{"id":400,"date":"2012-02-23T13:49:35","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T20:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/herbgould.com\/?p=400"},"modified":"2012-02-23T14:10:55","modified_gmt":"2012-02-23T21:10:55","slug":"usga-long-putter-debate-will-be-anchored-in-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/golf\/equipment\/400\/usga-long-putter-debate-will-be-anchored-in-controversy","title":{"rendered":"USGA long-putter debate will be anchored in controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There was a time when I would have applauded the recent news that the USGA will take a look at whether to continue allowing golfers to anchor putters against their bodies.<\/p>\n

When long putters first started gaining popularity 20 or more years ago, I thought they violated the spirit of the game. If Sam Snead wasn\u2019t allowed to putt croquet-style in the \u201960s, how could golfers be allowed to use long putters, which were a much greater departure?<\/p>\n

At the time, I thought long putters slipped in while the keepers of the game were embroiled in their initial grooves squabble with the Ping irons makers.<\/p>\n

That was a revolutionary time in golf equipment. Not only were perimeter-weighted fancy-grooved irons sweeping amateur golfers off their feet. Callaway\u2019s Big Bertha began the era of over-sized drivers, triggering a virtual equipment arms race that continues today.<\/p>\n

If irons and woods were going through shocking makeovers, it only made sense for it to happen with putters.<\/p>\n

The difference to me, though, was that perimeter-weighted irons and Fred Flintstone drivers made it easier to swing. Long putters changed the way golfers swung. And that crossed a line.<\/p>\n

Of course, that was easy for me to say. While gobbling up the new irons and woods\u2014TaylorMade’s Bubble Shaft changed my life\u2014I have always been supremely confident in my putting.<\/p>\n

I change irons and drivers all the time, but still putt with a simple Bull\u2019s Eye putter that\u2019s identical to the one I bought as a young caddie nearly 50 years ago. Honestly, I\u2019d still be using the exact same putter, except that my bag was stolen several years ago. Luckily, a sharp-eyed friend found another Bull\u2019s Eye Old Standard at a rummage sale, and bought it for me for $5. The weight and precision of my old Bull\u2019s Eye remains such a joy, I\u2019m stunned new models are not readily available today.<\/p>\n

In a sense, I have no dog in the long-putter hunt.<\/p>\n

That said, I\u2019ve always rooted for talented putters\u2014from Billy Casper to Ben Crenshaw to Loren Roberts\u2014while shedding few tears for expert ball-strikers who struggled on the green.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of golf\u2019s equalizers, I\u2019ve always felt\u2014especially when I\u2019ve found myself in a match where I was giving strokes to somebody who hit the ball 50 yards past me.<\/p>\n

I always took pride in the fact that no one had won a major with a long putter. Then Keegan Bradley came along and changed that at the PGA in Atlanta last August. I happened to be covering that tournament. While initially disappointed that the long putter had ended its major drought, I quickly got over it. Because Bradley is a fine young man who plays wonderful golf. And because it was bound to happen sooner or later. It was time to get over it.<\/p>\n

Now comes the USGA, and its British counterpart, the Royal & Ancient, saying it will examine whether it should be permissible to anchor a club against the body.<\/p>\n

In general terms, I tend to agree: Long putters violate the spirit of the original rules of the game.<\/p>\n

Saying he\u2019s “not a fan\u2019\u2019 of anchored putters, Tiger Woods explained: “I believe it\u2019s the art of controlling the body and club and swinging the pendulum motion. I believe that\u2019s how it should be played. I\u2019m a traditionalist when it comes to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

From a practical standpoint, though, it\u2019s going to be difficult to tell golfers\u2014pros and amateurs alike\u2014who have been playing that way for years that what they\u2019re doing is no longer allowed.<\/p>\n

“It’s been legal for however many decades,\u2019\u2019 said Phil Mickelson, who briefly experimented with a belly putter last year. “To change that I think is really unfair to those that have been using it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

As much as I\u2019d like to see everybody putt the way golfers putted for the first few centuries the game was played, I believe the purist stance is going to be difficult to enforce in this case.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to take away something that\u2019s been allowed for a generation or more.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s especially true in a sport that has an ongoing fascination with dramatic equipment changes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a time when I would have applauded the recent news that the USGA will take a look at… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,372,334,6134,152652,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-taylormade","category-commentary","category-pga-championship","category-callaway-golf","category-equipment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/02\/Headshot-200411.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":405,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions\/405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}