Home of Golf ambassador Padraig Harrington would not have won favour with his decision to use a belly putter during the opening round of yesterday’s (Thurs) Wells Fargo Championship at Charlotte, North Carolina.
Harrington wears the R & A logo on all his attire but the St. Andrews-based ruling body seems certain to join the USGA in shortly announcing a ban in achoring any club to the body.
Harrington’s decision to pack the belly putter into his bag for the $US 6.7m event goes against his comments last year when he suggested anchoring of the belly putter or long-handled putter should be banned.
“I took it out last week, and mechanically everything I do with my putting stroke is better with the belly putter than without it,” said the triple Major winner.
Padraig Harrington turns to using the belly putter for a first time in his career. (Photo – Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
“So, obviously, I’d still be lacking a bit of feel with it. But in terms of if you were to measure your putting stroke everything is better with it.”
However most observers would consider the move to have been a backward step with Harrington crashing to near the tail of the field with a score of 80.
But then a check of Harrington’s putting stats reveals he had 32 putts.
Harrington disclosed in the lead-up to the Wells Fargo Championship he visited a putting lab and had his stroke analyzed and immediately saw all the numbers related to the stroke and the impact the club makes with the golf ball were better.
His feel for the new method, however, has taken longer.
“In terms of the mechanics, it was a far better stroke,” he aded.
“Obviously, feel is an issue when you haven’t used it before, but it was great (Wednesday). It wasn’t very good today, but I will use it again tomorrow.
“But that’s just familiarity, as I said, and it will be interesting to give it another go for the second round.”
And when Harrington was questioned on the ethics of using the belly putter, given there has been so much controversy, he seems now to have joined the camp of fellow Open Champion, Ernie Els saying that while it’s still legal he will be dabble using the belly putter.
“The R&A and USGA support the rules of golf, and anchoring is well within the rules,” he statted.
“Anchoring is bad for the game of golf. But if something’s going to help me for the next 3½ years, I’m going to use it. It’s the same as the box grooves. It’s hurt me deeply having the box grooves banned. I knew it wasn’t good for my game, but it was for the good of the game.
“But for the majority anchoring shouldn’t be there. It doesn’t look good. The commentators are talking about it. You are talking about it now. It’s a story, and just like the grooves. As much as the grooves cost me dearly, not having the box grooves, I know nobody wants to talk about that now.
“Six months after they were gone, nobody talked about it. It will be the same with the putter. Once it’s banned, six months later everybody will move on. And there is no doubt there are individuals that it’s going to be tough on.
“But it cost me a couple of shots a day, at least a shot a day, not having the box grooves because that’s my style of game. So it’s not like it hasn’t happened before. But for the game, I definitely think that, no, I don’t agree with anchoring at all.”
