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Longer length putters have been used in golf for over 30 years, and that helped many a golfer struggling with the yips to be able to knock the ball in the hole from short distances.

One of the many thoughts about longer putters was that it was the last resort for a golfer, and once you tried everything else you would try a belly putter or broom handle putter and you might be able to put well again. But as time has gone by, more and more golfers have been using them as their first choice of putting method, to the point that a 14 year old amateur qualified for the final round of the Open Championship using a belly putter. The more they have been seen on the PGA Tour and used by some of the top players in the world, the more common they have been in your local golf shop.

Looking at the yearly putting statistics on the PGA Tour, year in, year out, the players using belly putters were always low down the list and generally looked upon as not great putters. Many a pundit would say that you could never win a major championship using a long or belly putter. Then in 2011, Keegan Bradley broke the mould by winning The US PGA using a belly putter. This then opened the flood gates as three of the next four major championships were won by players using longer putters. At this point, there was an outcry with many people calling it a form of cheating.

Golfs governing bodies, the R&A and the USGA, deemed that the way the longer putters were used was illegal, and from 1st January 2016, rule 14–1b will be introduced, banning the anchoring of the putter. This means that you can still use a putter with a longer shaft but you cannot anchor it to your body, i.e. fix it into your belly. With this in mind, you would be much better off practising your putting with a normal length putter, working on creating a stroke that reduced the amount of wrist action by either changing your grip or letting the shoulders dominate and not the hands.

In general, the longer the length of shaft, the lighter the head of the putter. This is due to balancing the overall putter weight. But when it comes to belly putters, the head gets heavier because you hold the grip between 8-12 inches down from the butt of the grip. This keeps the feel and the weight like a standard length putter.

The belly putter will actually make you more consistent due to an increase in the number of short putts that you hole. This is all due to the reduced wrist action that plagues your short range putting, meaning you will start your putt on the line you intend to most of the time.

One of the biggest problems you will face when using a belly putter is controlling your speed on mid to long range putts. This is due to the lack of wrist hinge through the stroke with the butt of the grip fixed into the belly. Not only is the speed an issue but as you try to hit the putt harder you are more likely to push or pull your ball off line.