EXPONENT OF BELLY PUTTER FOR FIFTY YEARS

FROM HUGH McCORQUODALE, Inverness

Copy of Email sent to Ted Bishop of the USPGA and David
Rickman of the RandA

ANCHORED INTEGRITY

The proposed introduction of a ban in 2016 to any method of putting which incorporates a anchoring technique is now top subject in most golfing conversations. 

My opposition to this proposal relates in no way whatsoever to the mechanics of a golfing strike. The fixed point in putting has been accepted and condoned for 50 years since its appearance a the 1963 Open at Lytham, and in particular by the men who sit on the Rules Committee of the RandA at St Andrews, every four years. 

These are the men whose prime incentive is to ensure “the underlying principal of rules is fairness”. These are the eminent doyens of golf who ratify and regulate the rules to which we play this game. 

The present spokesperson of that rules committee suggests pressure from well regarded sources as the reason for considering and supporting this banning proposal. 

Let me put my point of objection to this proposition as resolutely as I possibly can.

Since the inception of golf in the Middle Ages and supported with enthusiasm and dignity by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews from the second half of the 18^th century, the game of golf has seen many changes. 

The one element however which has never changed and is the baserock of the game so many of us love is “participant integrity”. Guilt, or suspicion of guilt, of a lapse of integrity is looked upon with incredulous disbelief and disgust by golfers at those who perpetrate such an action. 

The stigma imposed never leaves, not even after one’s final demise. For fifty years I have been an exponent of the belly putter, having used it through all these years as a pro and as an amateur to this time. I face the prospect of being guilty of using an illegal putting method and have therefore cheated as does every other golfer in the same boat. 

The men who sat on fourteen rules committees whether they be dead or alive are deemed as incompetent.

Golfers, no matter age, sex, creed, colour, size, shape, religion or of any propensity imaginable can adopt this method if they find it brings more enjoyment and success, the ultimate goals in golf. 

What right has any individual or any clique for that matter to condemn a method which is open to themselves to adopt on the premise that it does not meet the requirements of correctness? 

In an environment where golf clubs biased to draw and to fade, £1000 shafts, titanium heads, multi-compression golf balls are all available and are tailored to each and every one's needs if they wish to pay for it.

The word Integrity is what golf is built on and is displayed by countless millions of golfers all over the world on an ongoing basis. 
To accept a practice for 50years which is then decreed as illegal on the voice of men of little virtue who fail to recognise the road we have come and the point we have reached.

Right or wrong, anchored putting is as close to “cast in stone” as it possibly can be and should continue to remain acceptable. I rest my case.

Hugh McCorquodale

Inverness