How To Eliminate Our Wrists and Hands While Putting

/ The Grateful Golfer

There is a universal challenge faced by all golfers. It is a simple movement that causes a great deal of angst while playing. It is a failure to keep our wrists and hands quiet during our putting stroke. This one swing fault likely results in more missed shots than any other fault. Early in my golfing journey, this one error account for up to 10 extra strokes on my score card. There is a reason why learning to play golf should start from the pin outward and this is the exact reason. Luckily, there is a simple drill to help propel your putting stroke from fair to outstanding!

Putting is a topic we have discussed a great deal here at The Grateful Golfer. We have talked about every aspect of how to produce a great putting stroke. As I practice indoors for my upcoming season, working on my putting is critical to my preparation. I focus on ball position, head position, stance, and keeping my hands/wrists quiet. All of these things are important, however the latter is one that focus on first because of the rust accumulated during my long winters nap.

I came across this very simple drill to help with my putting technique. It is simple and one most avid golfers have likely seen before. Regardless, it is always a good idea to reinforce the basics and this drill definitely achieves that training fundamental.

If you are already playing this year, I suggest you give this simple drill a try. If you like me and putting in your basement, then I suggest you give this drill a try. Being able to quiet our hands/wrists while putting is definitely a stroke saver.

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!

4 thoughts on “How To Eliminate Our Wrists and Hands While Putting”

  1. I watched an hour long video from some kid on youtube the other night. In it, he goes to a pro who has worked with many of the greats. He’s using new equipment that unlike most I’ve seen in the past doesn’t require attaching anything to the putter. Which I can appreciate. Adding weight anywhere on the putter makes it different. So we aren’t going to do exactly what we normally do.

    It was an hour long video that wasn’t edited all that well but there was so much good information in it. The kid did a few practice putts that mostly came up a bit short to start off but all of them stayed on the line on the mat. So he was getting the face perfectly aligned with regularity. His biggest problems were he was hitting too much up on the ball and his stroke had too much variation in it’s acceleration.

    The pro had him make some adjustments based from all the data his new system was providing one of which was add forward press and hold it. That is what we see most of the pro’s doing. They aren’t releasing their wrists they are holding them in place through the swing and only using the big muscles in their torso to create the swing. Just like your post recommends. The way he put it I assumed he was insinuating it is easier to keep the wrists out of it if we press and hold. And whether you do it right from the start like he had this kid do or add it right before you begin the take away like we see lots of pros do doesn’t matter.

    A couple of other take aways I got from it that apply to practice at home were draw two lines on the ball around it’s circumference at 90 degree angles to each other so you get a good visual reference for whether you are hitting straight through or adding side spin. The kid was hitting up on the ball. And when the ball leaves the ground it’s subject to rifling, just like a bullet from the (hopefully) small amounts of side spin we put on it. And that brings in problems when the ball touches down again. It can come offline, it can check or skip.

    At home we can check for that. We can simply prop up our phone on the floor and record a putt or two and see if the contact with the ball is down, through, or up. We can adjust our ball position and how much forward press to use based on what we see in that. We want to try and get it started rolling right away. Not hit down on it and make it bounce or up and have it leave the ground.

    Also with our phone, we can download a metronome app and use that while practicing. We want our putter head acceleration to be as consistent as possible. We can control speed best when we are. And using a metronome can help us develop that consistency. The pro had the kid taking 3 or 4 practice swings with the metronome on, then turning it off and hitting a putt.

    And the last came as a bit of a surprise. I don’t remember where I picked it up but it’s sure helped me keep a consistent line. He mentioned putting two balls at once. For me, my putter is balanced toe down almost 90 degrees. The toe is always faster than the heel. Always with that putter. But with practice I can keep two balls traveling the same parallel line to the hole now. Sometimes. lol It’s tough to do with the putter. The ball on the toe side will take off just a bit faster most of the time.

    Practicing keeping the two balls together brings a better outcome when I miss a center strike. The speed stays more consistent and so the putter delivers closer to what I attempted if I don’t get a center strike.

    My putter is kind of old. It doesn’t have much at all in the way of new tech help. No perimeter weighting. No soft face with grooves designed to help get the ball rolling. And like I said, lots of toe hang. It might not be the best option for me, but I don’t like the weight of the new putters. I find I have trouble with distance control with them. So I stick with this one and practice hitting two balls at least once a week. Usually more.

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