Belly putter impact on Tour Championship

In the past two years, belly putters have been the talk of the town.

There had been talk about them being outlawed, but it all really started when Tiger opened his mouth, and said how much he hated them. I mean, why wouldn't the movement start when the greatest player in the world says he hates them.

There have been four majors won with belly putters in the last couple years, and that also led to the ban.

Starting in 2016 you can not anchor a putter above the waste, and forearm. This has caused a lot of controversy recently because some of the influential players, such as Webb Simpson and Keegan Bradley, have spoken out about the rule. The controversy will most likely continue up until the ban goes into effect.

This week at the Tour Championship there were only three players anchoring putters, and they were Adam Scott (2013 Masters winner), Webb Simpson (2012 U.S. Open winner), and Keegan Bradley (2011 PGA Championship winner). These are probably the most notable players to anchor, and it isn't a shock any of them were playing this week.

All three of these players finished in the top half this week, and Simpson had the high finish of fourth.

There wasn't a huge impact from belly putters this week, but Adam Scott with his long putter had a chance early in the week. And sitting third in the standings going into the week, with a win he would of taken the Fed Ex Cup home with him.

Personally I am not a fan of the belly putters, mostly because I putt better with a standard non-anchoring putter. But I am also not a fan of the ban because I see it as the players getting creative to improve weak parts of their games, and I don't see anything wrong with that. I don't see it as cheating.

At the Presidents Cup in a couple weeks, there will be the same three players, and Ernie Els being the fourth, who anchor. Two on each side, which really doesn't make either side cheating, right?

In the next couple years there will be much more controversy, and we will get to truly see how the putters affect the players when they have to switch in a couple years.