# Anchoring Putters and Square Grooves



## 373 (Jun 9, 2006)

There was a conversation in the pro shop yesterday. I'm interested to hear your opinions.

Of those among you or among your friends where you play, has anyone changed away from an anchored putting style? One of the guys in the shop yesterday was being teased in good natured fashion about using a belly putter. He said, quite simply, that he had no intention of ever changing. He is in his late 60s, definitely feels he putts better that way, doesn't play in tournaments or money matches and simply enjoys golf for fun. Admitting a bit of hypocrisy, he says he plays by the rules otherwise, but doesn't intend to change his putting style.

The secondary conversation that it gave birth to was about square grooves. I can relate to this better since I have some old Callaway wedges with square grooves and I still use them most of the time. I only play for fun, don't carry a formal handicap and never play in tournaments. I'll be 75 years old when the USGA says I'm supposed to get rid of my square groove wedges. I hope I'm alive then, much less playing golf, much less concerned about whether I have square grooves in my wedges.

What's the feeling on your end?


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## Fourputt (Nov 18, 2006)

I think I have one wedge left with the old grooves, and that's my Vokey 54° SW. I only use it from sand, so it may last me until the rule goes into effect. It doesn't really matter to me if I do have to change though. My Titleist AP-2 irons all have legal grooves, and I bought them a year before the groove controversy came up. I haven't been able to put a dramatic amount of spin on a ball since balata went away. For me it's much ado about nothing.

I've never used an anchored putter, never plan to. I only know one person who does, and that's one of the pros at my home course in Colorado. He won't have any choice but to change his style with the belly putter when 2016 rolls around. He doesn't putt any better with that than I do with my standard putter, but I assume that he must feel that it helps him to putt better.


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## 373 (Jun 9, 2006)

Fourputt said:


> I haven't been able to put a dramatic amount of spin on a ball since balata went away. For me it's much ado about nothing.


Agreed... I never felt I did more with square grooves than V grooves. If there was ever a shot I hit where I noticed more spin than normal, it would have been somewhere with really good greens. Here at Killian Greens, the greens are so hard nothing sticks because of spin. We joke that if you make a ball mark, you have to buy a round of beer for the whole group.


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