. A standard putter is generally 34”-36” inches long and is held freely in ones hands as they hang below the golfers shoulders. Putting with a standard putter requires tremendous hand-eye coordination and excellent nerves. Twitchy hands lead to the yips, or the inability to make a putt from two feet away. Many golfers who can hit the ball prodigious distances off the tee have given up the game because they couldn’t wiggle in a two-footer without twitches, spasms, and significant heartache at their multiple lip-outs and low side stabs. But the true test of a great putter, such as Ben Crenshaw, is the ability to keep a silky smooth putting stroke with a standard putter. The putting stroke can be a beautiful thing when it’s done correctly and a horror show when the golfer in question is incapable of performing the act. Until recently, it would be utterly true to state that no one would ever go to a long putter if they were capable of performing well with a standard putter. The long putter was a sign of age and loss of nerve that make it ubiquitous on the senior tours. That statement may not be true any longer.
The belly putter was responsible for wins the last two weeks. Keegan Bradley won the PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club and Webb Simpson won the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, NC. Bradley won sinking a 35-footer on the 17th hole for birdie that pushed him into a playoff which he won, and Simpson went on a 6-under stretch over five holes on Saturday afternoon by making putt after putt. What is unique is that these two budding PGA superstars came out of college wielding these belly putters.
The belly putter ranges from 40”-43” and is used by affixing the end of the putter to your belly-button, and then using some variety of grips designed to completely take any potential wrist action out of the putting stroke. By removing the wrists from the stroke, the chances of nerve-induced putting spasms are reduced, allowing for hopefully a more repeatable stroke. After watching Bradley and Simpson the last two weeks, the results are
hard to argue with.
Three weeks ago Adam Scott won the WGC Championship at Firestone South in Akron, OH using the true long putter. The true long putter ranges from 48”-52” long, and is deployed by affixing the top of the putting shaft to ones chest or chin and holding it there with a left hand grasping in the form of a fist. Then the right hand holds the putter down the shaft and creates a pendulum-like swing underneath the chest or chin. This allows the putter to get directly on top of the ball, and again is designed to remove any unwanted wrist action from the putting stroke.
There are two major criticisms of the longer putters; one you have probably heard, and one that you can only experience by playing with a player using a long putter in competition.
The first criticism relates to the fact that you affix one end of the club to some portion of your body and freeze it there. The critics say that in effect, you are not making a true golf swing. They believe that in order to make a true golf swing, all parts of the club should be in motion at some point in time. By affixing a portion of the club to your body, you are creating an outside agency to assist you in making a stroke. There can be no questions that those who suffer from an inability to control their nerves while putting are assisted by affixing the shaft to their body. The legality of it remains in some question, and would have to be addressed by the ruling bodies of the game.
The second criticism is the one that personally gets my goat, and it specifically pertains to the true long putter. The average driver is about 45” long. When a golfer is taking relief, the amount of relief that can be achieved by a 45” driver might not be as beneficial as the amount of relief that can be achieved by a 52” putter. When taking relief from a hazard, the distance advantage grows to 14” when taking two club lengths on a drop. When you are trying to take a drop above the bank of a water hazard, that additional 14” can be the difference between having a flat lie and having the ball a foot above or below your feet. If you have ever experienced an opponent in match play take full advantage of the extra 14” by using the long putter for a drop to get to a level lie, then draining a 30-footer for a half on the hole, you know the feeling that something about the process was just not fair.
The rules say that if your opponent or fellow competitor is using a long putter you can request to use it for your own drop. I have never done this myself and I have yet to see anyone else do so. I think it’s partly because those of us who use the standard putter think those that use the true long putter are somehow cheating the game. Not the rules, the game. I always felt that if I borrowed a long putter for a drop, that I was no better than the miscreant who was using the abnormal wand themselves. I also think the rule that allows me to borrow the club from a fellow competitor in stroke play doesn’t adequately protect the rest of the field. Somehow I should benefit just because I was fortunate enough to get paired with this guy who lost his nerve on the putting green?
Based upon what we saw in the Wyndham Championship, these criticisms are going to get blurred with the passage of time. It seemed like the entire leaderboard was wielding long or belly putters on Sunday afternoon. I found myself rooting for Tommy ‘Two-Gloves’ Gainey because he was lighting up the back nine with a standard putter. I know this much. I haven’t ever played a round with a long putter, and I don’t intend to.
