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IMPORTANT NOTE:
IN 2016 A NEW RULE WAS ADOPTED WHICH DOES NOT PERMIT ANCHORING OF THE PUTTER. PLEASE SEE THE USGA OR R&A WEBSITES FOR FULL DETAILS.
ANCHORING IS PART OF THE COURSE TEXT DESCRIPTION ON HOW TO USE THE LONG, BELLY AND/OR SIDESADDLE PUTTER WHICH DOES NOT NOW CONFORM WITH THE RULES OF GOLF. UPDATES TO THIS SECTION WILL BE MADE SHORTLY.
Putters are designed to make the process of putting efficient, comfortable, conforming with the Rules of Golf and traditional in nature.
Given the size and shape of many of the putters designed within the last decade, the traditional part of this equation seems to have left the barn. But many of the rules have been adapted to make the method used, as opposed to the club’s shape, “traditional” in nature. Thus the Rules’ design specifications make it awkward to use a putter in a non-traditional manner.
Two examples of non-traditional (and thus non-conforming to the Rules) approaches to putting are a shuffle board style of pushing the ball and a croquet style of putting (with feet on either side of the ball).
So long as those styles are not adopted, all that is required is that you strike the ball with the head of the club. You can hold the putter any way you wish. You don’t have to hold it on the grip. Your hands don’t have to touch each other, and you don’t even have to use both hands or your hands at all to hold the putter.
It is important to understand the nature of the movement in the putting stroke, however, and through that knowledge, we will understand why some golfers use unusual styles of putters with some degree of success.
Quick links:
Standard-length putters vary in length from 32 inches to 35 inches for men and 28 inches (less for juniors) to 34 inches for women. These lengths are within the standard range for a conventional style of putting. There is no need for putters to be swing weighted, which has been discussed, but changing a putter’s length will affect the MOI of the club but have little effect on performance.
Long putters in general are for people who have a problem with their putting. They are used with a split grip, holding the upper hand against the body (anywhere from the lower chest to the chin). The club is anywhere from 47 to 50 inches long, the posture is upright, and the putting plane shifts from the standard conventional putting style of about 10 degrees from vertical to about 5 degrees.
By pivoting the putter using the upper hand against the chest, the lower hand holds the putter at about 20 to 25 inches down the shaft from the grip end. There are generally two grips or one very long one.
There are two basic methods used to make a putt when using a long putter:
A - Using the big muscles and keeping the shoulders, hands, arms and putter fixed as a single unit, the player pivots about the spine axis between the shoulders.
B - Holding the shoulders still and keeping the butt end of the putter pinned to his chest, the player moves only the right hand and arm to swing the putter like a pendulum (tilted in a plane at about 5-degrees from vertical) suspended from the chest, pivoting the putter about the upper hand.
Method A is the preferred method, because it does not require that the right arm and hand to move independently of the shoulders as with method B, which requires movement across the body using the arm to swing independently of the rest of the body. When the arm (right arm and hand for a right-handed golfer) moves independently of the body, it is more difficult to keep it in a plane on both the back and forward stroke. For that reason, Method A has proven to give more consistent results.
The long putter style minimizes, if not eliminates, many body movements that carry with them sources of error leading to inconsistent performance. For instance, using the previous discussion of degrees of freedom, we can see that the long putter practically eliminates three degrees of freedom – moving the putter head Up and Down, Opening and Closing the face by rotating the wrists, and Breaking the Wrist. Additionally, if the players head is held still, the Swing Radius about the spine axis between the shoulder blades is not compromised.
Having said this, many have found that the use of the long putter on longer putts, for which judgment of the amount of force is required, is a little more difficult. It is similar to learning to walk with a splint on your leg. Eventually you may get to be very efficient at this, but it is obvious that you are somewhat handicapped.
The belly putter is longer than the traditional putter – 40 to 43 inches long – but shorter than the long putters and has a conventional lie angle of 72 degrees.
The reason for using a belly, or mid-length, putter is in most cases the same as those for using a long putter –an inability to control a conventional length putter. The advantage of using a belly-putter is that it takes the wrist break out of the stroke. The problem is that we introduce an additional problem in that the putter is pivoting about the belly – which should remain relatively static during the putting stroke -- and the hands are pivoting about the shoulders. This two-point pivot is not noticeably awkward for short putts, but when one tries to take the putter back for longer putts, it becomes more obvious that the right elbow must bend in the middle of the stroke to accommodate the motion, thus adding a source of error rather than minimizing or eliminating these sorts of problems.
There is an alternative stroke with the belly putter that eliminated the problem created by the standard belly stroke.
When using mid-length putter, the right-handed player extends the left arm fully, placing the left hand on the grip. The upper portion (above the left hand) of the putter grip rests against the left arm and the right hand is positioned on the end of the grip in the conventional manner – i.e. right thumb down. This upper hand then rests on the inner bicep portion of the left arm.
This grip minimizes the Up and Down degree of freedom and eliminates the Wrist Break degree of freedom while still maintaining a conventional stroke. This alternative would seem to be a more efficient stroke than what is normally seen with the belly putter.
When Sam Snead was banned from using the croquet style of putting between his legs, he very successfully began to use a similar style of facing the hole, looking at it with his head upright, and passing the putter alongside his body. This has become known as the side-saddle style of putting.
Two different methods of side-saddle putting have developed:
First:
Facing the target line and holding a belly-length putter – 72-degree lie angle -- with a split grip, right hand low and the left hand holding the end of the grip with the thumb pointing upward. The left hand is positioned directly in front of the middle of the chest with the left elbow anchored against the side of the chest. The pivot point is the left hand and the right hand and arm makes a natural (forward to aft) swinging motion – as in swinging the arm while walking.
Second:
Facing the target line, holding a long putter – about 45 to 48 inches in length and 79-degree lie angle – with a split grip right hand low and left hand – thumb pointing upward –at the end of the grip but positioned close to the right armpit. This second style allows the golfer to swing in a more upright plane i.e. at 85 to 90 degrees as opposed to the 80 degree plane.
Both methods of the side-saddle style will minimize or remove three degrees of freedom – the Wrist Break, the Up and Down, and the Opening and Closing of the face caused by rotation of the wrists.
The advantages of the side-saddle method are:
1) That you are looking at the hole the same way you see life every day, with your head upright, not tilted sideways (binocular vision);
2) It is a more natural swing (not across the body but back and forth);
3) You have reduced the sources of error.
The disadvantage is that with the first method you are restricted in the movement by the body and in both the first and second method you lose some feel because you have restricted the degrees of freedom.
