LOCAL GOLF - Belly Butter Ban? - Yay or Nay?

With all of us being golfers, we have heard about the proposed new rule change taking place in 2016.   The change to the "Belly Putter."  I took some time to think it over.

Golf's leading governing powers actually didn't go all out and "ban" the club.  Just the way that that club, like any other club can be swung.  The rule is that no club can be anchored to your body when you swing it.  It steadies the club, and gives it a "pivot point" per say, thus making that particular swing easier.   Look at it anyway you want, pro or con.  That's the reality of the anchoring of the club.   It makes it easier.  Many of the pro's wouldn't do it if it wasn't.

Since about 47 percent of our strokes are on the green, this is a significant amount of the game.  Perspective - golf has been around for 600 years.  Many equipment improvements have been made, courses are better and longer, and greens smoother and faster.   But none of that makes the game easier. In fact, just the opposite.   Not that golf is ever easy.  But an anchored club is simply that. Steadied, when the nerves and skill level may not be so much.

Better equipment has made the game more mass appeal.  Drivers made out of space age materials are longer, and supposedly straighter.   But there's still plenty of hacks out there with 500 dollar drivers and 1,000 dollar irons.  Most of them are just hitting the ball deeper and faster into the woods or water.  Because in the end, it's the swing that matters.  Holding the club out at bay, in your hands and doing all that is required to make good shots is harder than you might think. 

Golf and baseball are probably as tough as any game there is to play well. Both require the most skill overall.  Taking nothing away from basketball or football.  But in those sports, it is possible to "out-athlete" people, and overpower the opposition.  In baseball, amazing hand-eye coordination is key to hit or catch a 100 mph ball.  In golf the opposition is the course and of course yourself trying to get the lowest score you can with the allure being that this is an incredibly difficult game.   Make it easier, and you remove some of the allure.

They've tried hard to make baseball easier at the professional level for decades to please the fans. Lowered the mound, added too many teams and watered the talent pool.  Invented the designated hitter so pitchers don't have to bat.  Made new stadiums band-box style where home runs fly out at breakneck pace.  Plus, the umpires no longer call high strikes.   And it hasn't made the game better, just longer.

This change to the belly putter basically will only affect the various professional tours at this point.   Weekend hacks like us for the most part will still be able to do what they want if they wish.  Only they can make that individual choice.   But the best players on earth, playing the hardest game on earth should have to play it without violating one of its basic premises.  PGA pro's should play it all the way out, the hard way.   In fact, the courses they play by and large should be set up even tougher for them.   Golf's intention is to challenge par, and for par to challenge you.  At tour events, professional players shouldn't be shooting 20 or 25 under par.  That's too easy, but they get their feelings and egos hurt to quickly playing par golf.  As will many pros about this belly putter business.

Golf is hard. Plenty hard.  Subliminally that's the reason most of us love to play it.  It's the hard, that makes it the great game that it is.