willdugdale

Hi Ara Selai, I've been using a belly putter on and off for about 10 years. During that time I was playing on some of the many tours and as scratch handicap amateur. Here are my thoughts on your questions: Firstly, I'd still say that it's just like any other putter, you do have good days and bad, however I find I'm better at certain things with the belly putter them with a short one. My stroke and the contact seems much more solid and less likely to collapse, or flick at the ball because the top end of the putter is anchored in my stomach, so I'm less worried about whacking the ball miles past. Unfortunately you still do miss putts left and right, so it's no magic bullet for that, but my hot streaks seem to be hotter than with the short stick and I feel I have a better judge of distance on extremely fast greens. When the belly putter goes cold I usually find that checking my address position (ball position, alignment etc) sort me out. One major disadvantage however is that when your belly putter goes cold, it can go REALLY cold! You don't seem to have the same ability to manipulate the face into the right position at the last moment, because the stroke is more mechanical. Not that much really. I found it incredibly intuitive to start with and had success straightaway. I used to think this is well, and it's probably true that the belly putter isn't quite as good on REALLY long putts - say, 100 feet or more. The reason is that it's quite hard to get the power you need for such a long putt when part of the putter is stuck in your belly. I have found a solution for this, though. I find on medium to long putts that I grip the putter (with my hands) much closer to the point where it is stuck in my belly, so that this way I get greater leverage on the putter itself. I would now say are better long-range putter that I was before. I have used both the regular putter with a long shaft in it and a purpose-made belly putter. The purpose made putters are heavier, which probably does give you a better sense of the head, but I've found that I've been successful with both. One thing that is quite difficult to get right, though, is the exact length of shaft that you need. Until you've got this exactly right, you'll probably find belly putting to be a bit hit and miss. Wow, I got a bit carried away there! I am a bit of a fan of the belly putter! You might find the following instructional webpage I put on my website useful: Belly putter instructions Hope that helps

Hi Everyone, I've just come across this awesome forum. Why don't you give the Odyssey Backstryke a try? It really does seem to roll the ball in a different, softer way to other mallets (which I find a bit heavy handed), and I absolutely love it on fast greens. Like this review says (click the link), it even has an original Anser style "ping" sound too!