How To Pick The Right Putter Grip

Golf Monthly

In this video, Neil Tappin and Joel Tadman look at how to find the right putter grip for your game.

Transcript

00:00Hi guys, Neil Tappin and Joel Tadman here from Golf Monthly and in this video we are

00:08looking at putter grips, both the grip that you have on the club and the way in which

00:11you hold it. Now over the last 5 or 10 years we've seen a lot of players out on tour holding

00:17their putter in slightly different ways from claw grips to left below right, right below

00:22left, even two thumb grips you see are being used regularly out on tour. So there are lots

00:26of different methods that people are using and I think that has led to a whole host of

00:31different grips being launched into the putter market. So your choice of putter grips is bigger

00:36now than it's ever been and it's a really important decision to make because the choice of grip

00:41you put on your putter will largely depend on the technique that you use. Talk us through

00:47the options that people have. Definitely yeah, I mean we've got a load of grips in front of

00:51us here, they come in a whole host of different shapes, sizes and textures so it's important

00:56when you try different ones to see which ones feel good right for you. But yeah, I'm just

01:01talking through kind of how they vary. So traditional putter grips, this is kind of similar to a

01:06traditional putter grip where it's larger at the top, so wider at the top and then it tapers

01:11towards the bottom. So what that essentially does is it means that you're gripping the putter grip

01:17with different pressures in each hand which means if it's narrow at the bottom your right hand will be

01:22holding it a bit tighter which means it might be a bit more active in the stroke which is why Superstroke,

01:26a common putter brand, there are obviously a lot of different putter grip brands out there,

01:30but Superstroke kind of pioneered that no tapered design so you can see it's the same width at the

01:36top as is the bottom and that means that you're applying equal pressure to the grip from both hands

01:41which means they should be less active or equally imparting force on the putter so your stroke should be a

01:48little bit more consistent. One quick thing Joel, so the the tapered version that you've got there,

01:53what sort of player should be looking out for that because there is a benefit to having a slightly

01:58firmer grip pressure in your lower hand isn't there? Yeah, so if you're struggling to release the putter if

02:02you need a more active right hand so perhaps you miss putts to the right a little bit more.

02:06Or maybe your distance control isn't very good so you feel like you need that flow through the ball.

02:11Yeah, if you're more of a field player rather than a kind of mechanical player you might want to feel

02:17like your right hand is a little bit more active through stroke. Another way you can do that is by

02:20running the right finger down the bottom of the grip during your stroke. We saw Ian Poulter do that

02:25on tour. He won on tour recently by changing his putter grip to having that finger running down the

02:30back of the grip there and that's because he felt like he needed to a little bit more help releasing the

02:34putters so that's another way you can do it. Okay, so from there and that super straight grip

02:39that's even all the way through, there are strangely you might think okay that's fine

02:44those are two good options but there's a lot more to talk about besides these two right?

02:47Yeah, of course. We've got a load of different grips here. We talked about the taper in this

02:50direction so the width the top and bottom but you'll notice a lot of putter grips are wider at

02:55the top in this direction so from the side on view and that's designed to fit more between the

03:00pads of your top hand a little bit more easier so you get a bit more stability in the grip,

03:05better control in that top hand which is really important. Yeah, that's certainly what I've got in

03:10my Scotty Cameron here and as Joel said the putter really is designed to sit in between those two

03:16pads isn't it? Yeah, you don't want the wrist to be involved here so you really want the the angle of

03:20the shaft as close to your forearm as you can when you're addressing the ball. You don't want to have

03:24a big angle between your arm and your putter shaft because that means your wrist is going to be more

03:30involved so the more you can use your shoulders during the stroke rather than your wrist so keeping

03:34this all in one line and just rocking the shoulders you should be a more consistent putter that way.

03:39So what are the other options that we've got to show people? So we've got a wider super stroke here so

03:44this is the slim 3.0 I think they do do much bigger ones as well but this is essentially for

03:50people who would like the feel of a larger putter grip so you've got larger hands potentially or your

03:55grip that you choose i.e the way you hold the putter is more kind of leaning towards this style

04:00of grip so for example if you have a two thumb if you want to go for the two thumb style so having your

04:05hands together with your thumbs together like that a larger grip is obviously important to do that.

04:10They come in a lot of different shapes as well in terms of the leading edge you can get ones that

04:15have a narrow front edge or a wide front edge depending on it's all down to personal preference at

04:19end of the day it needs to feel comfortable in your hands so it's really important to try

04:23a load of different ones just going back to that two thumb grip sorry Tabby. Yeah go on.

04:26The one thing that's really good about that two thumb grip obviously it gets your shoulders level

04:30but it also because your hands are facing each other it means that your alignment should be pretty

04:36square you know you haven't got one arm climbing on top of the putter this way or underneath the other

04:41way because they're level your shoulders should be square to the target or parallel left of the target

04:46with your putter. Yeah it should be a really very solid technical putting stroke right and then

04:52also by having your hands like that I guess it encourages you to have a little bit less wrist

04:57hinge absolutely keeps the putter more stable definitely which might help on short putts some

05:01people struggle with long putts when they have that type of grip but for most golfers it might be a

05:06way to be more consistent for sure. Yeah and as I say it's one of those that you will see players

05:10using out on tour I've got a feeling the Bernd Wiesberger uses that at the moment to keep an eye

05:14Matt Wallace is out for him. Matt Wallace is what uses it as well. Right what else we got?

05:19Well this is an interesting one from Superstoke again like I said there are other brands we've

05:23got a golf pipe one down here which is really good but this is the counter core technology so

05:28there's actually a weight here that kind of you can pull it out and adjust the weight on the top

05:33to adjust the feel of the putter feel is really important obviously with controlling distance and

05:37accuracy and on all those sorts of things so by adjusting the weight of the putter you can kind

05:42of tweak the way it feels and suits your basically your putting stroke. So Joel you can change the feel

05:48of the putter in your hands by changing that weight in the top but that's not a dual balanced or

05:53counter balanced putter grip is it or is it? It's making it feel more like a counter balanced putter so

05:58as we know counter balanced putters are heavier at the bottom and heavier at the top just to make it feel

06:03more stable and smoother and this is one where you can kind of promote that a little bit by

06:07using a conventional length grip so if you want a heavier putter or a lighter feeling putter that's

06:12one way you can do that. Yeah and it's one that it's quite a nice piece of technology that because

06:18if you're buying the grip with the brand of putter you you might get a dual balanced or a counter balanced

06:23putter grip in it this one allows you to kind of set it in exactly the way that you want so it's kind

06:27of worth uh thinking about there is as you said there's also a golf pride grip down there it's got a

06:32slightly different feel to it to the other super stroke grips right this is the uh the tour sensor

06:37from golf pride and it's a really soft feeling grip and i think it's definitely one you should

06:42try it's got it's not tapered so you should feel like even pressure in both hands but it's just a

06:47different type of feel all different putter grips have different textures on the surface the super

06:52stroke has like a plus pattern this has something similar but it does feel very different because

06:57made of a softer material so it's really worth trying as many different ones as you can

07:01all our hands are different sizes and shapes so they're all going to suit you in different ways

07:05so it's trying as many as you can and finding the one that feels the best in your hands now joel over

07:10your i know as a fact that over your golfing career yeah you've used a few different uh grips yourself

07:16uh like ways of holding the putter what have you gone for what have been the sort of feelings that

07:20you've had from those different yeah i mean so you might find this relevant to your game and it's

07:24definitely worth trying so for me i started with the conventional right below left with the finger kind of

07:29running alongside the other fingers and then i changed to having the finger running down the line

07:34of the putter felt like that kind of took the wrists out a little bit more again that's something

07:38you can try and then i was really struggling with short putts and i changed from from conventional

07:43to the left below right jordan speed a few years ago was holding a lot of putts that way

07:47so i thought i'd give it a try and actually felt for me like i really was a lot more proficient on

07:52short putts i didn't look at the hole i wasn't that good but it just felt like the um the back

07:59of the left wrist wasn't breaking down as much so i wasn't flicking at the putter at all and if you

08:04tend to have that fault in your stroke that's a really good way of combating that you can even

08:07wear a watch and put a pencil down there as a drill to stop it from breaking down but for me that left

08:12below right just felt like the the back of the left hand was going towards the target and there was no

08:18flicking at all during that stroke and i was really good at short putts for a while i think they kind

08:22of they go in and out of fashion grips and some grips work for a while and then suddenly they stop

08:27working and it's something you can change really quickly so it's just you know trying what works for

08:31you and then it might just suddenly stop work and you can always change back so it's just what feels

08:35comfortable at the time yeah i would agree with what you just said say that if you are struggling

08:39with your putting try a different grip because it gives you that different feeling it's a bit like

08:43sort of resetting your brain for a long time now i've been using a claw grip and i felt like my

08:50right hand was way too active if anyone has suffered with the yips it's such a debilitating

08:53thing in golf i've certainly suffered with it in the past myself and by taking the the palm of the

08:58right hand off the putter and having it running like this suddenly no problems in that regard and

09:04now for me putting would i wouldn't say it's the strongest part of my game but it's definitely not

09:08the weakest area of my game i'm not i'm throwing away shots on the golf course in other areas more

09:13readily than i am on the green with the putter and that's down to the claw grip and i feel like

09:18if i could have started again from scratch i might have even just started with the claw i know it does

09:22it can look a little bit ungainly and people think oh you're struggling with your putting but actually

09:27if it resets your brain and you feel comfortable with it then go for it that would be my advice and

09:32there's a whole host of golfers on tour that have switched to the claw grip and got some really good

09:36success you look at tommy fleetwood uh webb simpson one at sawgrass using the claw grip obviously he uses

09:42uh that anchored style stroke we've seen it with uh soren kelts as well who who runs it along here

09:47the inside of his forearm obviously got a lot of loft on his putter i think he's got six degrees of

09:50loft because he's got so much shaft lean but that's another way another way we're talking about so many

09:55different ones but that's probably a fifth or sixth way you can hope potentially make the putter more

10:00stable less kind of face rotation and uh more consistent so you know worth a try so there you have it

10:06the putting as joel's just said is a field game and whatever works for you works you know there

10:11are some technical principles at work within putting that are good for everyone to have

10:16but beyond that it is an individual game and one putting stroke really won't look a lot like

10:21another one and that's why it's definitely worth experimenting with different styles of grip and

10:26different types of grip on your putter just to change the feeling in your hands find something

10:30that's right for you and then you might just be able to hold a few more putts guys thank you very much

10:34for watching if you have any questions about any of this stuff and we have sort of whiffed through

10:38it all there is a lot to understand a lot to learn if you're thinking about buying a putter or a new

10:43grip uh leave a comment below leave a question we'll get back to you with some hopefully some advice

10:47and some thoughts from us but from here from Philford Heath for now it's goodbye

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