Capelle On Golf

Cheering during a Tiger Woods press conference?

I would have if I’d been there to hear him speak his mind on the belly putter:

“I’ve never been a fan if it. I believe it’s the art of controlling the body and club and swinging the pendulum motion. I believe that’s how it should be played. I’m traditionalist when it comes to that.”

Perfect! The man who usually says nothing in his pressers summed up the sentiments of those who hate the belly putter in 38 well chosen words. Now, if this was all there was to it, there would still be little hope that the belly is going to be banned any time soon.

But it’s not. It was just announced that the R&A and the USGA, in a recent meeting, opened up to the topic and have moved up the belly (and anchoring in particular) to the front burner. “It is something that I will tell you we have taken a fresh look at because there are more players in the game, both on the elite level and on the recreational level, using it,” said Mike Davis of the USGA.

On the other side of the pond, the R&A’s Peter Dawson, we just learned, has been the object of an ongoing campaign by Woods to get rid of golf’s worst creation. So, with golf’s two ruling bodies now more closely looking at it in tandem and the game’s most influential player pushing for it, the chances for a ban have, within a week, gone from next to zero to it could happen, and soon (by 2013?).

Woods’ plan for dealing with the belly is to institute a new rule that the putter can be no longer than a player’s shortest club. “My idea was to have it so that the putter would be equal to or less than the shortest club in the bag. I think that would be able to get away from any type of belly anchoring,” said Woods.

While I don’t see Woods’ plan happening, banning the technique of anchoring the club, either to the belly or the sternum, would do the trick.