It brought Rick Shiels nearly half a million video views on YouTube. It almost broke Twitter when former baseball pitcher John Smoltz sashayed into a green with one at the Diamond Resorts Tournaments of Champions back in 2020.
Golfers couldn’t believe the self standing putter, which stood up on its own and allowed you to check if you were lined up, was legal.
Now the circus has ended. An R&A and USGA move to limit its use came into effect at the start of 2025 after a two-year delay on its implementation ended.
The putter itself isn’t banned, if it conforms to the governing bodies’ equipment rules, but the very point of its existence is essentially undermined in a clarification to Rule 10.2b.
That rule, among other things, stops players setting down objects to help with aiming, taking stance, or swinging, and clarification (10.2b/1) specifically says the use of a self standing putter for alignment help is forbidden.
“The player (or their caddie) is not allowed to set such a putter down to get help in any way that would breach Rule 10.2b,” it read.
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If that wasn’t clear enough, the clarification goes further giving a detailed example of when you’ll be breaking the rules if you’ve got such a putter in your bag.
“The player must not set the putter down in a standing position right behind or right next to the spot where the ball lies on the putting green to show the line of play or to help the player in taking their stance for the stroke in breach of Rule 10.2b (3).”
The penalty for refusing to obey is not inconsiderable – two shots in stroke play and loss of hole in match play.
Are standing putters legal?: Why didn’t this happen as part of the 2023 Rules update?
Given it’s two years since the last big Rules of Golf update, you might be asking why this part of the book was delayed.
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About six weeks after it was first unveiled by the governing bodies, they announced a two-year cooling off period. But that postponement ran out on January 1, 2025.
And though the putter isn’t officially consigned to the scrapheap, even now these limitations are in effect, it may feel to some of you like much of its purpose has ended up in the sin-bin.
Another of golf’s more interesting experiments has come to an end.
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