A golfer in his 40s and another in his teens qualified for the Masters 105 days apart, their generation gap bridged by a broomstick shaft. The belly putters used by 43-year-old Ernie Els in his victory at the British Open in July and by 14-year-old Guan Tianlang in his win at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship this month are the pokers stirring the game's hottest controversy, one that has smoldered for decades.
Only three players before 2001 had won PGA Tour events using a long putter; that is a generic description covering belly putters and the longer broomstick models. At the British Open, Els became the third golfer in 12 months to win a major using a long putter. More than a quarter of that field used long putters, snapping the game's guardians to attention.
The day after Els's victory, Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the R&A, the organization based in Scotland that establishes the rules of golf in concert with the United States Golf Association, warned that anchored clubs were, in effect, being put on the clock. The use of the long putter by Guan, a teenager from China, which is just emerging on the golf scene, can be seen as further proof of the club's reach.
An announcement from the R&A and the U.S.G.A. on the fate of long putters is thought to be imminent. The battle lines are drawn, with purists on one side and pragmatists on the other.
Several high-profile players are caught in the cross-fire as the debate intensifies over whether long putters anchored against the body illegally enhance performance or represent a technological advancement that is part of golf's evolution.
Those supporting a ban include Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods and Tom Watson, who have won a combined 29 majors. Their argument is that anchoring the putter quiets the hands during the stroke, taking out of play nerves, which are a fundamental aspect of the game.
Brandt Snedeker, who finished first on the PGA Tour this year in strokes gained putting, is not a fan of the long putter. On Thursday's "Morning Drive" show on Golf Channel, he said: "When it comes down to having a five-footer to win a golf tournament, I know how I feel. I know my hands are shaking. I know I am very, very nervous. I don't think it is the same feeling if you have that thing stuck in your belly."
Els was among seven players who used long putters to win on the PGA Tour in 2012. This year, his first full season using the club, Els improved to No. 112 in strokes gained putting, from No. 181. But no player ranked among the top 10 uses a long putter, buttressing the argument that it is not a magic wand.
The de facto general of the broomstick brigade is Keegan Bradley, who as a 25-year-old PGA Tour rookie at the 2011 P.G.A. Championship became the first man to win a major using an anchored putter.
Referring to a possible ban of anchored clubs, Bradley said, "Now that it's becoming a reality, people with long putters are going to do whatever we have to do to protect ourselves."
In an interview last week, Bradley did not rule out taking legal action if the rule book is amended to prohibit players from anchoring a club to any part of their bodies, including their forearms.
"I'm not trying to bully anybody into doing anything," he said. "I just want to do whatever's best for myself and the other players that use the putter. I realize that there's some people who feel the other way, and they're entitled to their opinion."
'That Stovepipe'
In 1965, Richard T. Parmley received a United States patent for a long-shafted club described as a "body-pivot golf putter." This month, in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Tampa, Fla., Charlie Owens opened the trunk of his car and pulled out a long putter that he wished he had patented.
"This is my invention," he said, showing off the 52-inch club he made in the early 1980s by welding together two shafts. Owens named his putter Slim Jim, and it helped make his wallet fat; he won two events and more than $700,000 with it on the senior tour.
His victories came in 1986, nearly a decade after poor putting from inside five feet had driven him off the PGA Tour and into a job in Tampa as head professional at Rogers Park Golf Course.
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