Conventional Putting Grip: The Left Hand

February 8, 2008

The main difference between your putting stroke and your full swing is the importance of generating power. Your full swing grip should allow your hands and wrists to move freely during your golf swing. On the other hand, your putting grip should help you make the most consistent stroke possible, with power being of much less importance. Therefore, there isn’t much need for allowing the hands and wrists a great deal of freedom in your putting stroke.

In a conventional putting grip, the left hand can be put on the club two different ways. One way is to grip your left hand on the putter the exact way that you would grip a club for a full swing. That is, the putter grip will be running along the pads on the base of your fingers, with your fingers making the most contact with the grip.

Many teachers and professionals advocate a different putting grip for the left hand, where the grip runs along the lifeline of your left hand. Gripping the putter this way will allow the pad at the base of your thumb to rest direcly on top of the putter grip, which in many cases is flat (the putter is the only club that is allowed to have a non-circular grip).

There are benefits and drawbacks to each approach. The normal grip approach gives your wrists more freedom, which most people will instantly mark as a drawback. However, on slower greens and longer putts, a little wrist movement is acceptable, or even desired, because it allows you to stroke the putt without having to force clubhead speed. But on fast greens and short putts, the less wrist movement you have, the more consistently you will be able to start the ball online and judge the speed correctly. There is also something to be said for having the same grip for every shot, but there is an equally logical approach that says to use the best grip for each individual shot.

Whichever way you decide to grip the putter with your left hand, remember that it’s not how you grip it that counts, it’s how you use it.

Written by John at 1:48 pm. Short Game