USGolfProTips

• R&A and US Golf Association to look at controversial club
• Belly putter sales up after Keegan Bradley’s US PGA win

Beloved by golf’s afflicted and loathed by the sport’s traditionalists, the belly putter is under threat. The US Golf Association and the R&A have decided to take a fresh look at the controversial club amid fears its growing use by tour professionals is undermining the spirit of the game.

Mike Davis, the executive director of the US Golf Association, revealed earlier this week the degree of concern within the sport’s governing bodies over the use of the clubs, which have become so popular on both the PGA and European tours over the past year. Davis said: “More players are using it, both on the elite level and the recreational level. We want to be sure that we are looking at all the angles and thinking about what is in the best interests of the traditions of the game, the history of the game, and what we think would be good for the game.”

“If you look back at the interest in it, it really never changed for over 20 years. All of a sudden in 2011 … this has become a much bigger topic. So the R&A and USGA have been talking about this at length, and we’re looking at it from the perspective as … what is good for the game for all golfers long term.”

Publicly, the R&A has maintained a relaxed view over the use of long putters but it is believed the organisation is privately pushing hard for changes in the rules governing their use. Any such move would be fraught and meet with opposition from equipment manufacturers and players who now use the club, but the traditionalists have the support of the sport’s biggest name.

Speaking on the eve of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Tiger Woods conceded he had never been a fan of the long putters and suggested a rule change of his own. “My idea was to have it so that the putter would be equal to or less than the shortest club in your bag,” he said. “And I think with that, we’d be able to get away from any type of belly anchoring.”

The former world No1, who has had putting problems of his own over the past couple of years, said he had spoken to Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the R&A, several times in recent years to push the case for change.

One possible move would be to outlaw “anchoring”, in which the player holds the end of the club against the chest or the stomach, allowing them to make a smoother pendulum motion. This way the clubs themselves would not be illegal but the method of using them would.

Keegan Bradley became the first player in history to win a major championship with a long putter at the PGA Championship in Atlanta, a victory that led to a surge in sales of the clubs. Odyssey, the company that manufactures the club used by Bradley, reported a 400% increase in demand from the general public, while the sport’s elite players were no less sheepish in their search for infallibility on the greens.

Among the high-profile names to have used long putters in recent times have been Sergio García and Phil Mickelson, while Ernie Els famously said of his decision to switch: “As long as it’s legal I’ll keep cheating with the rest of them.”

It was a funny line from the South African, who was once an outspoken critic of players who used long putters, but it may have been too close for comfort for those who run the sport.