Masters Tourney Thread

[eric5148]

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Quote:
why should the way Tiger putted the ball be against the rules?



IIRC, back in the 30s Sam Snead used to not be a great putter, so he began putting with a putter that he could use like a croquet mallet, between his legs. They outlawed that, so then he would putt side-saddle, essentially facing the hole when he putted. I've tried it before, it makes putting pretty easy IMO from short distances.

Anyway, I can't remember the menusha involved in the rule change, but essentially it had to do with the fact that you have to address the ball perpendicular to the direction that you're aiming. Tiger was facing the hole, and used the toe of his putter to tap it in, just like every amatuer does on every 2 inch tap in every single weekend.

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Last year I was playing a tournament and some weenie kept bitching at me about this rule.

What I did was tap in a 6 inch putt standing behind the ball, using the back of my putter. I tried explaining to him the reason why they have the rule is so that people can't putt croquet style all the time, like Snead did. It shouldn't matter if it's just a tap in. But he didn't care about logical reasoning, so I had to stop doing it.