Vinny Giles: USGA Is "Gutless" On Belly Putters

Let's skip the irony of that statement and go right to Jim Achenbach's report from the U.S. Senior Amateur, where long putter user and amateur golfing great Vinny Giles blasted the governing body for not acting on non-conventional putters.

“It’s been a good eight years that I’ve used a long putter,” Giles said. “I could go back (to a conventional short putter), and I wish the USGA had the guts to outlaw them (long and belly putters).

“We should not be able to putt with those things. We shouldn’t be able to putt with anything attached to our bodies.

“Why they’re so gutless, I don’t know. I want them to just say, ‘OK, we make the rules.’ If the PGA Tour wants to say, ‘We’re not gonna play by 'em, we’re going to bifurcation,’ fine, let 'em go.

“But we, as the USGA, should definitely outlaw those putters. There’s no issue, as far as I’m concerned. Nerves are part of the game. Crutches aren’t, and these putters are crutches.

“And that’s coming from somebody who uses one. It’s a lot easier for somebody who doesn’t use one to make that comment. I’m 100 percent in favor of a ban of them.”

Meanwhile, Doug Ferguson takes a look at the belly putter craze and says the numbers are still a long way from displaying domination by the silly sticks.

"It's like the two-handed backhand in tennis," Faxon said. "Twenty years ago, it was not the norm. Now it's the better way to go. The belly putter and the long putter are going to trend that way. Young kids are not going to be afraid to switch."

There have been ample anecdotes about an entire threesome using a long putter. Ian Poulter tweeted that of 10 guys on the practice green in Boston, eight had long putters.

More telling are raw numbers.

There were six players using longer putters in 2009 and 2010 at The Barclays, the opening playoff event for the top 125 players. This year, the number of long putters jumped to 20.