Putting it mildly

The putting battle goes on. Despite all my attempts to de-pressurise, reduce expectations, simplify, or putt like I did as a kid, nothing has worked. I seem to be putting worse every week. And it's starting to affect my overall game, which hasn't been too bad. What to do.

Well, obviously, I have to try a new theory. I think it's theory number 176. In fact, it is a return to a theory I tried in a round about a year or so ago. But after missing two short putts early in that round I naturally abandoned the theory and went back to some other, equally unsuccessful, method.

But further research has led me back to this particular theory - split-hand putting.

I'm talking here about taking up the grip with split hands, the hands maybe 4 - 5 inches apart, top hand (left for me) barely on the grip and the lower (right) almost on the metal - with a short putter. A slightly longer than standard putter would be fine also, but no anchoring can occur of course. The hands are otherwise placed on the club in a conventional thumbs-down manner.

The reason I am going back to this method, apart from sheer desperation, is because I believe there is a great deal of logic behind it. If, for example, we want to throw a ball of paper (or anything really) into a wastepaper basket, we use only one hand (our dominant hand). We don't use two hands for this kind of exercise, even though there are times, such as when shooting a basketball or setting up to send down a bowl on the rink or alley, when we might use our non-dominant hand as a slight support or guide

We often hear about putting grips designed to mitigate the force or power of one or other hand - the claw, the pencil and the left hand low. The hands are sometimes said to be in opposition. I've tried them all, but have not felt comfortable with any of these grips or with the standard reverse overlap grip. Hence my further research.

Using the split-hand grip described above, the dominant hand is in complete control, the non-dominant, top, hand provides a tiny amount of stability to the grip end of the putter, optionally with the lead elbow tucked in close to the ribs. The action that results has sometimes been described as piston-like, but it can also be seen (and felt) to be like throwing something (eg. into a wastepaper basket). The basics of rhythm, stability, sweet-spot contact, all still apply of course.

It's important to note, however, that when we throw the aforementioned ball of paper (or whatever) we generally take very little time to assess the distance and direction and also the force that we need to use. We might hesitate a moment, rehearse the arm action, while our brain does its calculations. But it is not a complex equation, we just sight the target, get ready, and throw. From ten feet we probably succeed 6 or 7 times (often more) out of ten tries. Interestingly, PGA tour players make just over 60 percent of putts from that range.

The important thing in putting is to allow our brain to calculate the distance, and relate this to the break and other factors, and then go. Too much delay, too much thinking, too much stress on success, will generally be counterproductive - in putting as in throwing!

That's it. There's nothing more to it. It's simple - putting it mildly. What could go wrong?