Tiger Woods has never been one who purposefully reveals much about himself. But the Striped One loves to talk about golf equipment – what he likes and what he doesn’t like. Count belly putters in the latter category, especially when it comes to players anchoring the butt end of the belly putter against their chests and sternums.
“I’ve never been a fan of it. I believe it’s the art of controlling the body and club and swinging the pendulum motion,” Woods said today at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am that begins on Thursday. “I believe that’s how it should be played. I’m a traditionalist when it comes to that.”
Woods said he has spoken with Peter Dawson, secretary of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland, about the matter. The R&A and U.S. Golf Association reportedly are looking into possibly dealing with the anchoring of belly putters.
“My idea was to have it so that the putter would be equal to or less than the shortest club in your bag,” Woods said. “And I think with that we’d be able to get away from any type of belly anchoring. You can still anchor the putter like Bernhard Langer did (with the “claw).
But that’s still the art of swinging the club too at the same time.
But I think you can get away from the belly or the long putter by that type of wording. Peter’s looked into it for a number of years, trying to get it to work.”