Rules Roundup Reviews: Unity Good, But How About The Belly Putter?

Jim Achenbach feels the Monday joint announcement by the USGA and R&A is "is unprecedented for golf" and bodes well heading into the next few years and Olympic games. 

In the past, the rules were the same around the world, but individual countries or golf associations often created their own layouts and formats.

The rulebook is reissued every four years by the USGA and R&A, the two governing and rules-making bodies that oversee golf around the globe. This time, they vowed to produce a uniform rulebook.

“Well, it may sound easy, but it wasn’t,” said Thomas Pagel, the USGA’s director of the Rules of Golf. “It was complicated and difficult, and it took a lot of time to get it done properly.”

In the past, the USGA occasionally reprinted the Rules of Golf every two years. There is a 2010-2011 edition of the rulebook, although it is the same as the previous printing. The only change is the title.

Pagel affirmed there will be no more two-year editions. All new rulebooks will read 2012-2015 to support public recognition of the four-year rules cycle. However, the comprehensive Decisions on the Rules of Golf will continue to be published every two years (the 2012-2013 edition will be available in November).

In another fun Pond Scrum, Steve Elling and John Huggan bat the changes around and praise the adjustments made, but also long for one that does not seem to be on the governing body radars.

Elling: Yeah, Simpson is probably sitting at home saying, "I'd rather have this new 'Simpson rule' informally named after something that didn't cost me my third tournament victory this season." Speaking of tweaks, the joint announcement by the two rulemaking bodies called it "an exhaustive, four-year review of golf's 34 playing rules." You ever seen a USGA or R&A guy who looked exhausted?

Huggan: If exhausted means the same as "mildly inebriated," then, yes.

Elling: I guess they were too tuckered out to weigh in on the real rule issue du jour, the belly putter and the question of whether anchoring the club to the body in some fashion should be permitted. Oh, well, there's always 2015!

Huggan: I interviewed USGA director Mike Davis at length during the Walker Cup last month. It was for another media outlet, but I can tell you not to expect any action there any time soon.

Elling: Isn't inaction an action?

Huggan: In R&A and USGA world, anything is possible. And nothing.

"It's a Durham institution."

Tamara Gibbs reports on stalled talks between the city of Durham and SunTrust Bank over donating Hillandale Golf Course to the city before its planned shuttering on October 31. The course is credited as a Donald Ross with modifications by Perry Maxwell and George Cobb.

With financial losses at Hillandale over the last few years, the bank decided to close the course and give workers their notice.

Despite the impending close date, golfers remain optimistic the City of Durham will step in.

"Losing Hillandale would be a big blow to Durham, so I'm kind of in favor of them taking over," golfer Stu Burns said.

SunTrust has offered to donate the course to the city, but there are some financial strings attached.

"I certainly don't want to see them inherit any of these bad contracts, though, 'cause I don't understand how this place is losing money to begin with," Burns said. "It sees more play than any other course around."

City leaders have said they would be willing to operate the course but not take on its financial burdens.

So far, no decision has been made. SunTrust says it can't disclose the details of a potential last minute deals.

The Gibbs report on video shows a well-conditioned course with a loyal following that is struggling to understand why the busy course is losing so much money:

"So, yes, I would make the long putter illegal."

Steve DiMeglio chats with Dave Stockton about his new putting book and perhaps more interesting than repeating his thoughts on the long putter, was one ray of hope we haters of the anchoring craze can cling to:

Anchoring takes some skill and nerves out of putting. I go back to Sam Snead. They outlawed his croquet putting because he straddled the line. Well, what difference does that make? When long putters came out, they were being used by players generally who weren't good putters to start with. The long putters let them hang in there. Now you have a generation of players who started using the long putters at a young age. Now, saying that, I would never start a kid with a long putter when I could see if he or she could perform with a short putter. I just think the short putter is much better on long putts and it's much better in the wind. So, yes, I would make the long putter illegal.

"I’m beginning to wonder if we’ve actually over-developed junior sports in this country."

Sally Jenkins pens a must-read column (thanks reader John) on the state of American golf and tennis player development and opens with a nice play on one of her old man's great lines: "There’s nothing wrong with American tennis and golf that a double-dip recession can’t cure."

This, I've heard from a few college golf coaches and credit Stanford's Conrad Ray for having the guts to say what so many other would like to say:

When I asked Stanford University golf Coach Conrad Ray why international players are winning majors while young Americans are not, he suggested I check out the Web site for the Sage Valley Invitational. It’s the most prominent tournament for juniors in America, and it’s a lovely event — maybe too lovely. It’s held on a beautifully groomed course designed by Tom Fazio.

This year’s field of 54, who ranged in age from 14 to 18 and included 15 foreigners, got personalized lockers in the clubhouse, and top caddies to carry clubs and tend their pins. The sponsor Electrolux paid for all of their travel and expenses, and they were showcased by CBS in a taped hour-long broadcast. The winner’s trophy and blazer were presented by PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem.

Basically, they were treated like they had already arrived.

“It’s amazing to see how much they are given, and what the experience is at a young age,” Ray says. “If you go down that road, that’s what you start to expect, and want.”

And the home run point by Jenkins, which would seem to support the cause of those who believe initiatives like The First Tee are far less helpful in young people's lives than better access to actual golf courses and self-taught talent:

Think about it. The golden age of American tennis in the 1970s was dominated by self-styled champions who learned to play in town parks: Arthur Ashe, son of a public park policeman; Billie Jean King, fireman’s daughter and a public park champion; Chris Evert, daughter of a teaching pro from a public park; Jimmy Connors, son of a toll booth attendant, taught by his mother in a back yard.

The golden age of American golf in the 1930s and ’40s was dominated by bitterly poor kids who were self-schooled: Ben Hogan, son of a widowed seamstress, who never finished high school and delivered newspapers to support himself; Byron Nelson, another poor dropout who snuck on to the Glen Garden Country Club course at night to practice in the dark; Sam Snead, still another self-taught caddie, who went to work at the age of seven.

For some reason, lately we’ve been telling kids in this country that golf and tennis are hard to teach, and expensive to learn. They aren’t. What we should be telling them is that it doesn’t cost a dime to imagine greatness, and they don’t need many tools to invent themselves. All they need is the ground under their feet, and some sticks.