Half of golf is fun; the other half is putting.
−Peter Dobereiner
It wasn’t that long ago that Steve Flesch was putting “very poorly.”
You wouldn’t have known it last week at the Masters. The southpaw was dropping par-saving putts in the throw-up range and beyond like it was no big deal.
According to a piece I read in The Tour Van, Steve replaced his belly putter with a Never Compromise Exchange 5 putter three weeks ago.
“I can be a decent putter with the belly putter,” Flesch was quoted as saying, “but I’m not going to be a great putter and run the tables with it. I just kind of made a commitment and said, I’m going back to the short putter and, hey, I might have some struggles early on, but I’ll get my feel back.”
Steve won twice in 2007, both times with the belly putter. Still, he saw its limitations and made the change that put him in contention at Augusta.
“I think you can significantly reduce your feel, especially on short, breaking putts from five, six feet,” he said about his banished belly putter.
−The Armchair Golfer
I think the PGA should follow suit and ban all belly/long putters. I think these kinds of putters are maybe OK for training aids, especially the belly putters, but they need to stay outside the ropes.
Especially since the PGA told Sam Snead he couldn’t putt croquet style (or was it called straddle style?).
I’ve never been much for the unconventional grips either, but I think you should be allowed to grip the club any way you want, provided it allows you to strike the ball within the rules.
I talked to Orville Moody last year, and he reminded me that he was the first (or at least one of the first) to use the long putter on a major tour (Senior Tour). That was about 20 years ago. He took a lot of heat, he said, and the R&A and USGA were strongly considering banning it. A poor putter, it revived Moody’s career. He cleaned up for a few years on the Senior Tour with the long putter and his daughter on the bag.
Yeah, I could swear that you wrote a piece about him here and made mention of that. It seems funny to me that the USGA and the R&A seem so picky about drivers and irons but not as picky about putters. Maybe that’s a mistaken impression.
Your comment reminded me of the conversation about the yips here; did you ever check out Bob Prichard’s website, Somax? The analyses were very interesting, and I was able to use the info to my benefit.