What Are The Benefits Of Using A Belly Putter In Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
What Are The Benefits Of Using A Belly Putter In Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

Join me on the putting green now with this monstrosity. It says on the label here that this is 43 inches long; my standard putt is only 34 inches long, so a huge difference and this is classed as a belly putter. You might have seen quite a few guys on the tour using these putters some to quite good effect. Well, other people think it’s cheating using a belly putter. In fact more recently the R&A and the USGA have agreed that it is cheating and from 2016 belly putters and any putt that’s going to be anchored into the body aren’t going to be allowed.

So let’s look at why they decided that a belly putter was giving somebody an unfair advantage. Basically it’s the concept that having something anchored into the body shouldn’t be allowed in the putting game anymore, they want the putt to hang freely. Problem being that a lot of golfers who actually have problems with their putting have a little bit too much wrist break and wrist release, therefore you can see this end of the putters wondering around. If that end’s moving then that end must be as well quite inconsistently it’s not going with the same speed, it’s not also aiming in the same direction. So golfers found that by anchoring the putter into their belly they take this inconsistency out of the equation, they can then make a good grip rock the club back and through nice and smoothly, without too much wrist hinge. And having the putter doing that gave them more control of the speed of the putts but also the line of that putts, so that would be the advantage of using a belly putter. However I would consider at the moment I am filming this 2014 in the summer; I would consider that changing to a belly putter now knowing that the new regulation is coming in 2016 is probably not the smartest move. But if you are really struggling with your putting and you just want to have a year or a go trying a belly putter to see whether you can get more consistency that’s the sort of thing we’d be looking for is less wrist action, more shoulder action rocking backwards and through, and not so much flicking and scooping. And that’s a brief description of how belly putter might work for you. 2014-10-10

Join me on the putting green now with this monstrosity. It says on the label here that this is 43 inches long; my standard putt is only 34 inches long, so a huge difference and this is classed as a belly putter. You might have seen quite a few guys on the tour using these putters some to quite good effect. Well, other people think it’s cheating using a belly putter. In fact more recently the R&A and the USGA have agreed that it is cheating and from 2016 belly putters and any putt that’s going to be anchored into the body aren’t going to be allowed.

So let’s look at why they decided that a belly putter was giving somebody an unfair advantage. Basically it’s the concept that having something anchored into the body shouldn’t be allowed in the putting game anymore, they want the putt to hang freely. Problem being that a lot of golfers who actually have problems with their putting have a little bit too much wrist break and wrist release, therefore you can see this end of the putters wondering around. If that end’s moving then that end must be as well quite inconsistently it’s not going with the same speed, it’s not also aiming in the same direction.

So golfers found that by anchoring the putter into their belly they take this inconsistency out of the equation, they can then make a good grip rock the club back and through nice and smoothly, without too much wrist hinge. And having the putter doing that gave them more control of the speed of the putts but also the line of that putts, so that would be the advantage of using a belly putter. However I would consider at the moment I am filming this 2014 in the summer; I would consider that changing to a belly putter now knowing that the new regulation is coming in 2016 is probably not the smartest move.

But if you are really struggling with your putting and you just want to have a year or a go trying a belly putter to see whether you can get more consistency that’s the sort of thing we’d be looking for is less wrist action, more shoulder action rocking backwards and through, and not so much flicking and scooping. And that’s a brief description of how belly putter might work for you.