At Golf World, we've started a contest that's become popular with our readers. Every Sunday, we invite readers to contribute a snappy comment for one item in the Front 9 feature each week. GW feeds the straight line; readers contribute the punchline, which we publish. We've been getting such a stream of quality responses that we think the winner and the close contenders deserve a little more love. Henceforth, the Editors' Blog will publish those each week.

This was the set-up line Editor-in-Chief Geoff Russell came up with this week:

"Phil Mickelson skips the WGC-Accenture Match Play and takes his family skiing instead."

The winning punchline, supplied by Kevin Vedder of Westfield, N.J., in this week's issue:

"Skiing on moguls is more fun than putting on them—at least those on the crazy greens at Dove Mountain."

Other punchline finalists:

John Fox, Wyoming, Ohio (a past winner):

"Proving once again that he's not yet over the hill."

Dave Andrews, Concord, New Hampshire:

"When he gets back, he'll be deadly on those 'Downhillers.' "

Peter M. Klein, West Chester, Ohio:

"Phil thought would be easier to get up and down on ski slopes than slopes at Dove Mountain."

Chris Hamman, Wichita, Kansas:

"And based on Phil the Thrill's February performance, the West Coast Swing could be renamed the RAZR X-Games."

Picking a winner is getting harder and harder—so keep the creative lines coming. We'll have another contest this Sunday on our Golf World Facebook wall.

--Stephen Hennessey

Letters and emails on the long/belly putter continue. They've also generated tons of comment on our partner forum site, GolfWRX.com.  When Tiger Woods this month weighed in on the controversy over "broomsticks" as one user put i t-- "I've never been a fan of it"--  the mail began anew. Woods suggested a rule keeping putters no longer than the shortest club in the bag, probably a wedge. He will find friends and foes on Golfdigest.com. Two recent letters

The USGA, Royal and Ancient and both the PGA and LPGA have tainted the game of golf by allowing a player to stabilize a club with his or her body. In respect for the great golfers of the past and some still with us, If a player uses that type of assistance, and wins a tournament, It should be noted by an asterisk.

Bob Kopp, Forty Fort, PA

I am a 65-year-old male with a bad back, playing to a 4 handicap. I have been using a belly putter on and off for a number of years. It helps with my bad back. I am now using a 37-inch putter with standard grip. If Mr. Tiger gets his way I will no longer be able to use my putter as my sand wedge is 35.5 inches in length. My take is if he feels the belly putter gives those who use it a unfair advantage then what is keeping everybody from using one. The way he is putting as of late, he needs to try one! Also, I can't hit any wedge above a 58-degree so they need to outlaw anything with a higher loft as I am not playing on a level field. Ha Ha.

Tom Roe, West Plains, MO

It appears that some sort of moderation to the rules will eventually come. But I wouldn't hold my breath. The next time the rules will be revised is 4 years from now. So, about then. 

Bob Carney

We've received a lot of mail about our "Woman Undercover" package in March, which with the help of LPGA player Kim Hall, gave readers an inside picture on how different kinds of women are treated by their male counterparts at the course. Much of the mail has reinforced the conclusion that women sometimes are given short shrift. This letter reminds us that it's not always the case.

Dear Golf Digest, 

I was happy to see your focus on women in golf and how the industry treats them, or should treat them. I have an 11-year-old daughter that has been playing for 3 years and we run into both the good and the bad. I have taught her to treat others with respect regardless of how they treat her. The courses that we continually return to, Thornapple Creek and Ridgeview (both in Kalamazoo), have pros (Tyler Eddy and Nancy Nagle) that have always welcomed her and other female players. There are courses out there that are doing it right.

Rick Beam, Portage, MI

Thanks, Rick. Michigan is an avid golfing state, one I'm very familiar with, and it's great to hear that these courses and golf professionals really "get it."

Long putters and belly putters should be banned! If a 60-year-old guy on the senior tour can't walk the course then he can't play and if he has the yips then he can't compete. Move on! And do something else with your life. When a 20-something pro does it's just sad! It's cheating grow a pair and use a normal-length putter. Anybody can steady their stroke with a belly or long putter, so why isn't it an advantage? It's the dumbing down of golf, at least when the NFL dumbs down their game it's to try prevent injury. The PGA and R&A are allowing golf to be dumbed down for marketing and weakness. I root against anyone close to the lead with the cheater putters! I hate the message it sends to the younger golfers, hey if you can't putt we can help you let us show you how to eliminate the need to learn one of the skills of golf. I think Golf World and Golf Channel should lead the way in banning these things. You know the OEMs won't. This is almost as good as painting clubs a bright color and calling it technology.

Jim Oliver

Perhaps I'm missing some of the intended points, but it appears to me that the "Long Gone?" article, and the article entitled "Appreciating That Golf's Growth is Everyone's Responsibility", suggest the USGA is pointing in two different directions at the same time. On the one hand the discussion suggests forward tees and 8-inch cups are going to help attract new players and retain others (I assume in an effort to make it more fun), while the "Long Gone" article suggests the money many have recently spent for a long putter (also in an effort to make it more fun), may soon prove to be a total waste! Talk about "recasting the notion of rules bifurcation"......

Roger Hall Susquehanna, PA

I find it ironic that in the same issue of Golf World, there is Ron Sirak's article "Long Gone" stating that the USGA is considering banning the "anchor" putter as well as Ryan's Herrington's article stating that the number of golfers in the US has dropped by 12.9% since 2003, and the need for the USGA to get more people playing the game. I can think of no action that the USGA could take that would drive more golfers from the game, particularly those senior golfers aged 50+, than to ban the anchor putter. As a 66-year-old golfer with a 7 handicap, there is nothing more frustrating than still playing a reasonable tee to green game, and then consistently 3 putting (or worse). I switched to the belly putter about 10 years ago, and the game remains enjoyable. Based on my experience at my club, my situation is not unique. If the PGA wants to ban it, that is their business, but there is no reason to force that decision down to the club level.

Dave Padley, Nashua, NH

To paraphrase Charlton Heston: The USGA can take away my long putter when they pry it out of my cold, dead fingers.

Lew Wessel, Hilton Head Island, SC

 

The USGA, in looking to grow the game, won't do it by banning the anchoring of long/belly putters. What will be next....banning extra large grips on putters, the cross-handed grip, the claw grip, adjustable drivers? The USGA should allow players, both pros and amateurs, to continue to choose the equipment and techniques that suit them best to improve their skills and enjoyment of the game. I've used a belly putter for years. If I can't anchor it to my belly, what is to keep me from anchoring it to my left forearm as I do when I chip with a lofted iron.....or is that going to be considering anchoring it also.

Jane Hilgendorf, Corona del Mar, CA

Don't expect any change to the rules anytime soon. The governing bodies, the USGA and the R&A, generally issue changes to the rules every four years. The next change will be the year golf comes to the Olympics, 2016. 

Bob Carney

Clint Eastwood joins the board of directors of Back9 Network, a new golf channel.

Stina,

Thanks for the invitation to send you my thoughts.... I don't want to defend men or attack women. If truth is the protagonist in this note, then the antagonist would be bad conclusions drawn by your authors. I know they state up front that their work isn't scientific but that doesn't give them carte blanche to draw unfounded conclusions. They came with an agenda, a preconceived notion of what to expect, and they gathered "facts" to support their conclusion (yes, that's the wrong order for research), and they wrote the story that they were planning to write before they left the office. They interpreted every negative observation they had as negativity toward women.

For example, when the two guys "roared off down the fairway" before the undercover twosome could join them, it was assumed they were trying to escape the woman. They left the man behind also (hello, I'm not stuffed sausage here!) Perhaps they don't like to play with strangers? In fact, I'd bet a steak lunch that they don't like to play with strangers. Lots of people go to the golf course saying, "I hope they don't pair me with anyone." I have often gone as a single or as a twosome with my son. I find that people there as a twosome (either two men or a man and woman) often want to play alone. It is a meeting or a date of sorts. Even when I do get paired with them they often stay to themselves and have the conversation they were planning to have without me.

Singles, of course, are fine and threesomes are usually more friendly than twosomes (someone for the odd 3rd wheel to talk to? I don't know.) My 11-year-old son and I are just the opposite. We enjoy, and especially he enjoys, meeting and playing with new people. He is always disappointed when we aren't paired with someone else. But often people don't want to be paired with us. But no more than I find when I'm a single. I was at the club last Wednesday by myself on an unscheduled day off work. It isn't Ladies Days but there were women teeing off in several groups. I was looking for a game and tried to make eye contact with some of them. They all looked away, none invited me to play, and I went out as a single behind them playing 3 balls. Was this "women hating to play with men"? I doubt it. I've see the same thing happen with groups of men. If they've got a normal group they play with and you're not in it, you're likely to not be invited until you are introduced, preferably by one of the current members. This is just normal human social behavior and nothing to do with gender or golf. BTW, why do we have a Ladies Day at the club anyway? There is no "Men's Day," or is it inappropriate to ask? And before you say, "every day is Men's Day," let me remind you that a woman can make a tee time any time but I'm not allowed to make a tee time on Ladies Day. This is very inconvenient on weeks when my day off just happens to fall on Ladies Day. I can't play my own club. So what do I see when I see women on the course? Generally I see men NOT treating them as equals.

Men are more polite to women, quicker to forgive slow play or etiquette breaches, and more eager to chat with them than a random guy on the course. The guys I play with are very intolerant of slow play but I have yet to see them pushing a group of women like they do a slow group of men. I think I have figured out one time that men really don't want to play with my son and I'm sure it would apply to women as well--when they don't want to have to control their language. If they are a group of men whose primary golf time entertainment is constantly telling risque jokes laced with f-bombs, having a kid along just won't let them have their normal round of golf. Same would go for a woman. And if they were paired with a woman and continued with their normal weekly routine, we'd see letters to the editor about the rude and crass men who cursed repeatedly in front of the women they were paired with. So I can see their point in this case. Usually this type of tight knit men's group will fill up the foursome and avoid awkward situations but could have last minute cancellations. Sometimes they are a twosome though.

Golfers of either gender often don't like to play with beginners who can't hit the ball, can't keep up, ask a lot of naïve questions about how to play the game, or generally make a fool of themselves. So when she played as a beginner, I can see the negativity that might have existed there and it should not have been interpreted as negative against women. When she played as a pro, I can see some men not wanting to get beaten by a woman. I have to apologize and soothe bruised egos all the time when my 75 pound son beats grown men (almost every time we are paired with a stranger). It makes them uncomfortable. That isn't hatred, that is discomfort. So I'd challenge your authors to take the same "facts" and write a story about how men don't like to play with strangers. The story would sound the same except it would say that they are generally glad to play with good looking female strangers. But you got a million hits on the article, riled up an angry misogynist and got a laugh out of that, and got general support from the politically correct crowd who knew they would agree with and support this article before they even read it. But thinking readers had to wonder if there might not have been other explanations for the observed behaviors of the unfortunate golfers who had their rounds made into data for a poorly formulated study. -- Jerry Stephenson