Roundup: "Traditionalist" Tiger Not A Fan Of Long Putter
Doug Ferguson leads with Tiger Woods' disdain for the long putter and by default, the act of bracing (sort of).
Woods said Tuesday at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am he has "never been a fan" of long putters that players either anchor into their belly or the broom-style putters that are pressed against the chest.
"I believe it's the art of controlling the body and club and swinging the pendulum motion," Woods said. "I believe that's how it should be played. I'm a traditionalist when it comes to that."
Steve Elling, on Tiger's bold pronouncement during Tuesday's pre-AT&T National Pro-Am presser and revelation that he's been talking to Peter Dawson for many years about the exact wording of a long putter ban.
"My idea was to have it so that the putter would be equal to or less than the shortest club in your bag. 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, against the arm. But that's still the art of swinging the club, too, at the same time."
It might be tempting to blow off Woods' remarks, but when he speaks, things tend to happen. By way of example, when Woods said he was in favor of drug testing, the PGA Tour stopped dragging its feet and implemented a new screening system within months. He asked for a shorter season in 2005, and got it when the FedEx Cup series was adopted soon thereafter.
"I think you can get away from the belly or the long putter by that type of wording, whether or not they do it or not," Woods said. "Peter's looked into it for a number of years, trying to get it to work, and you [would] actually measure everybody's sand wedge and putter before you go out and play."
Brian Wacker has the other non-long putter highlights from Tiger's Tuesday press conference and the story is accompanied by a one-on-one with Sirius XM's Fred Albers.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 10:17 PM
Reader Comments (34)
If we head back to "tradionalist", it wasn;t that long ago players basically rested their hands on their left thigh and made a stroke primarily with their wrists.
I would suggest there are more important issues to be addressed, let's kick off with pace of play
In competitive swimming there are rules pertaining to how one can perform say the backstroke...they used to do the 1st 50meters underwater (more efficient hydrodynamics) mostly, make the turn and then sprint the last 50m...they made it so they can only "submarine start" for the 1st 15 or 20meters I believe...they also put limits on those cool shark suits. Normal swimmers can still buy and use em...just not at sanctioned meets. Golf could do something similar.
Jamming the end of a club into a body part to overcome the shakes should not be allowed to happen at the highest levels of the game IMO. Tiger had a good quote there about golf being about using your body, club, arms to work in unison like a pendulum...long putters create it automatically...or make it ALOT easier to feel...hence they are nothing more than teaching aids in my book...and there is already a rule in place for that.
Not sure if that equates to great minds thinking alike but it could be a start!
I'm not sure about the "shortest club" rule either. For me, and many others, the argument is not about the length it is about anchoring the putter which should be banned.
Guys would just get used to holding the shaft so that wouldn't solve the problem, just adds a bit of inconvenience.
You wonder why this didn't occur to Tiger and Steiney and the rest of Team Tiger a long time ago. Talk about something else besides porn stars, no matter what people want to hear. This is good. The best golfer in a generation, talking intelligently about golf.
Of course, the first post in this thread points out why "equal to or less than the shortest club in the bag" might be an unworkable standard. Still, I give Tiger high marks for thinking about the subject, and for giving a decent answer. Can it be an equipment rule (easily done, but hard in application) or a technique rule (hard to write, but more effective to the intended result)?
Actually, if it were easy to write a corrective ban on belly putters, I think the USGA would have written one 10 or 15 years ago. I think it is hard to do.
Look at the Sam Snead croquet putting; the USGA banned it almost overnight because it was easy to write a rule; both feet on one side of the extended line of the putt. That took care of it. If it were easy to write a no-anchoring rule, I think the USGA would have done so just as fast as with Snead's croquet putter.
Ol' Ray would just have to have used a shorter putter. He'd have managed.
Jeff - a six foot six guy uses proportionally longer shafts in all of his clubs than a four foot six guy, so if they're using the right equipment, their putters shouldn't be 'essentially the same length'.
To the 'only hands can touch the putter' guys, that won't stop the broomstick, as the top hand itself can be jammed against the body to brace the club.
KLG - nice one, but might still be open to interpretation. Lots of players 'anchor' the elbows to the side of the body. Now, you can pull the elbows backwards and bring the hands towards the torso until the wrists, and even the heels of the palms, are touching the torso. At what point are you anchoring?
You can't make the "putter" shortest, or equal to the shortest, club in the bag.
The word "putter" is nowhere to be found in the rules of golf. It is merely a club. Golfers call it a putter because of what it is generally used for. If this rule came into effect, then golfers would start putting with their "drivers." They will just call their long putters "drivers."
The rules of golf limit certain dimensions for a club and the club that golfers use for putting typically pushes the limits in a few areas (ie can't be deeper that the width of the face). But there is no definition in the rules for a "putter."
How about "a club designed primarily for use on the putting green must be the shortest of all a player's clubs " etc etc
Revision
"When making a stroke no part of the club shall be anchored to any part of the body other than the hand(s) or arm(s), whether such anchoring is passive (as when the end of the club pivots from a point on the body other than a hand/arm) or active (as when the top hand anchors the club to the body at a pivot point other than a hand/arm)."
If someone wants to use a long putter as Langer did or as Cabrera does, that's fine. Club length is not the problem. The problem is the relatively static pivot point, which removes at least one degree of freedom from the swing and thus constrains the stroke by making it more stable and reproducible. Better even than a beta-blocker, probably.
This shouldn't be that hard. ;-)
If you required the putter to be the shortest club in the bag, I bet you'd hear a lot of tall tour players balk, because their standard length putter may currently not even be the shortest club in the bag. I'm pretty sure my LW is 34.75 - my putter is 35 inches. Even though I'm not anchoring the shorter putter, I'd still be screwed by that rule.
Besides that, there is no definition for putter in the rules of golf, as other people had mentioned. There would have to be a lot of re-writing, not exactly making the rules simpler.
As for anchoring, this may be a moot point, but the club's not really anchored against the *body* - it's only touching your clothing, right? How would you confirm that you're actually anchoring it, i.e. that it's pressed against your body?
There would need to be an exemption for a 'putter broken during the normal course of play' during that round-also easy to write.
The players physical stature would not be an issue either-as a previous poster says taller people use longer clubs etc..
Methinks Tiger is being a tad disingenuous in promoting his solution particularly given he's not as strong as he used to be in knocking in those knee-tremblers.
In any case, I bet quite a few tour pros wouldn't bee too happy...
After thinking about this...there are 2 ways to solve this dilemma:
1) Mandate that there can only be a MAX of 2 body contact points on the club. Each arm counts as one "contact point". One handed belly putting would now be OK as would anchoring to forearms, armpits, navels, sternums, chins, sphincters, etc...get creative folks!
2) Re-classify the belly putter as a teaching aid thus prohibiting it through the back door...grandfather the guys currently using it for 12 months and then take all the left over long shafted sticks behind the barn and shoot em!
1. Clubs
a. General
A club is an implement designed to be used for striking the ball and generally comes in three forms: woods, irons and putters distinguished by shape and intended use. A putter is a club with a loft not exceeding ten degrees designed primarily for use on the putting green.
Putter grips can be different (separated by 1.5 inches minimum), putters can have two striking faces unlike any other clubs (this is what did in those two-faced chippers), etc. There are already PLENTY of separate "rules" regarding putters. They're just in Appendix II - right where the new "rule" banning belly putters would go.
FWIW I'm in favor of the "single grip that can't be more than 11 inches long from the butt of the club" rule (along with a rule perhaps on the maximum diameter of the shaft). If people want to putt by jamming the putter in their belly and gripping the steel shaft, by all means, let 'em. I don't think many people will go that route.