I have experimented with the left hand low, which I used for about three years, and one where the left hand was “twisted” to the left so the left thumb was on the target side of the grip rather than the top. This second grip was supposed to help stop pulled putts. On those uncomfortable days it drove me bananas.

Now I have reverted back to a conventional grip. Since I have not played as much in the past few years this has helped me remain somewhat consistent on the greens.

I also use a drill similar to Greg B’s. I find these helpful in find the speed of the greens prior to playing a round.

If your putting stroke is straight back and through (keeping the face square to the line), then you’re probably using a pendulum stroke already. It’s not much more than making sure your hands hang directly under your shoulders so that you can keep the face square to the line without having to make a bunch of manipulations. Then, you just make sure to keep your head and spine steady and make the stroke with your shoulders.

I was fairly happy with my one-round trial with the claw last weekend. I’ll talk more about it in a new post after I get through a couple more sessions with it. I think my takeaway improved some, but there were a couple of other improvements that I didn’t expect.

Thinking back, the comfort I felt was due to an increased control I felt I had with very, very light grip pressure.

I’m going to have to go back and play with it a bit more to determine if I get adequate feedback with it. I do this by putting with my eyes closed and trying to feel if the ball is left/right/long/short.

I have had tremendous putting days where I’ve rolled in lots of putts. These days have been so good that I really don’t want to fool with my putter. The question becomes, Will I find these days more frequently with a new grip? And, Do I want to take the risk of lessoning the frequency of good days that I currently have?

Pursuing excellence in golf is a maddening endeavor.

-G

That’s an interesting drill, Greg. It takes the mental baggage right out and just lets you do your thing. I’m going to give that one a try.

I’ve also been interested in those larger than normal putter grips. I haven’t tried one out yet, but I’ve been fascinated since I saw Choi’s a while back. I like that it has his hands placed symmetrically on the grip. With trying to make a nice pendulum stroke, having one hand lower than the other throws off the symmetry by putting one shoulder slightly lower to start. Sometimes I wonder if that has an effect on the stroke.

When I’m comfortable, I trust my stroke and I trust my line; I have no doubt. I think that new clubs, new swings, new grips etc provide a period of better performance because we revert to trust. After all, it’s a new club (grip, swing, etc), and we really aren’t sure what’s going to happen so we must trust our ability and let go.

I’m trying to find ways to get to that comfort zone and stay there longer. One good drill is to place six or so balls at varying distances (generally 10 to 60 feet) around the cup on the practice green. Move to each ball and putt without thinking about it. Just step up and putt, no practice stroke, no green reading. Just look at the hole as you move from shot to shot, step up and putt.

After the first few shots I find myself amazingly accurate. This drill helps put my in that comfort zone.

I do a similar drill with five footers but I take an extra second or two over the ball.

I’m sharing this because I was considering a new putter grip too. I made a few putts with on of those thick (not like KJ’s, but perhaps 2x bigger than normal and more square) grips and I was amazed at how well I putted the first time I used it.

I later realized that I was hitting it in a manner much like the drill I described above.

However, I still like and want that grip and I may go ahead and get it one day. My reservations are that I’m not sure I’ll be a better putter because of it.

-G