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In this video, Neil Tappin and Joel Tadman look at how to find the right putter grip for your game.
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00:03Hi 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
00:16holding
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
01:26Superstroke, a common putter brand, there are obviously a lot of different putter grip brands
01:30out there but Superstroke kind of pioneered that no tapered design so you can see it's the same width
01:35at the top as it is the bottom and that means that you're applying equal pressure to the grip
01:40from both hands which means they should be less active or equally imparting force on the putter so
01:47your stroke should be a little bit more consistent. One quick thing Joel, so the tapered version that
01:52you've got there, what sort of player should be looking out for that because there is a benefit
01:57to having a slightly firmer grip pressure in your lower hand isn't there? Yeah so if you're struggling
02:01to release the putter if you need a more active right hand so perhaps you miss putts to the right
02:06a little bit more. Or maybe your distance control isn't very good so you feel like you need that flow
02:11through the ball a bit better. Yeah if you're more of a field player rather than a kind of mechanical
02:15player
02:16you might want to feel like your right hand is a little bit more active through stroke. Another way you
02:20can do
02:20that is by running the right finger down the bottom of the grip during your stroke. We saw Ian Poulter
02:24do that on tour. He won on tour recently by changing his putter grip to having that finger
02:28running down the the back of the grip there and that's because he felt like he needed to
02:32a little bit more help releasing the putter so that's another way you can do it. Okay so from there
02:37and that super stroke grip that's even all the way through there are strangely you might think okay
02:43that's fine those are two good options but there's a lot more to talk about besides these two right? Yeah
02:47of
02:47course we've got a lot of different grips here we talked about the taper in this direction so
02:51the width the top and bottom but you'll notice a lot of putter grips are wider at the top in
02:56this
02:56direction so from the side on view and that's designed to fit more between the pads of your top
03:02hand a little bit more easier so you get a bit more stability in the grip better control in that
03:06top
03:07hand which is really important. Yeah that's certainly what I've got in my Scotty Cameron here and as
03:13Joel said the putter really is designed to sit in between those two pads isn't it? Yeah you don't
03:17want the wrist to be involved here so you really want the the angle of the shaft as close to
03:21your
03:21forearm as you can when you're addressing the ball you don't want to have a big angle between your arm
03:26and your putter shaft because that means your wrist is going to be more involved so the more you can
03:30use
03:31your shoulders during the stroke rather than your wrist so keeping this all in one line
03:35and just rocking the shoulders you should be a more consistent putter that way. So what are the other options
03:40that we've got to show people? So we've got a wider super stroke here so this is the slim 3
03:45.0 I think
03:46they do do much bigger ones as well but this is essentially for people who like the feel of a
03:52larger
03:52putter grip so you've got larger hands potentially or your grip that you choose i.e the way you hold
03:58the putter is more kind of leaning towards this style of grip so for example if you have a two
04:02thumb
04:02if you want to go for the two thumb style so having your hands together with your thumbs together like
04:07that a larger grip is obviously important to do that they come in a lot of different shapes as
04:12well in terms of the leading edge you can get ones that have a narrow front edge or a wide
04:17front edge
04:17depending on it's all down to personal preference at the end of the day it needs to feel comfortable
04:21in your hands so it's really important to try a load of different ones just going back to that two
04:25thumb grip sorry yeah go on the one thing that's really good about that two thumb grip obviously
04:29gets your shoulders level but it also because your hands are facing each other it means that your alignment
04:35should be pretty square you know you haven't got one arm climbing on top of the putter this way
04:40or underneath the other way because they're level your shoulders should be square to the target or
04:44parallel left of the target with your putter it should yeah it should be a really very solid
04:49technical putting stroke right and then also by having your hands like that i guess it encourages
04:55you to have a little bit less wrist hinge absolutely keeps the putter more stable definitely which might
05:00help on short putts some people struggle with long putts when they have that type of grip but
05:04for most golfers it might be a way to be more consistent for sure yeah and as i say it's
05:09one
05:09of those that you will see players using out on tour i've got a feeling that bern fiesberger uses that
05:13at the moment to keep an eye out for him yeah um right what else we got well this is
05:19an interesting
05:20one uh from superstock again like i said there are other brands we've got a golf pipe one down here
05:24which is really good um but this is uh the counter core technology so there's actually a weight here
05:30that kind of you can pull it out and adjust the weight on the top to adjust the feel of
05:34the putter
05:35feel is really important obviously with controlling distance and accuracy and all those sorts of
05:39things so by adjusting the weight of the putter you can kind of tweak the way it feels and suits
05:45your basically your putting stroke so joe you can change the feel of the putter in your hands by
05:50changing that weight in the top but that's not a dual balanced or counterbalanced putter grip is it or is
05:55making it feel more like a counterbalance putter so as we know counterbalance putters are heavier at
06:00the bottom and heavier at the top just to make it feel more stable and smoother and this is one
06:05where you can kind of promote that a little bit by using a conventional length grip if you want a
06:10heavier putter or a lighter feeling putter that's one way you can do that yeah and it's one that it's
06:15quite a nice piece of technology that because if you're buying the grip with the brand of putter you
06:21you might get a dual balanced or counterbalanced putter grip in it this one allows you to kind of
06:25set it in exactly the way that you want so it's kind of worth uh thinking about there is as
06:30you
06:30said there's also a golf pride grip down there it's got a slightly different feel to it to the other
06:34super stroke grips right the uh the tour sensor from golf pride and it's a really soft feeling grip
06:39and i think it's definitely one you should try it's got it's not tapered so you should feel like even
06:45pressure in both hands but it's just a different type of feel all different putter grips have different
06:50textures on the surface the super stroke has like a plus pattern this has something similar but it
06:56does feel very different because made of a softer material so it's really worth trying as many different
07:00ones as you can all our hands are different sizes and shapes so they're all going to suit you in
07:05different ways so it's trying as many as you can and finding the one that feels the best in your
07:09hands
07:09now joel over your i know as a fact that over your golfing career yeah you've used a few different
07:15uh grips yourself uh like ways of holding the putter what have you gone for what have been the
07:20sort of feelings that you've had from those different yeah i mean so you might find this
07:23relevant to your game and it's definitely worth trying so for me i started with the conventional
07:27right below left with the finger kind of running alongside the other fingers and then i changed to
07:32having the finger running down the line of the putter felt like that kind of took the wrists out a
07:37little bit more again that's something you can try and then i was really struggling with short putts and i
07:41changed from from conventional to the left below right jordan speed a few years ago was holding a
07:46lot of putts that way so i thought i'd give it a try and that actually felt for me like
07:50i really
07:50was a lot more proficient on short putts i didn't look at the hole i wasn't that good but
07:55it just felt like the um the back of the left wrist wasn't breaking down as much so i wasn't
08:02flicking
08:02at the putter at all and if you don't tend to have that fault in your stroke that's a really
08:05good way
08:06of combating that you can even wear a watch and put a pencil down there as a drill to stop
08:10it from
08:10breaking down but for me that left below right just felt like the the back of the left hand was
08:15going towards the target and there was no flicking at all during that stroke and i was really good at
08:21short putts for a while i think they kind of they go in and out of fashion grips and some
08:25grips work
08:26for a while and then suddenly they stop working and it's something you can change really quickly so
08:29it's just you know trying what works for you and then it might just suddenly stop work and you can
08:34always change back so it's just what feels comfortable at the time yeah i would agree with what you just
08:38said say that if you are struggling with your putting try a different grip because it gives
08:42you that different feeling it's a bit like some resetting your brain for a long time now i've been
08:46using a claw grip and i felt like my right hand was way too active if anyone has suffered with
08:52the yips
08:52it's such a debilitating thing in golf i've certainly suffered with it in the past myself and by taking the
08:57the palm of the right hand off the putter and having it running like this suddenly no problems in that
09:03regard and now for me putting would i wouldn't say it's the strongest part of my game but it's
09:07definitely not the weakest area of my game i'm not i'm throwing away shots on the golf course in other
09:12areas more readily than i am on the green with the putter and that's down to the claw grip and
09:17i feel
09:17like if i could have started again from scratch i might have even just started with the claw i know
09:22it does it can look a little bit ungainly and people think oh you're struggling with your putting
09:26but actually if it resets your brain and you feel comfortable with it then go for it that would be
09:32my advice
09:32and there's a whole host of golfers on tour that have switched to the claw grip and got some really
09:36good at success you look at tommy fleetwood uh webb simpson one at sawgrass using the claw grip
09:41obviously he uses uh that anchored style stroke we've seen it with uh soren kelts as well who
09:45who runs it along to the inside of his forearm obviously got a lot of loft on his putter i
09:49think
09:50he's got six degrees of loft because he's got so much shaft lean but that's another way another way
09:55we're talking about so many different ones but that's probably a fifth or sixth way you can
09:58hope potentially make the putter more stable less kind of face rotation and uh more consistent so
10:04you know worth a try so there you have it the putting as joel's just said is a field game
10:09and
10:09whatever works for you works you know there are some technical principles at work within putting
10:14that are good for everyone to have but beyond that it is an individual game and one putting stroke
10:20really won't look a lot like another one and that's why it's definitely worth experimenting with
10:24different styles of grip and different types of grip on your putter just to change the feeling in
10:29your hands find something that's right for you and then you might just be able to hold a few more
10:32putts guys thank you very much for watching if you have any questions about any of this stuff and
10:37either we have sort of whisked through it all there is a lot to understand a lot to learn if
10:41you're
10:41thinking about buying a putter or a new grip leave a comment below leave a question we'll get back to
10:46you with some hopefully some advice and some thoughts from us but from here from philford heath for now
10:50is goodbye
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