PGA Tour: Is the Belly Putter Good for Golf?

"Nerves and the skill of putting is part of the game...take a tablet if you can't handle it, " said Ernie Els in 2004 referring to Trevor Immelman’s use of a belly putter.

Fast forward seven years and Els could be seen walking around the greens of TPC Boston yielding his own belly putter after trying everything under the sun to regain his ability to sink short putts. 

Adam Scott, Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson have also switched to belly putters this season.

Keegan Bradley recently became the first player to win a major championship while using a long putter, and Webb Simpson has won two out of his last three events while using the same belly putter he has been relying upon since his college days.

“Personally, I think that it's an easier way to putt,” Keegan Bradley said after winning the PGA Championship. “Especially when there's some nerves or it's in there and it's not going anywhere.”

Yet this latest belly putter craze is likely just a trend. After all, belly putters have been around for 30 years, and Bradley is the first player to win a major while using one, causing it to become one of the most polarizing issues in the game today.  

Very few players or officials have absolutely no opinion whatsoever on the matter. 

That being said, not many players have made their opinion known quite like Frank Lickliter did back in 2004 when he called those who used long putters  “Cheatin’ (expletives).”

“It turns people with no clue how to roll the ball into adequate putters. I can’t wait for the USGA to outlaw it,” Lickliter went on to say.

Well, seven years later Lickliter is still waiting for the USGA to take any kind of action on the matter.

Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson have all called on the USGA to ban the use of belly putters, although their pleas seem to have fallen upon either deaf, or uninterested, ears. 

“I thought the art of putting is to try and figure out how to try and swing both arms together,” Woods said at the 2004 Memorial Tournament. 

“Anything fixed, I don't think that's right. Not only a belly putter, but a long putter, as well. That's the art of putting, is to try to figure out how to get your synchronization done with both arms and your hands at the same time.”

Watson, who has been struggling with a case of the yips since the mid-1980s, refuses to switch to a belly putter as he views it as a form of “cheating.”

During a recent interview with Golf Channel’s David Feherty, Mickelson’s caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, was asked what he would change about the game of golf today, to which he replied that he would ban the use of the belly putter. 

Needless to say, that interview took place before his boss had Odyssey create an exact replica of the putter Bradley used during the PGA Championship, which Mickelson proceeded to put into play last week. 

One could only imagine how “Bones” might answer a similar question in the future.  

The issue at hand for those who are against the use of belly putters is not the length of the putter, per se, but rather it’s the fact that players are able to anchor the golf club against their bodies, which many view as an unnatural golf movement and the equivalent of a crutch.

Those who are for the use of belly putters will argue that the club doesn’t eliminate the need to read putts and roll the ball at the correct speed, which are certainly two vital components of putting.

Those who are against the use of belly putters will argue that while hitting a driver, you still need to aim the ball and make a good swing, but that doesn't mean that the use of a training aid to eliminate a flying right elbow should be allowed during tournament play.

Back in 1968, the USGA banned Sam Snead’s croquet method of putting, saying that it was an unnatural golf movement and that players could not straddle the line between the ball and their target.

However, some might argue that Snead’s croquet method was actually more of a natural golf movement than the use of a putter which is anchored against a player’s body.

With Snead’s method, players were still forced to use their arms and hands, which are the parts of a golfer’s body most susceptible to nerves. With a belly putter, players can simply aim the ball, lock their arms and turn their shoulders. 

Which brings us to the other major issue many people have with the belly putter.  As Els mentioned back in 2004, nerves are part of the game.

A player’s ability to control his or her nerves while standing over a putt to win a major championship has always been what’s separated the good players from the great ones. 

Today, guys like Bradley and Simpson are able to essentially take the effect of shaking hands and tingling fingers out of the equation through the use of a belly putter.

In past generations, golfers that couldn’t deal with their nerves were forced to find a new occupation. 

Today, if you can’t handle the heat, well, simply switch to a belly putter.

If the USGA wanted to eliminate the use of belly putters, it would not be a completely unprecedented move under the rules of golf.

Appendix II of the Rules of Golf state that "the club must not be substantially different from the traditional and customary form and make.”  One could certainly argue that a putter which allows players to anchor the club to their bodies could be construed as “different from the traditional and customary form and make.”

Interestingly, the USGA has also limited the minimum length of a putter to the height of 18 inches, yet they have not set a limit for the maximum length of a putter. 

Arguments over the use of belly putters have quietly been raging for years. However, the recent success of players like Simpson and Bradley, combined with many big-name players such as Scott, Mickelson, Els and Furyk migrating away from standard putters, has once again brought this issue to the forefront.

Perhaps it’s time for the USGA, who are charged with governing and protecting this great game, to take another look at whether or not belly putters are indeed good for golf.  

Goodness knows, the USGA has let golf club and golf ball technology get away from them over the past decade. Maybe, just maybe, with some swift action now, they can at least regain some control over the putting aspect of the game.

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