It’s great to see new trends emerge while on tour, but I think I’ve noticed a new trend emerging.
If you guessed that this trend has to do with a player’s putting grip, specifically their left hand putting grip, you’re correct.
Traditionally, most golfers putt with a traditional reverse overlap grip, with the lead finger curled over the pinky and ring fingers of the right hand. You can see it used by Gordon Sargent and Rory McIlroy below…
However, many of the players you see on tour have moved away from the traditional overlap and are now extending the lead finger of their lead hand (the left finger for a right-handed golfer) directly underneath the grip, as Matt Fitzpatrick and Matt Wallace demonstrate below.
We’re still coming up with a name, but the most popular grip in the clubhouse right now is the “FitzGrip” because Matt Fitzpatrick was the first player to use it and his putting stroke is one of my favorites of all time.
Look at this, it’s like a metronome.
Anyway, here is a list of players who use the “Fitzgrip” with their left fingers extended.
The primary benefit of the Fitz grip is that it secures the putter in the palm of your left hand, allowing your left arm and putter to move as one. As Golf Digest’s State’s Best Putting Coach, Bill Smittle, explains, the Fitz grip also improves forearm alignment.
“Your lead wrist tends to be stiffer, which reduces hinging and improves control of the putter face,” Smittle says. “It also brings your hands closer together and aligns your wrist joints, which means a more neutral forearm plane. If one hand is lower than the other, the lower hand will be more extended than normal, which results in a misaligned forearm.”
I’ve experimented with different FitzGrips and the thing I’ve noticed most is stiffness in my left wrist.
I have a tendency to let my wrist move a little bit in my putting stroke, which pulls the putt. When I extend my left fingers all the way under the grip, it activates the extensors in my left forearm, which makes it much harder to break my wrist. My left wrist starts to feel like a wall. I can let my right hand out as far as I want without risking my left hand dominating. It’s my left hand that controls the stroke.
That’s why, once you’ve mastered the extended-finger grip, you start to see a lot of variation in how players use their right hand. Some have a claw grip. I have my right hand clenched, which is the Fitzpatrick way, but honestly, it doesn’t really matter. Whatever feels most comfortable, your right hand just follows that.
Give it a try and let me know if it works (or doesn’t).
