Interest, and sales, have soared since Keegan Bradley’s PGA Championship win using a “belly” putter was just the latest of six Tour wins this year where younger players used versions of the longer clubs usually associated with senior players.

The recent success on the PGA tour of 31-year-old Adam Scott, 26-year-old Webb Simpson and 25-year-old PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley have revived interest in, and sales of, long and “belly” putters, which all three players have used, reports the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

Where it used to be felt that the long putters were only for “old guys” and seen only on the Champions Tour, used by players such as Orville Moody or Bruce Lietzke, their popularity has soared, especially after Bradley’s PGA Championship win at the Atlanta Athletic Club marked the first time a major tournament had ever been won by a player using a longer putter (prompting The World Golf Hall of Fame to request a replica of his putter to display). Overall, six PGA tournaments have been won by players using belly or long putters this year.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’m in a group where every single guy has got an unconventional putter, especially young guys,” Bradley said during the PGA Championship. “But it’s a great tool to have, especially in pressure situations, because you just put that right in your belly and it’s not going anywhere.”

Belly putters and long putters have been around for a while. The belly putter is so named because the end of the shaft is supposed to rest on the belly. The typical length is between 30 and 40 inches, depending on the player’s size (a traditional putter is between 18 and 36 inches). The idea is to have the end of the shaft rest on the belly button. The player makes a pendulum-type motion, which takes the wrists out of the equation.

Players still bend over to use the belly putter, and hold it with their hands together.

“You’re trying to secure the end of your putter into your belly,” said Pasadena Country Club Head Professional Brian Lake, who wrote a book in 2008 titled Putt Like a Pro. “It creates a solid pivot point. They are securing the end of the putter, which makes it a fixed pivot point. That makes the pendulum motion so much smoother.”

Belly putters must be fitted so the end of the shaft fits into the belly and the putter head lays flat on the ground. They can range in price from $30 to $175.

“They must be custom-fit,” Lake said, “not only because of the size of the person but the girth of their belly.”

The variation known as the long putter is designed to go up to the player’s sternum. Either the right hand or the left hand is placed on top of the shaft, and the other is placed lower on the club. These putters are more for players who have back problems or like to have their eyes farther above the putting line.

The swing required with a long putter is more of a true pendulum swing. It eliminates wrist hinge and shoulder turn, and it usually helps with the tricky 10- to 15-foot putts. More time is needed to learn distance control for putts farther away.

Long putters are generally between 37 and 66 inches long, and players should also be fitted for them.

“You hold the club, generally, at your sternum,” Lake said. “You hold your thumb at the top of the putter grip, and that becomes the pivot point.”

Long putters can be a little more expensive, ranging from $50 to $425.

Some believe belly and long putters are natural improvements to the game. “It fixes the misbehaving hands once they start going into that stage,” said longtime St. Petersburg putter manufacturer Bobby Grace. “That can happen at 25 (years old) or 35 or 45. It eliminates the yips. If somebody were to learn how to putt like that from the beginning, they’d be better off.”

The equipment does have its detractors, however. “It’s not a true stroke of golf,” said Rick Yarrington, a long-time custom club maker in Gulfport, Fla. “I’ve never liked them, and I never will. It gives you an unfair way to leverage the golf club and stroke the putt. A good golfer can take the hands and the wrist out of it all on his own. He doesn’t need (long putters).”

The putters are legal by USGA rules, which say putters may not be shorter than 18 inches, but there is no limit to their length. The putter is the only club with no length restriction.

The long putters started surfacing more than 20 years ago. Bernhard Langer, one of the more notable PGA Tour players who suffered from the yips (or nerves), turned to a “broomstick”-type putter and started putting better and winning tournaments.

Though the USGA has not limited the putter’s length, it has ruled on putting styles. In 1968, the USGA and the Royal and Ancient in Europe banned croquet-style putting, after Sam Snead tried it in an attempt to cure his shaky putting. The rule-making groups determined that style made putting too easy.

Now, players are making putting look easier with the belly and long putters, but putter-maker Grace thinks the train is too far down the tracks to make a rule change now.

“(The USGA) can’t remove them at this stage,” said Grace, who has made his F-22 long putter for 18 years. “It doesn’t remove the skill from the game. It’s not like you’re going to get one and start putting like a champ. When it takes skill out of the game, that’s when they see that it’s way too easy. If they were to take this one out, then they never should have allowed metal woods.”

Pasadena CC’s pro, Brian Lake, also believes long putters are here to stay.

“I think when Sam Snead straddled the line, that kind of took away some skill,” he said. “With these, you have to be sidesaddle, you still have to line up your putt. That still takes perspective, aiming and the stroke. It still takes skill.”

USGA’s Executive Director, Mike Davis, said he doesn’t think a change will be made.

“Yes, it has been looked at seriously,” Davis told the Golf Channel. “But if we (ban the long putter) and all of a sudden didn’t do something else with equipment, I think a lot of people would raise their eyebrows and say, ‘Wait a minute. You’ve done this and you didn’t do something else?’ So I think we’re probably where we are.”

That doesn’t surprise Yarrington, who has been making clubs for more than 30 years and has seen plenty of rules changes.

“The USGA is a strange entity,” he said. “They’re made up of guys who can’t break 100 and they’re making rules for the greatest guys on the planet.”