# Trying New Putting Grip



## FrogsHair (Mar 4, 2010)

I am pretty much satisfied with my over all golf game. By that I mean I am getting as much out of it as I put into it with my current, restricted golf schedule. A couple of hours of practice on Tuesday, and a 18 hole round on Wednesday...if I even have the time to do either. I have been messing around with a new putting grip, I dug out of an old golf book that was first published in 1908. I found it again in a newer book published in the 1980s. So, it's new to me, but has been around for a long time, perhaps as much as a 100 years or so. Yes, I know the greens are in better shape today than they were years ago, but the idea with this grip is to keep the putter face more square to my chosen target line, with less opening and closing of the putter face. I am convinced that the putter stroke with the way putters are made is not a pure pendulum stroke, and therefore the putter face will open and close during the putting stroke. Basically it's my normal grip, but I have turned both hands out a little. I have turned my left hand a little more to the left, and my right hand a little more to the right. This tends to lock my wrists. Along with this grip change I have also shortened my back stroke, but lengthened my forward stroke. I am targeting this change to < 10' putts for the most part. For putts over 10' I am just looking for a decent lag situation, leaving myself a tap in. What I am finding is I am hitting straighter putts, and few, if any putts are are missing left. The opposing hands, and the shorter back stroke is keeping my club face square to my intended target, longer. It's not opening too much on the back stroke, and it's not closing on the forward stroke till after the ball is long gone. 

After work, we have been killing time, putting on a piece of 15' X 12' out door carpet, on level ground. We do this while the steaks, chicken, or fish is grilling for supper. We have set up 6 cans for targets, and are playing for quarters with the low score winning. We move the cans around to give ourselves a "new" course every so often. That said I don't think any money is actually changing hands, and no one really knows who owes who, or how much. I know the other night I hit 14/18 one putts with this new grip. Most of the time I am in 10/18 range. I am pretty sure I don't owe anyone any quarters.  

Side Note: The other night I missed a putt when a lump appeared out of no where on our putting surface. Thinking is was rock we rolled the carpet back only to find one of these; Scorpions (DesertUSA) He/she was a bit on the large size, and reminded us all to check our boots in the morning.


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## Surtees (Sep 11, 2007)

thats a friendly fellow!!!

Interesting change of grip it might be worth a shot next time my putting fails.


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## Cajun (Jan 17, 2010)

I hate those guys, they're super sneaky. I played tournament paintball all across the southwest in a previous life and you had to be careful where you put your gear bag, they would fill them up if you weren't careful. It only took me finding one in my stuff for me to leave my bag in the truck or in the bus, the boys were finding them all the time though. I'm guess we're lucky no one got stung. 

I've tried several different putting grips, always seem to end up back at a traditional. Mostly out of habit, I guess.


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## FrogsHair (Mar 4, 2010)

Although there are a few species of scorpions that have a serious sting, the ones we see out here, for the most part are no more a problem than bee sting. One of the guys in the underground crew was stung by one a few weeks ago, and just shrugged it off. Unless of course you are allergic to their sting, it's not big deal. In the 7 weeks we have been out in the desert, we have seen probably 2 dozen of them in various sizes. With the weather cooling off at night, we don't see any at all right now. We are seeing quite a few tarantulas right now. When it was warmer we ran across a few snakes. Some of them were poisonous rattlers, and side winders.

Tarantulas on the March | Desert Denizens


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## Cajun (Jan 17, 2010)

Being from the bayou, I know about snakes, but those dry weather creepies are something else.


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## Surtees (Sep 11, 2007)

gee you guys need to come to oz and see some of our creppy crawlies. God I hate spiders but my shoe loves them.


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## KrudlerAce (Jul 3, 2010)

*Interesting*

Thanks for the putter grip advice FrogsHair.

Very interesting grip recommendation. 

Might play around with it on the practice green and see what sort of results I get.

Cheers.


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## FrogsHair (Mar 4, 2010)

I am always tinkering with some aspect of my game. If for nothing else just to be "tinkering". If I can even save 1 putting stroke a round using this, it will be worth the effort. If it works, and I can stop missing putts left, it stands to reason the ball has one less place go, and "should" find the hole more often. I used it yesterday for about an hour on a real practice green with what I thought were positive results. Something I did notice was with the shortened back stroke, longer distances become an issue. Even with a longer forward stroke my distance is limited, if I don't want to "pop" the ball into the back of the ball. "Popping" the ball gets to much wrists into the stroke which was the accepted method way back, when the greens were not as smooth as they are today. Of course the answer to this problem is to put my approach shots closer to the hole. That, or only play on faster greens. :laugh: As with any swing,stroke or grip change it might work for some and might not work for others. I am not really recommending it, just offering it up as something new for some to try. I won't know how well it works for me until I have played 15-20 rounds using it. I am looking to get consistently under 30 putts per round. Also, if it does work out for me, I might try using it with my chip shots. 


KrudlerAce said:


> Thanks for the putter grip advice FrogsHair.
> 
> Very interesting grip recommendation.
> 
> ...


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## ChaparralRidge (Oct 28, 2010)

Ooooohhh...I found one of these in my house the other day! It was also relatively large, and I stomped on it as soon as I saw it. I'm still not sure if it was alive before I stomped it (I have a cat), but it was VERY creepy. Check your boots is great advice, thanks!


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## cagenicolus (Nov 3, 2010)

Very genuine question you have asked here. Thanks


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## FrogsHair (Mar 4, 2010)

After 36 holes, and a few hours of practice, I still have a positive out look using this grip. With 28, and 29 putts respectively I can't complain. Still too early to tell if it is a lasting improvement. So many times a golfer will try something new, that works well for them. Then a few rounds later the new addition to their golf game goes south, and they start searching for the next cure to their poor swing issues. 

I did get to practice early one morning, when the greens were still covered with dew. The idea of a good putt is to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. The more the ball skips after impact, the more chances it has to knock itself off the intended target line. With dew on the greens, the ball leaves a trail, and the golfer can see just how much skip they have before the roll begins. With this grip, and stroke, I am still getting the ball rolling quite quickly after impacting it with the putter face. Getting the ball to roll quicker for me is because I tend to deloft the putter face at address. This new grip still allows me to do this.It is quite possible my putting has improved simply because I have been practicing, and focusing more on that aspect of my game.


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## Surtees (Sep 11, 2007)

it could quite be the fact that your pratising more. You are paying attention to it and I find like most thing in life the more you do it the better you get.


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