For Your Consideration Belly Putterers: Sidesaddle

Thanks to reader Chris for sending along John Paul Newport's look at the sidesaddle putting method just in time to offer to-be-outlawed anchorers a ray of hope.

Dave Pelz, the research-driven putting guru, agrees. The best putter he has ever measured, including Tour pros, was a 10- to 12- handicap amateur who putted from the side. "He never, ever started a ball off line, and he was very good at distance control, too," Pelz said. The two primary advantages are the simple mechanics of the straight-back, straight-through pendulum stroke, and the use of binocular vision.

"When you are looking at the target straight on, using two eyes that are horizontal, that's how humans normally look at things. We have a tremendous ability to perceive depth and distance. But when you putt the regular way, your eyes are aligned vertically, and you have to swivel your head to see the target or you use just one eye. All that experience judging distance and seeing things accurately goes away," he said.

Pelz doesn't putt sidesaddle himself, primarily out of inertia and because none of his students do. "But if somebody told me I had to putt for my life, or the life of my kids, and gave me a few years to practice, I'd probably go with sidesaddle," he said.

Newport also explains the difference between this method and what Sam Snead did (which ended up outlawed).

There's also a video of sidesaddler Randy Haag, Olympic Club club champ 8 times, discussing why he loves the method. Keegan and Webb, this is for you!