Wrist Putting, Should I Use My Wrists When I Putt (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Wrist Putting, Should I Use My Wrists When I Putt (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

Now this is a great question related to golf wrist putting and it’s probably the most commonly asked question that we get, is should I be using my wrists when I’m putting? And to the greatest extent the answer is no, you shouldn’t be using your wrist when you are putting. A putting stoke should be largely a pendulum action backwards and forwards from the shoulders and ideally we would reduce any amount of wrist hinge. It’s quite a big difference between a full swing and a putting swing and one of the areas is a biggest difference is how your wrist works. I do say largely we won’t use our wrist because I’m very, very long putts when you have the length of a green you might just need a little bit of wrist hinge and wrist release to generate the maximum distance. But for most mid to short length putts there is absolutely no wrist hinge in a putting stroke. So when you go ahead and take your set up position the grip should identify the fact that you are not trying to use your wrist, so it’s a different putting grip to the one you would use let’s say when you are hinging and releasing during a full golf swing.

So we have a grip that identifies we are not going to use so much wrist hinge. And then as we are taking the club backwards and forwards, you can see as I let that club rock backwards and forwards there, that my shoulders are in charge of this action, my left shoulder is rocking up and down my right shoulder is copying and following and the putter reacts by just staying firmly in my wrist and firmly in my hands and arms and it doesn’t hinge. The problem with hinging and flicking and releasing here is I lose a certain amount of control over that club head. That can cause two problems, it can change, the line that I’m hitting my putts on because the club rocks inside and outside too much. I can also change the pace of my putts too much because I make what I feel is a short back and through stroke, yet the putter moves a long way back, and a long way through, because it has been flicked with my wrists. So if you feel that you are a genuinely inconsistent putter you miss left right long and short, can sort of your wrist are doing too much work in your putting stroke, you need to get rid of that wrist break and that wrist hinge, control it much more with the big muscles of the shoulders and you should be a much more consistent putter. 2014-10-06

Now this is a great question related to golf wrist putting and it’s probably the most commonly asked question that we get, is should I be using my wrists when I’m putting? And to the greatest extent the answer is no, you shouldn’t be using your wrist when you are putting. A putting stoke should be largely a pendulum action backwards and forwards from the shoulders and ideally we would reduce any amount of wrist hinge. It’s quite a big difference between a full swing and a putting swing and one of the areas is a biggest difference is how your wrist works. I do say largely we won’t use our wrist because I’m very, very long putts when you have the length of a green you might just need a little bit of wrist hinge and wrist release to generate the maximum distance. But for most mid to short length putts there is absolutely no wrist hinge in a putting stroke. So when you go ahead and take your set up position the grip should identify the fact that you are not trying to use your wrist, so it’s a different putting grip to the one you would use let’s say when you are hinging and releasing during a full golf swing.

So we have a grip that identifies we are not going to use so much wrist hinge. And then as we are taking the club backwards and forwards, you can see as I let that club rock backwards and forwards there, that my shoulders are in charge of this action, my left shoulder is rocking up and down my right shoulder is copying and following and the putter reacts by just staying firmly in my wrist and firmly in my hands and arms and it doesn’t hinge. The problem with hinging and flicking and releasing here is I lose a certain amount of control over that club head. That can cause two problems, it can change, the line that I’m hitting my putts on because the club rocks inside and outside too much. I can also change the pace of my putts too much because I make what I feel is a short back and through stroke, yet the putter moves a long way back, and a long way through, because it has been flicked with my wrists. So if you feel that you are a genuinely inconsistent putter you miss left right long and short, can sort of your wrist are doing too much work in your putting stroke, you need to get rid of that wrist break and that wrist hinge, control it much more with the big muscles of the shoulders and you should be a much more consistent putter.