Who Invented the Long Putter?
Interesting question. Rest assured that it was not Johnny Miller, this guy (see comments section), or this guy (although I would like to see the picture of him with a parrot on his shoulder). The earliest patent I could locate on a belly putter was filed in 1961 and issued in 1965 to Richard T. Parmley as USPN 
If only he could have collected a percentage of the winnings! Good job Richard, you were decades ahead of most golfers.
Dave Dawsey – Monitoring Belly Putter Inventions