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( Putter (golf))
In the sport of golf, a putter is a specialized club designed to push or roll the ball along the ground towards the cup. They are generally used from very close distance to the cup, generally on the putting green, though certain courses have fringes and roughs which are suitable for putting. While no club in a player's bag is absolutely indispensable or required by strict rules, the putter comes closest even though it is so highly specialized; it is the best tool for the job and virtually no golfer is without one. Putters are designed for use on the golf green where they are suppose to hit the ball to roll on the surface of the green to land in the hole, thus completing a "hole" in a game of golf which consists of several such holes, usually eighteen but sometimes more or less. Putting is the most precise aspect of the game of golf and so the putter must be designed to give the golfer every technology advantage including smooth stroke, good glide, sweet impact, and bounceless topspin ball launch and every technique advantage including perfect fit as to shaft angle and length. The optimum design would embody all the features that help the golfer in sinking putts and none of the features that hinder the sinking of putts. Power adjustability and practice/play convertability are features embodied in the latest putter design technology. A putter may not have more than 10 degrees of loft, and is the only club that may have a shaft that is not perfectly round. Though most putters have a 32-35" shaft (slightly smaller for ladies and juniors, longer for most men), putters are also made with longer shaft lengths and grips, and are designed to reduce the "degrees of freedom" allowed a player when he putts. Simply, the more joints that can easily bend or twist during the putting motion, the more degrees of freedom a player has when putting, which gives more flexibility and feel but can result in more inconsistent putts. With a normal putter, the player has six degrees of freedom hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, waist and knees, all of which can be moved just slightly to affect the path of the ball and likely prevent a putt from falling in the cup. Such motions, especially nervous uncontrollable motions, are called "yips", and having a chronic case of the "yips" can ruin a golfer's short game. German professional golfer Bernhard Langer is famous for having such a severe case that he once needed four putts to hole out from within three feet of the cup[1]. A belly putter is typically about 6-8 inches longer than a normal putter and is designed to be "anchored" against the stomach of the player. This design reduces or removes the importance of the hands, wrists, elbows, and shoulders. A long putter is even longer and is designed to be anchored from the chest or even the chin and similarly reduces the impact of the hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders. The disadvantages are decreased feel and control over putting power, especially with the long putter. Their use in professional tournaments is hotly contested; Pro player John O'Hara and others on the pro tours including Langer and Vijay Singh have used belly putters at some point with a marked improvement of their short game, while players like Tiger Woods and officials like former USGA technical director Frank Thomas have condemned it as conferring an unfair advantage on users.[2]
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