Even as he aged out of his prime, Sam Snead retained one of the sweetest swings in golf. His putting stroke was another story.
By 1966, when Snead was in his fifties, his struggles with the flatstick had grown so severe that he took extreme measures to address them.
At that year’s PGA Championship, where he double-hit a two-and-half foot putt with a stroke better described as a yip, Snead switched to croquet-style putting, straddling his line and swinging the putter between his feet.
The method worked.
Snead wound up T-6 that week. The following year, he ran away with the Senior PGA Championship by nine shots. At the 1967 Masters, at the Centrum Silver age of 54, he finished T-10.
Snead, it seemed, had solved the riddle.
But his solution didn’t sit well with some powerful people, including Bobby Jones, who didn’t like the optics. The story goes that the Augusta co-founder was irked enough by what he saw at the Masters to lodge a complaint with then-USGA executive director Joseph C. Dey Jr.
How much sway Jones had is hard to say. But what’s clear is this: just prior to the 1967 Walker Cup, representatives from th USGA and R&A convened in Great Britain and agreed on a new rule, set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 1968.
Its language read: “On the putting green a player shall not make a stroke from astride, or with either foot touching the line of the putt, or an extension of that line behind the ball.”
With that, the croquet-style was banned. It remains outlawed today.
And not just on and around the greens. The restriction applies everywhere on the course.
Not that swinging croquet-style with an iron or wood is a common temptation. It’s rare that you would ever think of using it. But let’s say your ball lands between two trees, leaving no space for you to take a conventional stance from either the left or right side. A croquet-style approach might be appealing. But it would violate the rules, carrying a two-stroke penalty in stroke play and loss of hole in match play.
After 1968, Sam Snead abandoned his croquet move in competition. But he did not turn his back on experimentation. He eventually switched to side-saddle putting, which was legal then and is legal today.
In case you’re wondering, you’re also allowed to putt one-handed. And with a belly-putter, so long as you don’t anchor the putter against your body. But no, you can’t use your putter like a pool cue, hitting the ball as you would a billiard shot. A putt must be struck with the head of the club.
If you’d like to learn more about the Rules of Golf, try the USGA’s online course. Completing it will arm you with the information you need to navigate most situations that might come up during a round, and it’s a great way to prep for the season ahead
