Stockton On Phil Using Belly Putter: "He likes to be ahead of the curve and obviously this is where the curve is going."

John Strege catches up to Phil Mickelson short game advisor Dave Stockton, who was busy killing doves and was surprised to find out his student had gone from a real putter to a belly-bracer.

"I was surprised," Stockton said from his Southern California home. "Ralph Cross, my agent, texted me that he's using a long putter and I was out in the field hunting doves."

An avid hunter for whom the dove opener in California is sacrosanct, Stockton might have been incommunicado even had his prize pupil sought an emergency consultation. But had he been available and learned from Mickelson himself he would have been no less surprised.

"It is surprising that a really good putter would switch to it," Stockton said. "When we first saw them [belly and long putters], they were for people with yips and couldn't putt. Now, good putters, great putters are going to them.

"I would be surprised if he went to it full time, but he likes to be ahead of the curve and obviously this is where the curve is going."