Katie Dawkins explains the Claw Putting grip
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00:00 (clicking)
00:02 - Hello, I'm Katie Dawkins.
00:05 I'm an advanced PGA professional
00:07 and I am here at West Hill Golf Club
00:10 on their lovely greens to talk to you
00:12 about the claw putter grip and how it works.
00:16 Made famous in 2003 by Marco Mira,
00:19 who adopted the claw putting grip
00:21 to help to save his putting game and he won in Dubai.
00:24 It's since become quite popular
00:26 as other players have watched successes
00:28 of other players who've had a go at it.
00:30 It seems to be working.
00:31 And the recent Ryder Cup saw Tommy Fleetwood,
00:35 Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood,
00:37 all putting with the claw grip.
00:39 So why does it work so well?
00:41 The claw grip puts the shoulders in control,
00:44 taking out that bottom hand
00:46 and stopping any sort of handsy action.
00:48 So anyone who suffers from the yips
00:50 or suffers from missed short putts
00:52 may well need to have a little go at this.
00:54 Here's how we do it.
00:55 So to actually apply the claw grip in your putting setup,
01:00 you need to take your top hand
01:02 and stick the butt of the putter
01:04 almost up into your lifeline and hold it very softly.
01:08 The other hand comes in and almost like creating
01:11 a little nodule in this area here, or a little shelf,
01:15 you hook that shelf in and underneath
01:19 and these hands just rest very softly
01:21 on the flat edge of the top of your putter grip.
01:23 What you'll find from there
01:25 is that this arm is kind of out of control.
01:27 You're really putting just with this side.
01:30 And all that you're gonna do
01:31 is rock the shoulders back and through
01:33 and give yourself a nice smooth action.
01:38 The feeling of the stroke is light and really smooth.
01:41 The roll on the ball is gonna be much better
01:43 than if you were holding it for dear life like this
01:45 and getting a bit twitchy with it.
01:47 It's definitely worth having a go.
01:49 So what you'll find on the longer putts,
01:51 especially on greens as beautiful as these ones at West Hill
01:54 is it's fine if the greens are nice and smooth
01:59 and they're quite speedy.
02:01 On greens that are a little bit shaggier
02:04 and a little bit slower, you will struggle.
02:07 The other thing to bear in mind
02:08 is that the claw grip is a big decision to make.
02:11 In your golf game, once you go claw, you never go back.
02:15 It's very hard to make the change back
02:17 to a traditional putting grip if you like.
02:19 So if your putting isn't a problem, don't change it,
02:23 but perhaps the claw is the grip for you.
02:25 Give it a whirl, see how it goes,
02:28 and hopefully you'll start to save shots on that green
02:30 with that lovely, loose, free-flowing stroke.
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