Cross Handed Putting Basics In Golf (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Cross Handed Putting Basics In Golf (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

With this cross handed putting method, I often get asked, "what are the differences that you have to make with the rest of your stroke?" Obviously we've made a big fundamental difference, in that we're now gripping the club back to front effectively like a left hander. What else do we need to do differently with this, and actually the answer is very, very, little. Barring the change to the grip, what the club actually sees about the ball and what the ball sees about the club is very, very, similar.

So the stance – very little difference; ball position – no difference. Work really hard with this change of keeping your eyes very subtle, very steady, looking down on the golf ball, no changes there and just be very conscious that you don’t get eager active to look up and see where the ball goes, particularly when you initially made this change. You know, I will be quite keen to see whether it worked, just keep really focused and down on the golf ball, so a very few changes. One of the considerations you might have is although you’ve agreed to make the change and swap your hands over, you still are not actually sure how you are going to grip the club, and of course there is, many different ways of gripping the club cross handed as it were in the traditional sense. So let's investigate what they might look like. We've established that the right hand is now going to be the top hand, which is different from a normal shot. The left hand is going to come in below, so you could have your standing baseball grip, ten fingers on the club, two fingers pointing down the middle and that would be your cross handed method. We could then investigate various versions of pointing fingers down the shaft, which is similar to how we might putting a traditional sense with the fingers pointing down. So we can have one finger down, the other finger down, both fingers down. Again, this is very, very much personal preference. There is no hard and fast right or wrong way to do this. For most golfers the putting grip in any sense is personal preference, even if cross handed method is the same. My own preference is, I actually interlock my fingers, so it is very, very similar to a standard left-handed hold. I hold the club exactly as a lefthander would hold the club, to hit the putt the opposite direction, so both hands down, both thumbs down the middle interlinking my fingers and then the rocking action back and through there, and I focus very hard on my left hand coming through the target, pointing towards the target, so there's no rotation or flicking action in a stroke. Its back and through, stroke back, stroke through, so I personally choose to interlock, but you could unlink in baseball, you could one finger down, two fingers down. You could overlap any version of a putting stroke that feels comfortable to you with that cross handed method, is something that I would recommend you. 2016-04-18

With this cross handed putting method, I often get asked, “what are the differences that you have to make with the rest of your stroke?” Obviously we've made a big fundamental difference, in that we're now gripping the club back to front effectively like a left hander. What else do we need to do differently with this, and actually the answer is very, very, little. Barring the change to the grip, what the club actually sees about the ball and what the ball sees about the club is very, very, similar.

So the stance – very little difference; ball position – no difference. Work really hard with this change of keeping your eyes very subtle, very steady, looking down on the golf ball, no changes there and just be very conscious that you don’t get eager active to look up and see where the ball goes, particularly when you initially made this change. You know, I will be quite keen to see whether it worked, just keep really focused and down on the golf ball, so a very few changes.

One of the considerations you might have is although you’ve agreed to make the change and swap your hands over, you still are not actually sure how you are going to grip the club, and of course there is, many different ways of gripping the club cross handed as it were in the traditional sense. So let's investigate what they might look like.

We've established that the right hand is now going to be the top hand, which is different from a normal shot. The left hand is going to come in below, so you could have your standing baseball grip, ten fingers on the club, two fingers pointing down the middle and that would be your cross handed method.

We could then investigate various versions of pointing fingers down the shaft, which is similar to how we might putting a traditional sense with the fingers pointing down. So we can have one finger down, the other finger down, both fingers down. Again, this is very, very much personal preference. There is no hard and fast right or wrong way to do this. For most golfers the putting grip in any sense is personal preference, even if cross handed method is the same.

My own preference is, I actually interlock my fingers, so it is very, very similar to a standard left-handed hold. I hold the club exactly as a lefthander would hold the club, to hit the putt the opposite direction, so both hands down, both thumbs down the middle interlinking my fingers and then the rocking action back and through there, and I focus very hard on my left hand coming through the target, pointing towards the target, so there's no rotation or flicking action in a stroke.

Its back and through, stroke back, stroke through, so I personally choose to interlock, but you could unlink in baseball, you could one finger down, two fingers down. You could overlap any version of a putting stroke that feels comfortable to you with that cross handed method, is something that I would recommend you.