If you normally use a conventional putter, the first swing or two you take with a belly putter will feel awkward. But as you continue to test it, you'll start to understand how the belly putter could pay off. Wedging the end of the club against your stomach helps you make a more consistent arc with the putter head and eliminates wrist action, reducing a variable in the stroke.
For some golfers, this can pay off. Take the case of Vijay Singh, a player who admittedly likes to fiddle with putters but who has, after all, successfully tackled the rolling greens of Augusta National Golf Club and putted well enough to briefly take over the No. 1 player in the world spot.
Singh put a Never Compromise Milled belly putter in his bag for the Mercedes-Benz Championship last week in Kapalua, Hawaii, and putted well enough to claim the trophy. His 1.764 putting average was second best in the field.
So what's to stop every golfer from using a belly putter and gaining an advantage over those with traditional putters? Most golfers find that they lack feel with the belly or long putters. From 10 to 20 feet from the pin, you may see improvement, but it's hard to gauge distance on longer putts.
"There's a core group out there (who use the longer putter), but it's no more than 3 to 5 percent of the entire putter category," said Steve Boccieri, president and CEO of Heavy Putter. "If Vijay Singh is using a belly putter, that raises awareness. But on the PGA Tour, outside Vijay … Fred Couples had to go to it. (That small number) stands pretty true to the industry."
But in a marketplace where 1.5 million putters are sold each year, that's as many as 75,000 putters.
Boccieri says that the company decided to make belly-length versions of the Heavy Putter based on demand from professional players on the Champions Tour.
"The funny thing is that our technology is so different from putters on the market that I don't feel it's necessary to use the belly or long putter, but out on the Senior Tour, the guys are yippy, wristy. In order to have putters in play, we started to focus on them," he said.
Through testing with the senior players and reconfiguring the weight used in the putter, Boccieri was able to produce enough substantial data to create a belly-length putter that pleased him. By collecting so much data on the pros, he could make a putter that worked for well for most amateur golfers.
On the other hand, consumer demand drove Rife Putters to offer some of its putter models in longer lengths.
"It was really a consumer issue," said Matt Molloy, president of Rife Putters. "Belly and long putters are just part of the industry now and I don't think they are going anywhere. They may not be as popular as back when they were first introduced, but there will always be demand for them."
Regardless of whether manufacturers begin offering belly putters for pros or the public, they find challenges with manufacturing and retailing the clubs.
"They are more difficult to fit to the consumer," Molloy said. "Belly putters have to fit just right or they can be very cumbersome. As a small company we cannot afford to carry a number of different lengths, so we only carry 43 inches. Chances are the consumer will have to make adjustments to the putter on their own to get it just right."
Because golfers may need belly putters that range in length from 39-1/2 inches to 46 inches, retailers would need to stock several different lengths of each putter model to effectively fit all their customers.
"Retailers know they're really only going to get 3 percent of putter sales (from the belly putter)," Boccieri said. "They don't want to stock that many different SKUs."
To get around the issue, Boccieri said that Heavy Putter essentially custom builds each longer putter that is ordered.
"It's a tremendous nuisance," he said. "The shafts are different. The grips are two-piece or 21-inch single-piece long grips. It takes an artist to install the grip - it's so long and cumbersome. It's a real labor of love to build. I'm telling you, you do it for no money."
Perhaps fortunately for the manufacturers who experience these challenges with the alternative-length putters, consumers are unlikely to begin demanding significantly greater numbers of the putters.
"I don't expect a big jump even if someone like Vijay continues to win with it," Molloy said. "People have most likely tried them by now and have a pretty good idea if it is right for them. Those who have found them to be of great benefit will continue to stay loyal to them because they know that they will continue to help maintain their angles throughout the stroke."
If you do decide to give a belly putter a try, get properly fitted for one. A longer putter that does not fit correctly could do more harm to your stroke than help. Even using them solely for practice purposes can help you maintain a smoother arc and reduce wrist action when using a standard-length putter.
