Should belly putters be illegal in the game of golf?

No

1 of 1

by Lawrence Poploski

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I play golf with a fairly accomplished player. He's a low handicapper with a deadly accurate long game and is polished with the short sticks. He regularly cashes in during our leagues' skins game, and usually sits atop the leader board in league earnings each year. Recently, he fell victim to a terrible illness that often plagues players of his caliber and worse, and I was present the very moment the afliction reared its ugly head for the first time.

Andy (his real name) was staring down an easy 4 foot slightly downhill putt that was virtually dead straight. Children that play miniature golf could hole this putt 9 out of 10 times so simple was the challenge. Andy bent down for a quick line read, assumed his putting position and then suddenly it happened. It was horrific. While his backswing with the flat stick caused no alarm, his follow through stroke was so convoluted it looked like the rotor blade of a helicopter breaking apart as it crashed into the ground. Instead of a low, smooth follow through, Andy's putter blade rose quickly in the air, shaking violently and clipping the ball nowhere near dead center. That simple four foot putt sailed past the hole by ten feet, missing on the left by a least 16 inches.

Like the rest of our golfing group, I stood in frightened silence at what I just witnessed. We turned to each other for a non-verbal confirmation that what we just saw really happened. It did. I could see both fear and sympathy in the glances of my playing partners, as they knew what I suspected. Andy confirmed our suspicions. "I think I have the yips," he said quietly, his head bowed low in shame. The remainder of the round was a sad experience. Poor Andy tossed darts at the pins on the back nine, stiffing at least 5 shots within 4 feet of the stick. Instead of picking up well-deserved birdies and skins cash, he suffered a series of three putts and one four banger, He clearly was no longer in communication with his putter, and by the time we holed out on 18, he was using a modfied claw grip that resembled nothing any of us had ever seen on any golf course by any player. Andy was forlorn and desperate, a great player now shattered by the dreaded yips.

The next time I saw Andy, he pulled a belly putter from his bag, "This is the only way I can putt without the yips making me look like a damned fool," he explained apologetically. Andy stood over his first putt of the day and although he failed to drop the easy 10-footer, it did come close to the hole and his stroke mechanics were more than acceptable. Andy was back in business, able to enjoy playing the game he loved without having to suffer from terminal yips the rest of his life.

Belly putters should definitely be legal. The people that use them are not good putters. Many are like Andy, guys afflicted with the dreaded "yips" or guys who just simply can't putt worth a lick with a traditional stick, and if not for the belly blade, they might even consider giving up the game. I personally find belly putters amusing, a cause for smirks and smiles when a player reaches in his bag and pulls one out with a 4 footer staring him in the face. Guys who use belly putters are not oozing confidence. For the most part, they are just players who are tired of being the brunt of jokes about how bad they putt and will try anything and everything to roll the ball anywhere near the hole. Let them have their belly putters and suffer in dignity. Their suffering is our amusement.

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