Keegan Bradley dumps belly putter, goes on birdie barrage at Memorial

Keegan Bradley was the first of four golfers to win major championships with anchored flat sticks, and now the formerly vociferous opponent of the rule change outlawing such putting methods is the first of the grand slam-winning practitioners to ditch his belly blade in favor of a shorter bat.

Bradley’s having tremendous success doing so, as the 2011 PGA champ and winner of two other tour events went on a birdie barrage to start off his start to this week’s Memorial Tournament. With a birdie out of the gate on No. 10 at Muirfield Village (he played the back nine first), and four more in a bogey-free opening round, Bradley left the field with a 5-under 67 -- just one shot back of a handful of early clubhouse leaders that included reigning Masters champion Bubba Watson.

Bradley has used an Odyssey White Hot XG Sabertooth putter since joining the tour three years ago. But he’s been practicing with a shorter version of the same model for a while, and with no wins this season and a strokes-gained-putting ranking that has slipped from 27th on tour in 2012 to 44th this year, it was apparently time for the change.

“No, maybe, we’ll see,” he told Rex Hoggard on Wednesday about whether he would put a new putter into play this week.

Players who tether their putters to body parts, including 2013 Masters winner and world No. 1 Adam Scott, have until the start of 2016 to comply with the USGA/Royal & Ancient ban on anchoring.

Here’s a side-by-side look at the new approach, via Golf Digest’s Luke Kerr Dineen:

So far, so good for Bradley.