But pros, they take a completely different approach. As I wrote about with Jon Rahm in the U.S. Open, pros are constantly practising their putting using different games, or drills.

Why you should play more putting games

There are a few reasons why pros are so into the idea of playing putting games:

• It gives them a sense of competition.
• It helps them practice their putting under pressure.
• It’s a form of random practice, which prevents you from mindlessly practicing the same thing over and over again, which obviously is not what happens on the golf course.

Playing little games and drills does all of these things. It’s not a big change to make to your practice routine, but it’s one which you honestly might find quite fun. And better yet, it’ll improve your putting.

A few games to try…

One of my favourite drills is a ladder drill, which is pretty simple: You start with a short putt (three feet, say) and if you make that, you move backwards (to six feet, say). If you make that one, you move further and further back. That’s good for short putting, just like another short-putting drill: Surround the hole with lots of golf balls and make all of them in a row.

If you’re struggling with distance control on longer putts, Golf Digest Top 50 coach Chuck Cook showcases a common one: Setting your ball about 30 feet away, and placing a club about two feet beyond the hole. Your goal is to get three golf balls to stop past (or in) the hole and between the club.

Either way, there are lots of options out there, and whichever one you choose, you’ll be better off for it.

The post Why pros are obsessed with this kind of putting practise appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

To reach the highest levels of professional golf — the PGA Tour, DP World Tour or  the LIV Tour — you have to be a pretty darn good ball-striker. Everybody from World No. 1 to World No. 333 can get it around OK from tee-to-green. What separates the good players from the great ones is what takes place on and around the greens.

That’s why, last week for example, we saw Gary Woodland using the claw grip while putting, the one where you hold the top of the grip with your left hand like normal, but then instead of putting your right hand underneath, you place your four fingers on top of the grip and your thumb underneath. Here’s a world-class driver of the golf ball and one of the better iron players on tour in Woodland trying literally anything to get some putts to drop.

Enter Sven Maurits, the 2,188th-ranked (!) player in the world who is in the field this week at the DP World Tour’s KLM Open. If not for this insane putting style, we’d probably continue never knowing who the Dutchman was. But the way he’s gripping the putter stopped everybody in their tracks on Thursday:

"Just when you think you've seen everything" ?

Sven Maurits showcases his new putting stroke ?#KLMOpen pic.twitter.com/4tqyQNuEIr

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 25, 2023

“That’s interesting, just when you think you’ve seen it all.” Yeah, we’d say so. We like to exaggerate just as much as the next guy on this here internet, but I truly don’t believe I’ve ever seen this putting grip in my life.

Turns out, it has been done before, as the commentator referenced, by former European Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn. Here’s Bjorn’s version from the 2018 Nordea Masters:

Thomas Bjorn. European Tour

So it’s been done before, but hasn’t quite caught on like the claw. Bjorn took notice on Twitter:

Innovative ???

— Thomas Bjørn (@thomasbjorngolf) May 25, 2023

It seems like we don’t have a name for this putting style yet. Perhaps “The Bjorn” could work. “I’ve literally exhausted all other options and will do anything to make a 10 footer” might be a little too long.

The post This is it, this is the most preposterous putting grip we’ve ever seen appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Robert ‘Bob’ Bettinardi has always chosen the path less travelled — especially when it comes to creating golf clubs.

His Bettinardi Golf company is now known across the globe as the world leader in creating unique pieces of equipment, tailored to each individual golfer — specialising in bespoke and ‘One-Piece Technology’ putters.

But it has been a journey of more than 25 years — and a lot of hard work — to reach the pinnacle in golf equipment design and production.

In 1991, Bob turned the putter industry upside down by crafting a tool from a solid block of metal — what he phrases as ‘one-piece technology’ — rather than follow the herd and opt for castings, forgings and weldings to create putters. He soon had all the top golf industry original equipment manufacturers lining up at his door when word got out about the advantages his distinctive products could offer the top professional players on the greens.

A talent for design and state-of-the-art machining methods has seen Bettinardi Golf add some of the top manufacturers and golfers to its portfolio.

And once more, that determination and talent has has been rewarded as Bettinardi Golf claimed an unprecedented five golds in the Golf Digest Hot List 2023 Awards.

Golf Digest Middle East recently caught up with Bob and Dean Cheesley of eGolf Megastores — the region’s leading golf equipment supplier and fitter — to talk about the Bettinardi journey and plans for the future.

“I started dealing with Golf Digest 20-something years ago, and I was always begging to get into their gold or silver list [on the Hot List], but it seemed they always went with the Scotty Camerons and the Pings and so on,” Bob tells us with his dry humour always lurking during a recent visit to Jeddah. “So around 15 years or go I said to myself: ‘I’m done trying. I will never get on that list.’ As soon as I did that — boom — it all started to happen. It’s like when you give up chasing that girl you were after for years, then she starts calling you.

“That’s when I brought in my son.”

Bob and Sam Bettinardi in the workshop

In 2012, said son, Sam, joined the company’s ranks as head of marketing and sales, helping the company embrace the ever-evolving e-commerce market. Today, Sam serves as Bettinardi Golf President, clearly inheriting his father’s eye for putter designs, as well as player development alongside Bob.

“He’s 33 and he’s fantastic,” Bob continues with fatherly pride. “He’s grown the business about 1,500 per cent in the past 10 years. I was always trying to keep things small, but Sam said: ‘No, I need graphic designers, marketing people, this and that,’ and now he has grown the business very nicely into what it is today. But this year was the icing on the cake! On the Hot List we have five Gold putters and a Silver wedge.”

Then the humour creeps in again: “The greatest thing about the Hot List is it is listed alphabetically so we are listed first ahead of the Pings and TaylorMades, so it looks like we are on top — double gold!”

But as we rewind back to the conception of the solid putter and how it was received, Bob takes on a more serious tone.

“So it’s really a simple,” he explains. “When I first got into the business in 1991, everybody was casting their putters out of a mould and then pouring molten metal into the mould, let it cool and there you have your putter.

“I ended up doing some milled putters for Ken Giannini, and they were all welded. The body of the putter and the little hosel were welded together to make a milled putter.

“I started questioning why and how they were doing things. And one of the things that I questioned was, why would you weld that little hosel on to the body of the putter, because when you weld you add heat to the metal, and me being a metallurgist and engineer, I knew that when you add heat to metal, you distort the metal.

“When you’re trying to put the ball into a four-and-a-quarterinch cup from 20 or 30 yards away, you need all the precision you can get, and distorted metal will take away from that and hurt you.

“You want that putter without any spot or wrinkle basically. That’s what you want the putter to be.

“So I said to a couple of people I was doing business with — TP Mills and Scotty Cameron — ‘Why don’t we make the putter from one piece?’ And they go: ‘What do you mean?’

“I explained, we get a big block of metal and carve everything off that until we get to that putter inside.

“At first they were worried it would cost too much. But I knew if you want a precision instrument, instead of welding, you need to carve the entire thing out of one piece.”

And so Bob went off to prove it was worth it and the One-Piece Technology (trademark Bettinardi Golf!) putter was born.

“The first putter I made was very similar to the Ping Anser,” Bob continues. “I made it for Scotty and he gave it to a guy called Bernhard Langer, who in 1993 won The Masters with it. That was ‘Big’ for Scotty and me as Scotty’s name was on the putter and I was manufacturing them.

“Roll on to 1997 and Tiger Woods, you know him? He, at 21 wins The Masters. His big ‘Hello World!’ moment. He did not three-putt for four rounds with a putter that was made in my shop — a onepiece putter.

“In 1998, I decided to go out on my own, and Jesper Parnevik picked up my putter for the 1999 Greater Greensboro Open. My first tournament on my own and he wins with 27-under with 99 putts. Then my name was getting out there and my name was on the putters and that’s how we got started.”

“After a short time with Ben Hogan, I decided to set up my own company. So from 2008 Bettinardi has been on its own and we have grown into what we are today. Francesco Molinari wins the Open with our putter in 2018, Matt Fitzpatrick wins the 2022 US Open with our putter.

“I read comments about my product like: ‘I can’t describe this feeling … This putter feels like butter … It putts itself.’

“That is the culmination of doing things the right way, making it the right way. If there’s another way in the future that’s going to be better than milling, I would like to know what that is. I would want to do that. I want to make sure I’m always on the cutting edge of making the best. That’s what Bettinardi is.”

Bob and Sam Bettinardi have built a unique empire

Bettinardi golfers have claimed nearly 100 elite tour titles since 1998, with players still knocking on Bob’s door for the latest blades and mallets to give them that extra edge.

Just last month up-and-coming LIV Golfer James Piot joined the likes of Matt Fitzpatrick and Georgia Hall, who carry a Bettinardi putter in their bags.

“Jason Kokrak, who won three times in one year about two years ago, uses a production Bettinardi putter that is actually off-the-rack,” Bob says. “Georgia is using a putter that is off the rack — but she wanted her name stamped on it and made a couple of custom things done to it, so we tailored it to her requirements.

“Shergo Al Kurdi is an example of one player who uses a custom putter, not a production, called our BB0, which is really meant for people who want something special. We don’t sell these production, they are made to order for each individual. Some like the Toyota, Shergo has the Ferrari.”

RELATED: Take a look at the latest Bettinardi creation

One of the most popular of the Bettinardi putter ranges is the ‘Hive’ — high-end luxury and Tour putters with one-of-a-kind designs and made-to-order diverse looks and appearances with highquality finishes. “These are very limited-edition and constructed one-to-one,” Bob explains. “It took us nearly a year-and-a-half to persuade Matt Fitzpatrick to find one of our putters that was perfect for him. I’m talking probably eight to 10 times of trial and error. So he was a very difficult person to deal with — in a good way! He would be like: ‘No, it doesn’t feel right. No, the weight is wrong. No, the loft is wrong. No, the lie is wrong. I don’t like that shaft.’

“So you were talking about days, weeks, months of working on a putter specifically for Matthew.

“But now Matt is very happy because he has the right putter for him.

“This just illustrates that the Hive and customs are really all about taking the time and the extra effort to make this special product that a golfer would like. If there is a customer that wants his initials, or a logo, or his son’s name on the putter, we will take that extra time to make the putter just the way they want it.

“We will add a special head cover, a special grip, a special shaft.

“The client is shown renderings, and they may want a few changes — so really the client is being treated like a professional golfer.

“Once we get the green light, we make the putter and 10-15 weeks later, the client has their unique product.”

Just something to ponder — imagine seeing your playing partners’ faces when you whip out that majestic, personalised mallet on the green for the first time …

Visit any eGolf Megastore outlet to work with their team to curate your very own one-of-a-kind putter.

The post Putting things right: Bob Bettinardi’s long journey to golf-club perfection appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

@triplebgolf

Is this even legal? #golf #golftok #golftiktok #TheRealPussinBoots #viral #makethisviral

♬ original sound – TripleBGolf

In the same way that there’s no rule saying a dog can’t play basketball, there’s no rule that explicitly states that you can’t use your flagstick as a putting bumper to gain an edge. Sure, it’s inconsiderate and dastardly, but you HAVE to do what you need to do to win.

Imagine getting randomly paired with someone trying this manoeuvre out. How do you handle it? Do you go straight to fisticuffs? Do you laugh and save the anecdote for the clubhouse? Do you try it out yourself? If you can’t beat them, join them, and whatnot.

To be fair, it’s not a terrible idea if you’re a beginner. Bowling has bumpers for its newcomers. Why not golf? You’ve already paid god knows how much for a tee time. If you want to use the flag to gain an advantage, who are we to stop you? Live your best life. Just don’t be surprised if someone punches you in the head.

The post WATCH: Guy gets paired with stranger who uses flagstick as putting bumper, posts this unbelievable footage appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Conor Thornton

Putting is the simplest of all the shots in golf. Being good with the putter doesn’t require as much physical prowess or technical ability as it does to be as good a ball striker as the best players in the world.

With some understanding of the key elements of start direction and distance control — and a little bit of practice -— pretty much anybody has a realistic opportunity to achieve a high level of competency, maybe even close to some of the best in the world in this one element of the game. 

In my role as PGA Professional at Riyadh Golf Club, I will help you unpack two easy-to-set-up drills that you can use anywhere — at home, in the office  (if the boss isn’t looking) or at your local course — in order to help you get started off the right way or further improve and enhance your skills on the dance floor.

Try out these simple exercises for yourself and discover the basic putting skills for yourself. To develop even further, visit the PGA Professional at your local golf course.

Finding Your Hold

The hold you have on the putter grip has a huge bearing on how you control the direction the club face points at impact, this is the biggest factor that will determine your ability to send the ball in your chosen direction. 

There is no one particular way to hold the grip as there are many proven ways that successful players do it, the key is finding the right one for you. 

Exercise: Gate Drill
The ‘gate drill’ is designed to help you discover which grip is best for you and also develop clubface awareness. Experiment with different grips and see which provides better control of the clubface direction at impact and therefore more accurate start direction of the ball. To set the drill up, you will need objects such as tees, balls or bottles to create a gate that you can send the ball through. 

Start by placing the objects a foot or so apart. Take approximately three steps away from the objects to find a starting position. 

The task now is to strike the ball and direct it into the gate, by repeating this you will become more aware of how the hands and wrist movement influence the putter face direction at impact. 

As you continue you can level it up by making the gate smaller or further away, you get to be in control!

Developing Distance Control

The speed the putter head moves at impact is the main factor to govern distance. Two of the ways to adjust speed are: rhythm and length of swing. In an ideal situation, you would discover your consistent rhythm and then control the speed of the putter by creating different lengths of swing.

Exercise: Ladder Drill
The ‘ladder drill’ is designed to create an environment for you to become aware of swing sizes and the distance they make the ball travel. 

To set the drill up, like the gate drill, use objects as a reference point to create a ladder effect with levelled steps. 

Place the objects at a distance apart that you feel comfortable, there is no right or wrong, you can alter to find something achievable or shrink to make the task more challenging. 

Starting one step back, putt the ball and try and get it into the first part of the ladder, from there try to get the next ball into the following part of the ladder and so on. You can experiment with bigger and smaller swings moving the ball into different sections of the ladder. 

You can create your own scoring system where perhaps you don’t move to the next level of the ladder until a you get a ball into the section you aimed for. Or for an extra challenge restart from the beginning if you miss one.

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Conor Thornton is a member of the PGA Professionals team at Golf Saudi-managed Riyadh Golf Club

More golf tips and instruction:
It is never too late to pick up a club for the first time — some tips to get started
Straight to the point for short-game success
Mobility and stability are key links in the chain to golf fitness
The chips are down if the hips are right
Looking for more power? It’s all about kinetic sequence forces
Understand golf’s power chain and how to avoid a weak link in your swing
Why solid putting starts with a sound set-up
Alignment is a fine balancing act to stabilise clubface
Why you are wasting your time on the range
Claude Harmon III’s simple impact drill
How Billy Horschel’s simple back swing move will make you a better ball-striker

The post WATCH: Putt in place on the dancefloor appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Where it becomes an issue is when you’re suddenly in a position where you have to putt everything out.

Maybe it’s a club championship or a qualifier, but all of a sudden those unmissable short putts you haven’t attempted all season start to become missable. The scariest part: once you see one miss, there’s a tendency to start missing more of them. To help you avoid this disastrous fate, we talked to one of our Best Young Teachers, Tasha Browner of El Caballero Country Club in Tarzania, Calif.

“When finishing out those crucial putts, we want to address a common problem that begins as a mental mistake and leads to a physical one,” says Browner. “When we have those short putts, the desire to make the putt outweighs the process of making a good stroke. Golfers tend to stop rocking their shoulders, and they steer the ball in the hole with just hands. This directly leads to problems with clubface direction and speed.”

To remedy these issues, Browner has three drills and tips that will help.

1. The Push Drill
This drill is exactly what it sounds like. Set up to the ball with your putter, and your thought should be to just push the ball toward the hole. Don’t take any backswing. “This drill forces the golfer to move their body as a unit to finish the stroke and not just with your hands,” says Browner.

2. Tip: Use Visual Aids
Set up in front of a mirror (you can do this in your house). Or set up on the putting green in a spot where you can see your shadow, and start making strokes. Browner says to focus on making sure they’re complete strokes. “Watch how your shoulders and arms move together into the finish,” says Browner. “Sense what body parts are engaged, and tap into that when you play. This rehearsal can help eradicate that handsy stroke.”

3. Tip: Practice Pressure
Aimlessly putting around the practice green isn’t going to help you when you’re in a match, grinding over a four-footer for bogey to halve the hole. Instead, Browner says to simulate pressure-filled scenarios when you practice. “For example, don’t let yourself leave the green until you’ve made five consecutive four-footers in a row,” says Browner. “Any form of pressure that you can add will help you feel more at ease in those situations on the course.”

The post How to make the putts you’ve been giving yourself all year appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Matthew Rudy
Shooting two over on Sunday to fade from contention isn’t an earth-shattering development. It happens every week on the PGA Tour. But Jason Dufner’s 74 at the Wells Fargo Championship looked a lot more painful than many because of how clearly uncomfortable he is when he’s putting.

En route to a T-4 finish, six strokes behind winner Max Homa after starting the day tied with him for the lead, Dufner fidgeted and delayed and looked generally miserable on the greens all the way around Quail Hollow on Sunday, continuing a trend where lovely shot-making gets obscured by difficulties close to the hole. Dufner averaged 309 yards off the tee and hit 70 percent of his greens for the week on a major-ready course, but was -1.54 strokes gained with his putter on Sunday. His putting stats for the week, -0.3 strokes gained/putting, weren’t atrocious, but it’s hard to play with any confidence when closing out holes looks like having surgery.

The snap amateur diagnosis is that Dufner has the yips, but a group of Golf Digest top teachers say they’d adjust a few things about Dufner’s mechanics and mental approach first before calling that the problem.

“His putting stroke really doesn’t look too bad—it’s pretty pure from far away, and gets worse when he gets closer to the hole and tries to over control it,” says Stan Utley, a Golf Digest 50 Best Teacher based at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale. “I just think he needs to quit calling it putting and start thinking about it as shot-making. He has such great vision and an incredible swing when it comes time to pull of any kind of shot. He needs to be in that same frame of mind when he putts.”

RELATED: Wells Fargo champ Max Homa never gave up, even when maybe he should have

Top Georgia teacher and short-game guru Brandon Stooksbury agrees, and says the issues with Dufner’s mental approach and confidence are leaking into the mechanical side.

“People who are too mental in putting are generally trying to guide the putt down the line, and that’s what I see in Jason’s stroke,” says Stooksbury, who is based at the Idle Hour Golf & Club in Macon. “He doesn’t need to work on his stroke. He needs something to get out of the world of technique. I’d ask him to hit a lot of putts to very big targets and bring a little more ‘flow’ to his stroke. Only after he got some of that back would I add something non-technical like a gate drill for him to get the ball rolling on the start line he wanted. A string or chalk line would be a disaster for him.”

“Stuck” is a word Utley, Stooksbury and top Illinois short-game teacher Todd Sones all used to describe Dufner’s putting. Sones adds that elements of Dufner’s setup are actually physically blocking him from making a smooth stroke—which then demands an over-reliance on manipulating the putter to make his stroke work.

“I’d help him to stop squatting and get his knees in front of his shoulders,” says Sones, who runs his Impact Golf Academy outside Chicago. “It sounds funny to say, but he’s blocked, and that’s what’s making him stuck mentally. I think you could solve the setup issue in an afternoon, but it always takes some time to re-develop the self-belief all good putters have, especially when you’ve been missing putts under pressure.”

The post Jason Dufner looks like he hates putting. Here’s what some coaches would do to help him fix it appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

It’s the kind of scientific explanation Mickelson might have invented if in fact it weren’t actual science. Which, as it turns out, it is.

The lines, what Mickelson’s equipment manufacturer Callaway calls “Triple Track Technology,” are an example of vernier acuity, according to Carl Bassi, a Ph.D. professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Optometry. In the simplest terms, vernier acuity refers to the ability of the brain to process subtle differences in alignment detected in the eyes. By having the right kind of multiple reference points (like a centre line flanked by two parallel lines), the brain perceives the straightness of aim better. It’s a technology used in gun sights and the landing strips on aircraft carriers.

“Your ability to discern small levels of discontinuity or levels of change in a signal is 20 times greater than just the optics of the eyeball itself,” said Alan Hocknell, Callaway’s senior vice president of research and development. “That’s the kind of phenomenon being used here.”

Bassi researched the design with Ray Barrett, the 80-something inventor and retired founder of a St. Louis biomedical research firm. Barrett came to Prof. Bassi after he started drawing the lines on his golf ball in hopes he might see his tee shots better.

“With my group, when we hit a tee shot, the first thing we ask is ‘Where’d it go?’ and the only thing we ever hear is, ‘Well, it sounded good,’ ” Barrett said. “But we all started putting better, and I wanted to know why this might be working, if it is working.

“When I brought it to [Bassi], he looked at it and said, ‘Well, you’re trending toward vernier acuity.’ I said, ‘Oh, hell, that sounds like a disease.’”

On the contrary, Barrett’s lines on the golf ball served to activate in the brain what’s called “hyperacuity,” Bassi said.

“If you just go by the optics of the eye itself, there are just certain limits the eye imposes,” Bassi said. “We know that with these vernier acuity effects, the hyperacuity exceeds the limit that you would have predicted based on the anatomy of the eye by itself. What we’re doing is we’re taking advantage of this hyperacuity by optimising these parameters.”

The parameters of the lines include having three lines so that the two outside lines flank the centre line. The distance the lines are apart is crucial as are the varying colours and size of the lines. In the case of Callaway, the colours are a wide red centre line flanked by thinner blue lines.

Harry How
Mickelson’s ranking in three-putt avoidance has shot up this season.

The alignment feature is seen on Callaway’s new ERC Soft golf ball, but Mickelson is using it on a specially made version of the Chrome Soft X ball he plays.

Bassi’s lab at the UMSL College of Optometry tested Barrett’s idea by embedding a laser in a golf ball and compared the aiming accuracy of three lines versus the typical single alignment line found on most golf balls. The testing showed a 12-percent improvement in accuracy for the three-lined ball on a 10-foot putt.

While Mickelson’s putting stats generally haven’t shown dramatic improvement this year, his three-putt avoidance has gone from 55th in 2018 to 12th so far.

Bassi said the lines’ effects work independently of how good your vision is.

“Even for people that don’t have optimum refraction and may not have perfect visual acuity, they still have very, very good hyperacuity,” he said. “I could imagine someone being tired might be able to function better.”

Like, say, someone late in a six-hour round played in near darkness who said he could see perfectly fine.

The post Those aren’t just three lines on Phil Mickelson’s golf ball – They’re Science appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Butch Harmon
I see this a lot: Golfers roll a bunch of 10- or 15-footers before they tee off, then they have to putt one clear across the green on the first hole. What happens? They usually three-putt because they have no feel for distance. The quick fix is to practice lag putts before you head out, but you also need to know the keys to effective long putting. Let’s take a look.

Golfers are often told to lock their wrists when they putt and control the stroke with their shoulders. That might work for short and mid-length putts, but from long range it leads to a stiff motion and no feel. By feel, I mean distance control: the ability to look at a putt, make a few practice strokes, and then put the right amount of hit on it. When you have a long putt, get the extra distance by letting your wrists hinge a little.

Here’s how: At address, your left wrist (for righties with a traditional grip) is slightly cupped or bent back. As you swing the putter away from the ball, let the momentum of the stroke flatten that wrist. That little bit of hinge will help you put more energy into the ball. Then, as you stroke through, let your right wrist flatten—that shows that you’re letting the putterhead release, which creates acceleration. That’s how you hit it harder without adding arm or shoulder motion.

Getting the pace right will become second nature if you work on these keys and make lag putting part of your warm-up. You’ll handle that long putt on the first green—and all the greens after it. —With Peter Morrice

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WHAT MADE TIGER SO CLUTCH
Tiger was as good a putter as I’ve ever seen. He was phenomenal under pressure—he lived for those moments when he had to make one. And it wasn’t just on 18. It might be on No. 10 or 12 to keep a charge going. What Tiger did better than anyone was, he had great preparation before every putt. His pre-putt routine and setup, yes, but I’m talking more about attitude: Tiger would tell himself, I’m going to make this putt. And he usually did.

So much of good putting is just positive thinking, because the actual stroke is very simple. Let’s get back to our example above. If you allow yourself to think, Don’t three-putt, you’re pretty much programming a three-putt. So start with a positive thought, and then focus on making a longer, smoother stroke with that little wrist hinge back and through. You’ll make better contact than you would on a stroke where you try to force the ball to the hole.

Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

Butch Harmon is a Golf Digest Teaching Professional.

The post BUTCH HARMON: Eliminate three-putts appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Luke Kerr-Dineen
An often overlooked footnote in sports history is that when Wilt Chamberlain completed his historic 100-point game in 1962, he did it shooting his free throws underhanded—or “granny style,” if you prefer.

It’s a technique endorsed by Rick Barry, one of the greatest free-throw shooters in basketball history, and when Malcolm Gladwell devoted a 2016 episode of his podcast “Revisionist History” to exploring why more players don’t use the method, he concluded, basically, that it’s because it looked too weird.

“I’d rather shot zero percent,” NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal once said about the technique. “Too cool for that.”

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WATCH NOW MAVERICK MCNEALY’S PRE-ROUND ROUTINE IN 60 SECONDS

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Watching Webb Simpson finish off the field at the 2018 Players Championship on Sunday with his putter placed firmly up against his forearm, I can’t help but wonder if there’s a similar trend emerging in golf.

Simpson came onto the PGA Tour using a belly putter—a method he adopted during a standout amateur and college career—and his putting was solid, if unspectacular. He ranked 53rd, 41st, 34th in strokes gained/putting from 2012 and 2014, helping him to three-consecutive finishes inside the top 20 on the PGA Tour money list. He was also part of a group that saw three of four majors won with a belly or long putter, which likely played a part in golf’s powers-that-be announcing in 2013 a new rule (which went into effect n 2016) outlawing anchored putting styles.

Rather than cling to his belly putter until the dying moment, Simpson, a four-time tour winner, decided to embrace the new ruling as it was about to come into effect and ditched his belly putter in 2015. His game promptly fell apart. He plummeted from 34th to 174th and 177th in strokes gained/putting in 2015 and 2016, fueling a winless streak that’s continued since 2013 and a run where he’s posted just one top-15 finish in a major since his 2012 U.S. Open win.

Looking at the state of Webb Simpson’s game on Jan. 1, 2016, the date the anchoring ban officially went into effect, the new ruling had seemingly dealt a hammer blow to Simpson’s career.

But then, a breakthrough.

Arm-anchoring escaped the ire of the USGA and R&A’s new rule because the club wasn’t locked into a fixed point on the body, like a stomach or chest. The putter was an extension of the free-swinging arms and was therefore along for the ride—whether they were traveling in the correct direction or not.

Simpson switched to the method in 2017 and paired it with a claw grip recommended to him by fellow former-anchorer Tim Clark. It didn’t take long for things to get better. Simpson finished the season ranked 88th in SGP, and this year, he came into the 2018 Players 10th in the category.

“Thanks to Tim, I started putting better last year,” Simpson said at the Players, where he gained more than nine strokes on the field on the greens during the first two rounds alone.

What’s most interesting is that Simpson’s success isn’t all that unique. Rather, he’s the latest addition to a growing body of evidence that the method works.

Augusta National
Langer employed the arm-anchoring technique to win the 1993 Masters.

Bernhard Langer, of course, was among the first to employ such a style with positive results (although Langer’s approach to the Arm Lock was quite different from Simpson’s as he employed a regular-length putter where the shaft did not go as far up the arm). He pioneered the method after a potentially career-ending bout with the yips, and used it to win the 1993 Masters. Matt Kuchar adopted the technique in 2012 and promptly won the Players Championship and has solidified himself as one of the better players—and putters—in golf. Ollie Schniederjans landed a spot on the Web.com Tour using the method (though he has since switched back), while Bryson Dechambeau arm-anchored his way to his first PGA Tour win in 2017.

Yet despite the increasing number of success stories, arm-anchorers on tour are still few and far between. Why don’t more players start arm-anchoring? Perhaps players aren’t ready to call quits on the more conventional methods. Or maybe it just looks strange. But one thing seems certain: A few more putting performances like this, and we won’t be asking this question for much longer.

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