[Martee]

Originally Posted by mcflog

The belly putter and the long putter should have never been ruled legal by golf's governing bodies. I made one once and it is a decent training aid, but they should not be legal in actual play. I think a lot of tour players (less now than before) look at it as a sign of weakness and it has a negative stigma attached (the real reason VJ switched back??). I know it's helped a lot of people.... but it's not golf

I think there were one or two pros that were vocal about the longer putters being "unfair" for some reason. Jealousy, I'm sure - because it made some players better putters and they didn't like it.

But I've never heard any logical reason for them to be declared illegal. Any argument against them is only going to open the door to say many other "game improvement" advances in technology are equally unfair. The biggest one being the golf balls fly too far on the PGA tour. You no longer have to be a shot maker. Just bomb it and hit half of the fairways -and you'll do just fine.

The understanding or theory I heard was that it provides a fixed point which is not available with other golf strokes/equipment.

There have been some articles floating around, World Golf for one.