Sports

Golf bodies lining up ban on belly putters

As expected, Wednesday morning began the death knell for “anchored” putting in golf.

In an announcement made by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and the U.S. Golf Association, a new rule was proposed to “prohibit the club from being held with a hand that anchors against the body,” according to R&A Chief Executive Peter Dawson. That would essentially ban the belly putter, which was used by three of the past five major champions, as well as a style of using a chest-high putter, commonly referred to as a broomstick.

“In no way does the USGA and the R&A want to stifle creativity,” said USGA Executive Director Mike Davis. “What the change is going to do is clarify the game and describe what a stroke should be.”

The rule change will not take effect until 2016, as both governing bodies update the rules just once every four years. Dawson said that for the next 90 days, they will be listening to comments from all comers before etching the rule in stone. The PGA Tour said they would wait before making a decision on the rule.

Davis made it a point to say that this is not an equipment issue, performance issue, or aesthetic issue. That means that long putters are not banned (as long as they’re used properly), not an issue to restrict people from scoring better (Davis said there were no solid studies on anchored putters saving strokes), and not an issue about stopping something because it looks unconventional (like they did with croquet-style putting).

Instead, this was about better describing the nature of the stroke, and that if anywhere on the golf course – not just on the green – a player finds a way to anchor his or her swing around a single pivot, then a penalty will ensue. Part of the wording of the rule states there needs to be “intention to anchor,” and if that’s the case, in match play it will result in a loss of hole and in stroke play it will result in a two-stroke penalty.

If a long putter is pressed against the forearm, that is considered OK. It is also OK to use a chest-high putter just as long as there is not part of your forearm or hand pressed against your body for stability. Other unconventional styles, such as “the claw” grip and cross-handed have not been effected and are still legal.

“It’s non-traditional and it doesn’t look like the golf stroke that we’ve had for years,” Jack Nicklaus, 18-time major champion, said on Golf Channel. “They’ll come to the best decision for the game of golf, because that’s their interest.”

The opponents to belly putters, which included Tiger Woods, believe that all of the clubs should be swung freely away from the body rather than around a single pivot, which was reiterated by both governing bodies. Proponents have many issues with the rule, the first concern being that it makes a game that is falling in popularity and in participation easier and more enjoyable to play.

There are also many other pressing issues with technology, the foremost of which is controlling the distance the golf ball goes, which has made golf courses more expensive to maintain and has forced some of the classic courses of the world either drastically change or get bypassed.

“You have 17,000, 18,000 golf courses in this country that are obsolete for the pro,” Nicklaus said. “If you fix the golf ball, you’ll probably fix 99 percent of the problems.”

bcyrgalis@nypost.com