So I am reading this article about this guy that altered his putter look slightly. He did not touch the face. According to the “rules guy”. This is illegal. I have put tape on the back of my clubs and putter, I have ground out bounce on wedges. I marked my putter with a paint line to mark dead solid center on the head. I have never touched a club face. How is what this guy did in his question to “rules guy” made his club illegal? I mean adding weight or grinding sole would make every club in my bag illegal. If someone could explain I’d appreciate it. If thats true every major Nicklaus or Trevino won should be taken down. I know for a fact they weighted clubs. I mean even tigers Scotty had holes drilled in the back to get the weight just right.
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Did you check out the Rule that he mentioned? If you did, you’d have read that the following would violate the “plain in shape” requirement;
“features that extend significantly above the top line of the head;”
The guy talked about glueing half of a golf ball on the top of the putter, which clearly extend above the top line.
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That’s why I’m asking the question. I have seen putters of every which way. I have only used an 8802 and an offset ping style anser blade putter. So like I see these spider putters and go that’s nuts and it sure isn’t plain to me. I do however, manipulate a lot of stuff with my clubs. Grinding the sole, I use lead tape a lot. I was told don’t ever touch the face that’s what makes it illegal. Like buy another wedge don’t even regroove. I guess I don’t see how putting a halved golf ball in those holes did anything. I actually remember a putter that was made with 2 balls back in the 80s. Ugly too. I’m more of a traditional guy. It took me 10 years to go to a 300cc driver and I cried when I gave up hitting my blades. But I didn’t play enough anymore so the cavities helped my game.
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Fun little Golf Digest post on the concept of the non-conforming putter, using Dave Pelz’s Three-Ball Putter.
Man, they did him dirty, IMHO. I wonder if Pelz was thinking there’d be no way the USGA’d allow Odyssey to do their wildly successful version, after what he went through?
I was trying to find if the ‘prong putter’, that Pelz mentioned in Putt Like The Pros, was conforming with the prongs on the backside of the face. Obviously, with them sticking out of the front like you’d be training with them, they’d both run afoul of the restrictions prohibiting anything protruding from the face, as well as be a serious handicap. But I thought I remembered in the book that guys were gaming that putter with the prongs flipped around on the back? Still, that way, there’d still be something sticking up from the top of the head, and therefore nonconforming by the rule @davep043 mentioned.
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I knew I remembered something like that thanks for jogging my memory. I knew I wasn’t completely nuts. Sucks getting old!
I never knew they banned it. I thought it was ugly then too. The odyssey was ugly to me too. I would ban it for ugly. Not my thing, But, I’m guess my question is more like using tape and grinding sole isn’t illegal then.
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Wow, so much is available on the net. Great backstory. I never knew this.
Thanks jay
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More than you likely wanted to know about the USGA Rules for Golf Equipment, here. Page 35 of the .pdf has some nice graphic examples of why certain putter clubheads would be nonconforming.
Interpretations for the Rules can be found here. Frankly, there’s a commendable effort in this edition to avoid legalese in the descriptions, versus past editions I’ve read. Yet the rules and interpretations still provide (IMO), concise and concrete guides for what’s conforming and what won’t be. Nice job, USGA.
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Not so much a Rules point, but a humorous piling onto the club alteration topic, I finally figured out why my new-to-me 5W seemed so off, and its shaft so much stiffer than other S-flexes I’ve tried: it’s 40.5 inches long. Anywhere from half an inch to 1.5 inches shorter than standard. I’ve got no idea where the guy I bought it from shortened it either. Oh well, that’s what epoxy is for…
So be careful buying clubs off ebay. On the plus side, I’ve learned so much recently about clubmaking…
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Thanks Jay that was an extremely interesting read! I’m glad I just like standard clubs! My driver is 46, so I don’t have to worry about that and my putter is 37 with just a slightly oversize paddle grip. I do have tape all over the backs of the club heads and some grinding on the soles so that’s fine
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