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Bernhard Langer comes to grips with belly putter ban

By Brian Biggane
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BOCA RATON, Fla. -- With the USGA and R&A ban on anchoring looming next January, PGA Tour stars such as Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson have been moving from belly putters to conventional putters in recent months. Not Bernhard Langer.

Bernhard Langer is one of pro golf's most prominent players who uses the long "belly putter," which will be outlawed next 

Langer won the 2014 Schwab Cup on the Champions Tour using a belly putter and will have one in his bag when the Allianz Championship begins Friday on the Old Course at Broken Sound.

"I'm going to continue the way things are," Langer said this week. "Our season ends on Nov. 8, so then I'll have the rest of November and December and the first two weeks in January to figure out what I'm going to do.

"I don't want to practice one way and then in competition go back to the long putter. That makes no sense."

It certainly makes no sense for Langer to change anything until the rule forces his hand. He ranked second on the 50-and-over tour last year in putting and can still recall how a case of the "yips" with the short putter prompted him to switch.

A full 21 months after the ruling was made, he still can't figure out why.

"I've talked to a lot of people and I find very, very few who think this was a great change of the rules," he said. "As I've said before, if it was an advantage everybody would do it. Now, why is it only 14 percent of golfers use it, or whatever the percentage is.

"We all use the big-headed driver, we all use hybrids, we all use the modern 3-woods, graphite shaft, modern ball, because they're better. If I give you a long putter, you're not going to be a better golfer."

Two years ago, Langer said he would consider walking away from the game if the rule change is enforced. He backed away from that statement this week.

"That was more (a case) of you've got to know my sense of humor," he said. "I love the game too much, so no, I'll find a way to putt. I found a way before and I'll find another way again."

Langer found his way to one of the most remarkable seasons in Champions Tour history in 2014. He won five times, including two majors, with four seconds and 17 top-10s in 20 events.

"To do that is exceptional. Exceptional," Colin Montgomerie told the Arizona Republic at the season-ending Schwab Cup Championship. "It's been an exceptional year of quality and consistency, and that's what put him apart from the rest of us."

At an age (57) when most Champions Tour players are struggling to compete, Langer continues to amaze contemporaries such as defending Allianz champion Michael Allen.

"He's such a freak," Allen said. "He's the greatest worker of all time.

"He's a wonderful example of a professional golfer, of a professional athlete, to be in his shape and condition at this time. I really thought he should have been on the Ryder Cup team for Europe (last year). It's an honor to play with him out here, one of the people I love competing with."

The second-oldest player to win a Schwab Cup _ Hale Irwin was 59 when he won in 2004 _ Langer, who won the Allianz in 2010 and was second in 2013, is driven enough to feel it's not out of the question this year could be better than last.

"You have to set goals," he said. "It's a process, but you want to become better and I still believe I can get better. Every day I play, every tournament I play, there's shots, there's putts, there's chips, there's things where I could have done better. So I just want to get a slight bit better with my technique, or the way I think."

Noteworthy: Heavy morning rains cut Wednesday's morning pro-am to nine holes and pushed the start of the afternoon pro-am back a half-hour. ... Champions Tour rookies in this year's field are Pompano Beach's Guy Boros, Fort Myers' Nolan Henke, Windermere's Skip Kendall, Grant Waite, Frank Esposito and Jerry Smith. ... Allen looks to become the first Champions Tour member to defend a championship since Irwin won the 2005 Turtle Bay Championship.

This article was written by Brian Biggane from The Palm Beach Post and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.