BOMB: Remember about two years ago when Ernie Els bellyached about the belly putter Trevor Immelman used to win the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open Tournament Players Championship of Europe? To quote the Big Easy, "They should be banned as nerves and the skill of putting are part of the game." Heck, the furor was such that Golf World even ran it as the cover story.
OK, some players have resurrected careers using the belly or the even longer broomstick. But let's throw a little cold water on the argument that they are panacea for all putting woes and an unfair advantage for those that use them. Basically, ShotLink stats show that those that use them aren't necessarily better off. And if they were such an advantage, don't you think more than five players at last week's FedEx St. Jude Classic would have used them? That's right, five—the numeral five! We've heard some rumblings that the R&A might be looking at a potential ban on these come 2008, but isn't it best just to leave this one alone?
GOUGE: Leave this one alone? For the love of decency and all things pure and holy and true as native fescue and three-jacks, long putters shouldn't merely be banned. They should be burned. And the people that use them should be sent off to their own island. The long putter, the belly putter, the neck putter, the halter top putter, the belt putter, the iron-lung putter, the iron-maiden putter—the whole lot of them need to be trashed. If you can't learn to shake it in the hole somehow with the stroke Old Tom Morris intended you to use (and one that at least in some small way resembles the actual stroke made on the rest of the golf course), I've got three words for you. I mean look at the putters that are out there now that have the moment of inertia of a fully-loaded cement truck. High-MOI on a putter means you can darn near hit it off the hosel and still get the ball to finish in the neighborhood of the hole. And if that doesn't work, there's still this.
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