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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 you've got
01:52there, what sort of player should be looking out for that because there is a benefit to having a
01:58slightly firmer grip pressure in your lower hand isn't there? Yeah so if you're struggling to release
02:02the putter if you need a more active right hand so perhaps you miss putts to the right a little
02:06bit
02:06more. Or 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
02:29the the back of the grip there and that's because he felt like he needed to a little bit more
02:33help
02:33releasing the putter so that's another way you can do it. Okay so from there and that super
02:38stroke grip that's even all the way through there are strangely you might think okay that's fine those
02:44are two good options but there's a lot more to talk about besides these two right? Yeah of course
02:47we've got a lot of different grips here we talked about the taper in this direction so the width the
02:52top and bottom but you'll notice a lot of putter grips are wider at the top in this direction so
02:57from the side on view and that's designed to fit more between the pads of your top hand a little
03:02bit
03:03more easier so you get a bit more stability in the grip better control in that top hand which is
03:07really
03:07important. Yeah that's certainly what I've got in my Scotty Cameron here and as Joel said the putter
03:14really is designed to sit in between those two pads isn't it? Yeah you don't want the wrist to be
03:18involved here so you really want the the angle of the shaft as close to your forearm as you can
03:23when
03:23you're addressing the ball you don't want to have a big angle between your arm and your putter shaft
03:28because that means your wrist is going to be more involved so the more you can use your shoulders
03:32during the stroke rather than your wrist so keeping this all in one line and just rocking the
03:36shoulders you should be a more consistent putter that way. So what are the other options that we've got to
03:40show
03:40people? Right so we've got a wider super stroke here so this is the slim 3.0 I think they
03:46do do much
03:47bigger ones as well but this is essentially for people who like the feel of a larger putter grip
03:53so you've got larger hands potentially or your grip that you choose i.e the way you hold the putter
03:58is more kind of leaning towards this style of grip so for example if you have a two thumb if
04:03you want to
04:03go for the two thumb style so having your hands together with your thumbs together like that a larger grip
04:08is obviously important to do that they come in a lot of different shapes as well in terms of
04:13the leading edge you can get ones that have a narrow front edge or a wide front edge depending
04:17on it's all down to personal preference at the end of the day it needs to feel comfortable in your
04:21hands so it's really important to try a load of different ones just going back to that two thumb
04:25grip sorry yeah go on the one thing that's really good about that two thumb grip obviously gets your
04:30shoulders 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
04:44or parallel 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
04:59might help 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 but this is the counter core technology so there's actually a weight here that kind of
05:30you can pull it out and adjust the weight on the top to adjust the feel of the putter feel
05:35is really
05:35important obviously with controlling distance and accuracy and on all those sorts of things so
05:39by adjusting the weight of the putter you can kind of tweak the way it feels and suits your basically
05:45your putting stroke so joe you can change the feel of the putter in your hands by changing that weight
05:50in the top but that's not a dual balanced or counter balanced putter grip is it or is it making
05:55it
05:56feel more like a counterbalance putter so as we know counterbalance putters are heavier at the bottom
06:01and heavier at the top just to make it feel more stable and smoother and this is one way you
06:05can kind
06:05of promote that a little bit by using a conventional length grip if you want a heavier putter or a
06:11lighter feeling putter that's one way you can do that yeah and it's one that it's quite a nice piece
06:16of technology that because if you're buying the grip with the brand of putter you you might get a dual
06:22balanced or a counter balanced putter grip in it this one allows you to kind of set it in exactly
06:26the way that you want so it's kind of worth uh thinking about there is as you said there's also
06:31a golf pride grip down there it's got a slightly different feel to it to the other super stroke
06:35grips right the uh the tour sensor from golf pride and it's a really soft feeling grip and i think
06:41it's definitely one you should try it's got it's not tapered so you should feel like even pressure
06:45in 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
07:15grips yourself uh like ways of holding the putter what have you gone for what have been the sort of
07:20feelings that you've had from those different yeah i mean so you might find this relevant to your
07:24game and it's definitely worth trying so for me i started with the conventional right below left with
07:28the finger kind of running alongside the other fingers and then i changed to having the finger
07:33running down the line of the putter felt like that kind of took the risks out a little bit more
07:37again that's something you can try and then i was really struggling with short putts and i changed
07:42from from conventional to the left below right jordan speed a few years ago was holding a lot of putts
07:47that
07:47way so i thought i'd give it a try and that actually felt for me like i really was a
07:51lot more proficient
07:52on short putts i didn't look at the hole i wasn't that good but um it just felt like the
07:57um 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
08:03you
08:03tend to have that fault in your stroke that's a really good way of combating that you can even wear
08:08a watch and put a pencil down there as a drill to stop it from breaking down but for me
08:11that left below
08:12right 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
08:22kind
08:22of they go in and out of fashion grips and some grips work for a while and then suddenly they
08:27stop
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 with
08:40putting try a different grip because it gives you that different feeling it's a bit like some
08:43resetting your brain for a long time now i've been using a claw grip and i felt like my right
08:50hand
08:50was way too active if anyone has suffered with the yips it's such a debilitating thing in golf i've
08:54certainly suffered with it in the past myself and by taking the the palm of the right hand off the
08:59putter and having it running like this suddenly no problems in that regard and now for me putting would
09:05i wouldn't say it's the strongest part of my game but it's definitely not the weakest area of my game
09:09i'm not i'm throwing away shots on the golf course in other areas more readily than i am uh on
09:15the
09:15green with the putter and that's down to the claw grip and i feel like if i could have started
09:19again
09:19from scratch i might have even just started with the claw i know it does it can look a little
09:23bit
09:23ungainly and people think oh you're struggling with your putting but actually if it resets your brain
09:28and you feel comfortable with it then go for it that would be my advice and there's a whole host
09:33of
09:33golfers on tour that have switched to the claw grip and got some really good success you look at tommy
09:37fleetwood
09:37uh webb simpson one at sawgrass using the claw grip obviously he uses uh that anchored style stroke
09:43we've seen it with uh soren kelts as well who who runs it along to the inside of his forearm
09:48obviously
09:48got a lot of loft on his putter i think he's got six degrees of loft because he's got so
09:52much shaft lean
09:53but that's another way another way we're talking about so many different ones but that's probably a
09:57fifth or sixth way you can hope potentially make the putter more stable less kind of face rotation
10:02and uh more consistent so you know worth a try so there you have it the putting as joel's just
10:08said
10:08is a field game and whatever works for you works yeah there are some technical principles at work
10:13within putting that are good for everyone to have but beyond that it is an individual game and one
10:19putting stroke really won't look a lot like another one and that's why it's definitely worth experimenting
10:24with different 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
10:33putts guys thank you very much for watching if you have any questions about any of this stuff and
10:37we have sort of whisked through it all there is a lot to understand a lot to learn if you're
10:41thinking
10:41about buying a putter or a new grip leave a comment below leave a question we'll get back to you
10:46with
10:46some hopefully some advice and some thoughts from us but from here from philford heath for now is goodbye
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