PGA bans belly putters

[Leonaerd]

Effective 2016. Most pros support the decision, but there are many who are furious, and even threatening to sue.

My thoughts are simple: Having the putter rotate around your gut as fulcrum makes swing mistakes less severe than with a traditional style, where your hands are the fulcrum (as well as your shoulders). Put everybody on the same playing field. Maybe teach them some basic physics.

[Boogahz]

I always thought those were used due to back injuries. Didn't know that they could be used by anyone.

[Winnow]

Put everybody on the same playing field. Maybe teach them some basic physics.

Aren't they on an equal playing field now? Anyone can belly putt if they want to.

[Leonaerd]

Anyone can belly putt if they want to.

This isn't about everybody being able to have the same help. It's about eliminating the cheat. Anchoring makes the game easier. It makes mistakes less damaging, and scores better than they should be.

[Canelek]

Chi Chi Rodriguez learned by using guava sticks.

[Fairweather Pure]

They should go back to wooden clubs then.

[Leonaerd]

This isn't like that. Not sure what point you're tying to make but I'll respond anyway.

This is more like if a lot of pros started winning using these clubs that had a mechanism to straighten the club face before impact, which would take away from the skill needed to prevent a slice or hook.

And then it takes 30 years to acknowledge that it's a feature best left out of golf.

[Aslanna]

If everyone can use them I don't see the big deal!

[Leonaerd]

It's the same reason EQ > WoW. Keep it challenging. Even moreso with golf, because it's direct competition.

[Canelek]

*shrug* golf is fun but this news ranks somewhere between a skateboarding squirrel and a quilting festival.

[Leonaerd]

Whoa.

A quilting festival

[Canelek]

Seriously, golf is rad. I just never liked the wacky putters. Likely, because I've never used them and they just look silly. Well, silly by golf standards.

[Kilmoll the Sexy]

The only real uproar is because they slipped up and allowed them for so long. They never should have been allowed at all. It appears the R&A is trying to eliminate some of the ridiculous innovations that have come out and allowed people with lesser skills to thrive. They have done it with the elimination of square grooves in the irons, the establishing of a COR maximum and shaft length limits on drivers, and now the anchoring of putters.

I seriously doubt they will go backwards with shafts and heads to wood again, simply because the advances in some of those materials did not necessarily alter the game as much as other innovations. The golf ball itself would/should be altered before club/shaft materials. They should have been listening to Nicklaus and Palmer from the beginning and they would not have to go back and ban silly shit that never should have been allowed.