Phil Mickelson experiences with claw putting grip
Phil Mickelson is known to be an experimenter. In the past, he has carried two drivers, sometimes no driver and last year, he even used the long putter. However, this time it was the claw putting grip which he used but more interestingly, he used it in the
third round at The Barclays for the first time.
This is really some courageous stuff from Lefty. Changing his putting grip in the middle of a tournament takes some heart. If you go around the world, no sane coach would ever give such an advice.
However, Lefty did play with claw putting grip in the third round, as his caddie told but to everybody’s surprise it also brought success for him, as he shot his best round on the PGA Tour since May.
Mickelson shot 4-under 67 in the round at Bethpage, on Saturday. His round of 67 included five birdies and he needed only 28 putts to round up his third round.
“It was good to get a good round in,” he said. “I putted well on the greens”.
His excellent putting in the third means that he will going in to the fourth round with the same grip, hoping that it will bring more success for him.
Phil is currently at 4-under and has a fair chance for his second title of the season. Sergio Garcia currently leads the tournament and it would take an extremely low round to dislodge him from the pole position.
“We will see how the leaders do and whether I am in striking distance or not,” he explained. “It was a great day to get some momentum”.
Not many players use the claw putting grip because it is a bit stiff. The greatest advantage of this grip is, however, that it takes the wrist action out of the stroke and the shoulders are left to do all the work. This way a player can control the speed
of the ball easily.
There are different versions of the claw putting grip. Each player who uses this grip modifies it to his perfection. Phil used this grip to perfection at the Bethpage, as his green average was 1.692, which is pretty good.
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