Why So Many Different Putting Grips (Video) - by Pete Styles
Why So Many Different Putting Grips (Video) - by Pete Styles

So why do so many golfers, professional golfers, club golfers have so many different putting grips? I think the answer to this really is, because we still haven’t found the perfect putting grip yet. There is no right and wrong answer for how you should grip your putter, because so many different players have so many different faults and needs within their putting grip. Some people are too left hand dominance; some people are right hand dominant. People who hit the ball too long too short left, too far right. So a putting grip is often a method of reducing the amount and the number of bad habits that you have in your stroke. So we can’t even decide as golfers, which way round we should have our hands.

You see the traditional method of left hand at the top right hand at the bottom for the right handed player; but I personally, putt with my hands back to front, I putt with my left hand below my right. And you see a lot of good players doing that. We can’t really decide on the length of the putter we should have. Sometimes we have the belly putter, sometimes we have the broom handle putter, we have a pen hold the grip, we have a claw grip. We’ve all these different types and methods, but the thing when you look at the good players and you say well why did you change to that? Very often is because they were struggling with that putting. Adam Scott doesn’t use a broom handle putter because he’s a great putter with traditional putter I can assure you. He just finds that method’s better for him and the guys that have changed to the claw method more recently is not because they had a brilliant round with a traditional method. They probably had a shocking round with a traditional method, felt like they were banging their head against a brick wall, so they decided to change. And it’s that haunt for that change that derives these new different grips. It might feel strange it might look a bit weird and wonderful and it’s certainly not in the teaching manual, but is producing a putting stroke that’s more consistent. And that’s the key to being a good putter, is more consistency; consistency of line, consistency of length. And if your putting grip can produce a good consistent role every single time, you can then adjust the line and the length. What we don’t want to do is think we’ve set up nicely, we’ve read the line, we’ve got the length and then putting grip lets you down and you hit a putt that you weren’t expecting. So don’t worry if your putting grip doesn’t quite look like everybody else’s. If it works for you and it delivers the club in a consistent fashion, then maybe you’ve just invented the brand new putting grip we’ll all be using in five years time. 2014-10-07

So why do so many golfers, professional golfers, club golfers have so many different putting grips? I think the answer to this really is, because we still haven’t found the perfect putting grip yet. There is no right and wrong answer for how you should grip your putter, because so many different players have so many different faults and needs within their putting grip. Some people are too left hand dominance; some people are right hand dominant. People who hit the ball too long too short left, too far right. So a putting grip is often a method of reducing the amount and the number of bad habits that you have in your stroke. So we can’t even decide as golfers, which way round we should have our hands.

You see the traditional method of left hand at the top right hand at the bottom for the right handed player; but I personally, putt with my hands back to front, I putt with my left hand below my right. And you see a lot of good players doing that. We can’t really decide on the length of the putter we should have. Sometimes we have the belly putter, sometimes we have the broom handle putter, we have a pen hold the grip, we have a claw grip. We’ve all these different types and methods, but the thing when you look at the good players and you say well why did you change to that? Very often is because they were struggling with that putting.

Adam Scott doesn’t use a broom handle putter because he’s a great putter with traditional putter I can assure you. He just finds that method’s better for him and the guys that have changed to the claw method more recently is not because they had a brilliant round with a traditional method. They probably had a shocking round with a traditional method, felt like they were banging their head against a brick wall, so they decided to change. And it’s that haunt for that change that derives these new different grips. It might feel strange it might look a bit weird and wonderful and it’s certainly not in the teaching manual, but is producing a putting stroke that’s more consistent.

And that’s the key to being a good putter, is more consistency; consistency of line, consistency of length. And if your putting grip can produce a good consistent role every single time, you can then adjust the line and the length. What we don’t want to do is think we’ve set up nicely, we’ve read the line, we’ve got the length and then putting grip lets you down and you hit a putt that you weren’t expecting. So don’t worry if your putting grip doesn’t quite look like everybody else’s. If it works for you and it delivers the club in a consistent fashion, then maybe you’ve just invented the brand new putting grip we’ll all be using in five years time.